Practice question
A Philippine-organized corporation applies to operate a water pipeline distribution system for public use. Its single class of ordinary voting shares is fifty-five percent genuinely Filipino-owned and forty-five percent foreign-owned. Assuming no applicable exemption, does this satisfy the public-utility nationality threshold?
- Yes, because any Filipino majority suffices.
- Yes, because RA 11659 removed water systems from public utilities.
- Yes, because foreign ownership is always irrelevant to utility franchises.
- No; water pipeline distribution remains a listed public utility and fifty-five percent is below sixty.
- No; because all water utility shares must be foreign-owned.
Legal references
- 1987 Constitution, Article XII Section 11: https://lawphil.net/consti/cons1987.html
- RA 11659, Section 4 amending Public Service Act Section 13(d): https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/2/94539
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