PENALIZING TIMBER SMUGGLING OR ILLEGAL CUTTING OF LOGS FROM PUBLIC FORESTS AND FOREST RESERVES AS QUALIFIED THEFT

WHEREAS, public forests and forest reserves are important natural resources of the country which must be preserved and conserved for future generations;

WHEREAS, public forest and forest reserves are the vital source of logs and other wood products so essential to the national economy as principal dollar earner of the country;

WHEREAS, it is the solemn duty of every citizen to protect public forest and forest reserves from indiscriminate logging, senseless denudation and wanton destruction to the detriment of the present and future generations;

WHEREAS, there is need to discourage further forest destruction and denudation in order to conserve the remaining public forest and forest reserves for the patrimony of the country;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081 dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1 dated September 22, 1972, do hereby order and decree:

Section 1. Any person, whether natural or juridical, who directly or indirectly cuts, gathers, removes, or smuggles timber, or other forest products, either from any of the public forest, forest reserves and other kinds of public forests, whether under license or lease, or from any privately owned forest lands in violation of existing laws, rules and regulation shall be guilty of the crime of qualified theft as defined and penalized under Articles 308, 309 and 310 of the Revised Penal Code; Provided, That if the offender is a corporation, firm, partnership or association, the penalty shall be imposed upon the guilty officer or officers, as the case may be, of the corporation, firm, partnership or association, and if such guilty officer or officers are aliens, in addition to the penalty herein prescribed, he or they shall be deported without further proceedings on the part of the Commissioned of Immigration and Deportation.

Section 2. All laws, rules and regulations inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

Section 3. This decree shall take effect immediately after publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation in the country.

Done in the City of Manila, this 8th day of November, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-three.