Declaration of National Policy.
Section 2
SEC. 2. Declaration of National Policy. — The total electrification of the Philippines on an area coverage basis being vital to the welfare of its people and the sound development of the Nation, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the State to pursue and foster, in an orderly and vigorous manner, the attainment of this objective. For this purpose, the State shall promote, encourage and assist all public service entities engaged in supplying electric service, particularly electric cooperatives, which are willing to pursue diligently this objective. Because of their non-profit nature, cooperative character and the heavy financial burdens that they must sustain to become effectively established and operationally viable, electric cooperatives, particularly, shall be given every tenable support and assistance by the National Government, its instrumentalities and agencies to the fullest extent of which they are capable; and, being by their nature substantially self-regulating and Congress having, by the enactment of this Decree, substantially covered all phases of their organization and operation requiring or justifying regulation, and in order to further encourage and promote their development, they should be subject to minimal regulation by other administrative agencies. Area coverage electrification cannot be achieved unless service to the more thinly settled areas and therefore more costly to electrify is combined with service to the most densely settled areas and therefore less costly to electrify. Every public service entity should hereafter cooperate in a national program of electrification on an area coverage basis, or else surrender its franchise in favor of those public service entities which will. It is hereby found that the total electrification of the Nation requires that the laws and administrative practices relating to franchised electric service areas be revised and made more effective, as herein provided. It is therefore hereby declared to be the policy of the State that franchises for electric service areas shall hereafter be so issued, conditioned, altered or repealed, and shall be subject to such continuing regulatory surveillance, that the same shall conduce to the most expeditious electrification of the entire Nation on an area coverage basis.