Our country, the Philippines, is known for its rich and beautiful forests, diverse fauna and flora, towering trees and a cornucopia of exotic and endangered species. Our Province, Catanduanes, with land mass mostly composed of mountains and jungles, is blessed with lavish and abundant forest products, making this one of our primary source of income. However, this gift from God and nature are always abused and exploited, thus, there is indeed a need to guard, protect and preserve the same.
This is the very purpose of Presidential Decree No. 705 otherwise known as the Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines. One of its whereas clause stressed that “it is also imperative to place emphasis not only on the utilization thereof, but more so on the protection, rehabilitation and development of forest lands, in order to ensure the continuity of their productive condition.
In our province, the most frequently violated provision of the Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines is Section 77 thereof or the cutting, gathering and/or collecting timber or other forest products without license. This will be the focus of this week’s edition.
Section 77 (then 68) of Presidential Decree No. 705 read as follows:
“Section 77. Cutting, Gathering and/or Collecting Timber or Other Forest Products without License. – Any person who shall cut, gather, collect, remove timber or other forest products from any forest land, or timber from alienable or disposable public land, or from private land, without any authority, or possess timber or other forest products without legal documents as required under existing forest laws and regulations, shall be punished with the penalties imposed under Article 309 or 310 0f the Revised Penal Code.
Provided, that in the case of partnerships, associations, or corporations, the officers who ordered the cutting, gathering, collection or possession shall be liable, and if such officers are aliens, they shall in addition to the penalty, be deported without further proceedings on the part of the Commission on Immigration and Deportation.”
Section 77 may be divided into two crimes. The elements of the first crime being: (1) Act of cutting, gathering, collecting and removing; (i) Timber or other forest products from any forest land; or (ii) Timber from alienable or disposable public land, or from private land; (2) Absence of any authority to do such act. The elements of the second crime are: (1) Possession of timber or other forest products; (2) Absence of legal documents required under existing forest laws and regulations[1]
To further explain the above crimes, the case of Diosdado Sama vs People of the Philippines[2], had defined the following terms for clarity. First, “Timber”, under P.D. 705, it refers to wood used for or suitable for building or for carpentry or joinery. Indeed tree saplings or tiny tree stems that are too small for use as posts, paneling, beams, tables or chairs cannot be considered timber.
Section 3(d) of PD 705, as amended defines forest lands as including the public forest, the permanent forest or forest reserves. Section 3 (c) defines alienable and disposable lands as those lands of public domain which have been the subject of the present system of classification and declared as not needed for forest purposes.[3]
Section 3 (mm) defines private land indirectly as those land with titled rights of ownership under existing laws, and in the case of national minority land, lands subject to rights of possession existing at the time a license is granted under P.D. 705, which possession may include places of abode and worship, burial grounds, and old clearings, but exclude productive forests inclusive of logged-over areas, commercial forests, and established plantations of forest trees and trees of economic values.[4]
[1] G.R. No. 224469
[2] G.R. No. 224469, January 05, 2021
[3] Idem
[4] Idem