Section 4REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6038, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES., Sec./Art. 4

NEA Authorities, Powers and Directives. The NEA is hereby authorized, empowered and directed to promote, encourage and assist public service entities, particularly cooperatives, to the end of achieving the objective of making service available throughout the nation on an area coverage basis as rapidly as possible; and for such purpose it is hereby, without limiting the generality of the foregoing and in addition to other authorizations, powers and directives established by this Decree, specifically authorized, empowered and directed:

(a) To have a continuous succession under its corporate name until otherwise provided by law;

(b) To prescribe and thereafter to amend and repeal its by-laws not inconsistent with this Decree;

(c) To adopt and use a seal and alter it at its pleasure;

(d) To sue and to be sued in any court: Provided, That NEA shall, unless it consents otherwise, be immune to suits for acts ex delicti;

(e) To make contract of every name and nature and to execute all instruments necessary or convenient for the carrying on of its business;

(f) To make loans to public service entities, with preference to cooperatives, for the construction or acquisition, operation and maintenance of generation, transmission an distribution facilities and all related properties, equipment, machinery, fixtures, and materials for the purpose of supplying area coverage service, and thereafter to make loans for the restoration, improvement or enlargement of such facilities; Provided, That the public service entity supplying for a loan, if neither a cooperative nor a local government, must be in operation at the time of application;

(g) To promote, encourage and assist public service entities and government agencies and corporations having related functions and purposes, with preference to cooperatives, in planning, developing, coordinating, establishing, operating, maintaining, repairing and renovating facilities and systems to supply area coverage service, and for such purpose to furnish, to the extent possible and without change therefor, technical and professional assistance and guidance, information, data and the results of any investigation, study, or receipt conducted or made by the NEA;

(h) To approve or disapprove any loan from other lenders to public service entities which at the time are borrowers from NEA under sub-paragraphs (f) or (i) of this section, and thereafter, pursuant to Section 10 (b) to disapprove advances of loans from other lenders;

(i) To make loans for the purpose of financing the wiring of premises of persons served or to be served as a result of loans made under sub-paragraph (f) of this Section, and for the acquisition and installation by such persons of electrically-powered appliances, equipment, fixtures and machinery of all kinds for residential, recreational, commercial, agricultural and industrial uses, such loans to be made directly (1) to public service entities which have received loans under sub-paragraph (f) of this section, which entities shall in turn relend such funds to persons served or to be served by them, or (2) to any persons served or to be served by public service entities which have received loans under sub-paragraph (f) of this section: Provided, That at no time shall the total loans made under this sub-paragraph (i) to a public service entity and/or to persons served or to be served by such entity exceed twenty-five (25%) per centum of the outstanding loans to such entity made under sub-paragraph (f) of this section; lawphi1.net

(j) To so cooperate, coordinate and exchange such information, studies and reports with, and to seek such cooperation and coordination from, other departments, agencies and instrumentalities of the National Government, including the NPC, as will most effectively conduce to the achievement of the purposes of this Decree;

(k) To borrow funds from any source, private or government, foreign or domestic, and, not inconsistently with section 8, to issue bonds or other evidences of indebtedness therefor and to secure the lenders thereof by pledging, sharing or subordinating one or more of the NEA's own loan securities;

(l) To receive from Cooperatives all articles of incorporation, amendments, consolidation, merger, conversion and dissolution, and all certificates of changes in the location of principal offices and of elections to dissolve, and, upon determining that such are in conformity with this Decree, to certify the same, to file them in the records of the NEA, and to maintain a registry of such filings the provisions of Act No. 1459, as amended, to the contrary notwithstanding;

(m) To acquire, by purchase or otherwise (including the right of eminent domain, which is hereby granted to the NEA, to be exercised in the manner provided by law for the institution and completion of expropriation proceedings by the National and local governments,) real and physical properties, together with all appurtenant rights, easements, licenses and privileges, whether or not the same be already devoted to the public use of generating, transmitting or distributing electric power and energy, upon NEA's determination that such acquisition is necessary to accomplish the purposes of this Decree and, if such properties be already devoted to the public use described in the foregoing, that such use will be better served and accomplished by such acquisition; Provided, That the power herein granted shall be exercised by the NEA solely as agent for and on behalf of one or more public service entities which shall timely receive, own and utilize or replace such properties for the purpose of furnishing adequate and dependable service on an area coverage basis, which entity or entities shall then be, or in connection with the acquisition shall become, borrowers from the NEA under sub-paragraph (f) of this section; and Provided further, That the costs of such acquisition, including the cost of any eminent domain proceedings, shall be borne, either directly or by reimbursement to the NEA, whichever the NEA shall elect, by the public service entity or entities on whose behalf the acquisition is undertaken; and otherwise to acquire, improve, hold, transfer, sell, lease, rent, mortgage, encumber and otherwise dispose of property incident to, or necessary, convenient or proper to carry out, the purposes for which NEA was created;

(n) At least annually, not later than June 30th, to report to the President and when the same comes into existence, the Prime Minister and the National Assembly, on the status of electrification of the Philippines, including a comprehensive reporting of loans made, loan funds advanced, loans secured from other sources and the advances thereof, the names and locations of the borrowers, the number of services contemplated by such loans, the number actually receiving service as a result of such loans, the number of electrified and the remaining number of unelectrified households throughout the Nation, the amounts of usage by consumers, loan and other activities programmed for the ensuing year, and all such other information and data as will accurately reveal the progress being made toward the achievement of the purposes of this Decree; and to publish such report for dissemination to and use by other interested departments, agencies and instrumentalities of the National Government and by borrowers under this Decree; and

(o) To exercise such powers and do such things as may be necessary to carry out the business and purposes for which the NEA was established, or which from time to time may be declared by the Board of Administrators to be necessary, useful, incidental or auxiliary to accomplish such purposes; and generally, to exercise all the powers of a corporation under the Corporation Law insofar as they are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Decree.