Reaction paper Thursday 5:30PM-8:30PM

PD 389 Revised Forestry Code

The Philippines as one of the most severely deforested countries in the tropics and most deforestation has
happened in the last 40 years. Estimates place forest cover in the Philippines in the year 1900 at 21
million hectares, covering 70 % of the total land area. By 1999, forests covered 5.5 million hectares; only
800,000 hectares of this was primary forest. As illegal logging continues, the remaining forest is
endangered.

The intervention of the law by way of PD 389 aids in the utilization of forest resources, protection,
rehabilitation management and development o forest lands, as well as proper elimination of public
domain lands.

The state is geared towards these goals in order to prevent the worst-case-scenario, that would leave our
forests devastated and force us to tap into our old trees, as sentinels of the state, and the territory, it is
definitely wise to limit and regulate the practice of logging in our country.

Limitation would include that The policy of multiple land use is enshrined in our laws towards the end
that the country’s natural resources may be rationally explored, developed, utilized and conserved.

WHEREAS, proper classification, management and utilization of the lands of the public domain to
maximize their productivity to meet the demands of our increasing population is urgently needed;

WHEREAS, to achieve the above purpose, it is necessary to reassess the multiple uses of forest lands and
resources before allowing any utilization thereof to optimize the benefits that can be derived therefrom.

These means are then fortified by placing a formidable structure to implement the law, which is PD 389,
by decentralising the responsibility of implementing this law, surely, the forests of this nation would
come out to a fruitful bloom once more and return, gradually, from crisis to a stable state.

As evinced by numerous cases, the populate is involved in this movement with the help of the law and aid
of the court, involving abuse of the remedies provided by law in order to escape the grasp of regulation,
where it was said that while the administration grapples with the complex and multifarious problems
caused by unbridled exploitation of these resources, the judiciary will stand clear. A long line of cases
establish the basic rule that the courts will not interfere in matters which are addressed to the sound
discretion of government agencies entrusted with the regulation of activities coming under the special
technical knowledge and training of such agencies. (Ysmael v. Deputy Executive Secretary).

The cases concerning the subject law are thus, observed with utmost supervision by the DENR Secretary
and reviewed by the latter, and all of the means possible to resolve issues and conflicts arising from the
law are then exhausted prior intervention of the judicial branch.

Now, for the sure protection and the legal means of gathering forest resources, the Forest Management
Bureau is created, with the responsibility to give Protection, development, management, regeneration, and
reforestation of forest lands; Regulation and supervision of the operation of licensees, lessees and
permittees for the taking or use of forest products or the occupancy or use; Implementation of multiple
use and sustained yield management in forest lands; the protection, development and preservation of
national parks, marine parks, game refuges and wildlife; Implementation of measures and programs to
prevent kaingin and managed occupancy of forest and grazing lands; The effective, efficient and
economic classification of lands of the public domain; and Enforcement of forestry, reforestation, parks,
game and wildlife laws, rules and regulations

Jeremiah Joseph G. Ng 2015-0200 Page 1 of 2

Reaction paper Thursday 5:30PM-8:30PM

Not only did the law focus on current issues, but it reached out to all possible scenarios such as
conversion of forest lands to public land, including the IPRA conversion, it tapped and regulated the
registration and classification of forest lands and reserves.

The subject law, defined all the lands to be categorised as forest lands, such as, mangrove swamps, and as
provided in subject law, thus:

Section 16. Cannot be considered A and D lands even if they are below 18% in slope:
1. Areas less than 250 hectares which are far from, or are not contiguous with, any certified alienable and
disposable land;
2. Isolated patches of forest of at least five (5) hectares with rocky terrain, or which protect a spring for
communal use;
3. Areas which have already been reforested;
4. Areas within forest concessions which are timbered or have good residual stocking to support an
existing, or approved to be established, wood processing plant;
5. Ridge tops and plateaus regardless of size found within, or surrounded wholly or partly by, forest lands
where headwaters emanate;
6. Appropriately located road-rights-or-way;
7. Twenty-meter strips of land along the edge of the normal high waterline of rivers and streams with
channels of at least five (5) meters wide;
8. Strips of mangrove or swamplands at least twenty (20) meters wide, along shorelines facing oceans,
lakes, and other bodies of water, and strips of land at least twenty (20) meters wide facing lakes;
9. Areas needed for other purposes, such as national parks, national historical sites, game refuges and
wildlife sanctuaries, forest station sites, and others of public interest; and
10. Areas previously proclaimed by the President as forest reserves, national parks, game refuge, bird
sanctuaries, national shrines, national historic sites:

Finally, the act of reforestation and gathering timber is critical to be defined by the law, as it is the act
which contributes to the crisis of deforestation as we speak, the subject law, provided measures and
regulations to ensure that only the licensed and approved persons may gather our forest resources within a
specific area and period only.

The Reforestation mandate is then given to all concerned citizen and to all agencies, may it be industrial
or private, however limiting the Industrial tree plantations and tree farms. Establishment thereof may be
awarded by the DENR upon recommendation of the Director, that any person qualified to develop and
exploit natural resources over timber or forest lands of the public domain Minimum area:1000 hectares
for ITP, 100 hectares for Tree Farm.

Lastly, as a feature, from forest protection, it is necessary that the mining activities are also monitored as
in involves deforestation in order to tap into the source of the minerals to be gathered by miners, a salient
feature of the law is that Mineral reservations where mining operations have been terminated due to the
exhaustion of its minerals shall revert to the category of forest land, unless otherwise reserved for other
purposes, giving the responsibility to return the state of the mining area to its previous state, prior the
mining operation.

Jeremiah Joseph G. Ng 2015-0200 Page 2 of 2