Chapter III:

Revised Forestry code

(Presidential decree no.705)
The Revised Forestry Code or
Presidential Decree no 705 (PD 705): is
the governing law on forestry in the
country. Its basic policy is that the
multiple uses of forestlands shall
be oriented to the development and
progress requirements of the
country.
The Law places emphasis not only with the utilization of
forest resources but more so on the protection,
rehabilitation and development of forest land, in order to
ensure the continuity of their productive condition. It
institutes the proper classification and delimitation of the
lands of the public domain, the management, utilization,
protection, rehabilitation, and development of forestlands.
 Forest Protection
e utilization of timber therein shall not be allowed except through license
eements under which the holders thereof shall have the exclusive privilege
cut all the allowable harvestable timber in their respective concessions,
d the additional right of occupation, possession, and control over the same,
he exclusive of all others, except the government, but with the
responding
igation to adopt all the protection and conservation measures to ensure
continuity of the productive condition of the said areas, conformably with
ltiple use and sustained yield management.
 Forest Protection
– Visitorial Power:
The DENR Secretary, by himself or through the director or
any qualified representative, may investigate, inspect and
examine records, books and other documents relating to the
operation of any holder of a license agreement, license,
lease, or permit, and its subsidiary or affliated companies, to
determine compliance with the terms and conditions
thereof, the revised forestry code and other pertinent laws
and regulations.
–
 Forest Protection
Authority of forest officers
When in the performance of their official duties, forest officers, or
other government officials or employees duly authorized by the
Secretary or Director, shall have free entry into areas covered by
a license agreement, license, lease or permit. Forest officers are
authorized to administer oath and to take acknowledgement in
official matters connected with the functions of their office, and
to take testimony in official investigations conducted under the
authority of the code and the implementing rules and regulations.
(Section 45 of PD 705).
 Qualifications
Diffusion of benefits
The privilege to utilize, exploit, occupy or possess forestlands or to conduct any
activity therein, or to established and operate wood processing plants, shall be
diffused to“ as many qualified and deserving applicants as
possible.” In the evaluation of applications of corporations, increased
Filipino equity and participation beyond the 60%
constitutional limitations shall be encouraged. All
other factors being equal, the applicant with more
Filipino equity and participation shall be preferred.
 Qualifications
– Service Contracts:
Pursuant to EO no. 278 and until congress otherwise provides, the
DENR secretary is authorized to negotiate and enter into, for and
behalf of the government, joint venture, co-production, or
production-sharing agreements for the development and utilization
of forest lands and/or forest resources with any Filipino citizen, or
corporation, or association, atleast 60 % of whose capital is owned
by Filipino citizens. Agreement may be for a period not exceeding
25 years, renewable for not more than 25 years.
 Criminal offenses and Penalties

Cutting, gathering and/or collecting timber or other products without license

Offenses punished under section 68, PD no. 705, as amended
The Case of People v. Que, GR No. 120365, Dec. 17, 1996
 People v. Que
Ponente: Justice Puno

FACTS: Accused-appellant Wilson Que appeals from his conviction for violation of Section 68 of P.D. 705.
The facts show that two weeks before March 8, 1994, a member of the Provincial Task Force on
Illegal Logging, received an information that a ten-wheeler truck loaded with illegally cut lumber will pass
through Ilocos Norte. Acting on said information, members of the Provincial Task Force went on patrol
several times within the vicinity of General Segundo Avenue in Laoag City and eventually saw the truck.
There were three persons on board the truck: driver Cacao, Wilson Que, who was the owner of said truck,
and an unnamed person. The police then checked the cargo and found that it contained coconut slabs, but
inserted therein were sewn lumber, as admitted by Que himself. When required to show a permit, Que
failed to do so and thus was charged for violation of Section 68 of P.D. 705.
 ISSUE:
– Whether or not petitioner violated Section 68 OF P.D. 705 because E.O.
277 that amended Section 68, which penalizes the possession of timber
or other forest products without the proper legal documents, did not
indicate the particular documents necessary to make the possession
legal, and considering that other laws and regulations did not exist at the
time of the enactment of said E.O.
 HELD:
Yes.
Appellant interprets the phrase “existing forest laws and regulations” to refer to those
laws and regulations which were already in effect at the time of the enactment of E.O.
277. The suggested interpretation is strained and would render the law inutile.
Statutory construction should not kill but give life to the law. The phrase should be
construed to refer to laws and regulations existing at the time of possession of timber
or other forest products. DENR Administrative Order No. 59 series of 1993 specifies
the documents required for the transport of timber and other forest products. Thus
Que’s possession of the subject lumber without any documentation
clearly constitutes an offense under Section 68 of P.D. 705.
In this case, The Court explained that there are two distinct and separate offenses punished under section
68 of PD no, 705, as amended by EO no. 277
–
1. Cutting, gathering, collecting and removing timber of other forest products from any forest
land, or timber from alienable or disposable public and, or from private land without any authority; and
2. Possession of timber or other forest products without the legal documents required under
existing forest laws and regulations.
–
In the first offense, one can raise as the defense the legality of the acts of cutting, gathering, collecting or
removing timber or other forest products by presenting the authorization issued by the DENR.
In the second offense, however, it is immaterial whether the cutting , gathering, collecting and removal of
the forest product is legal or not. Mere possession of forest products without the proper documents
consummate the crime. Whether or not the lumber comes from a legal source is immaterial because EO
no. 277 considers the mere possession of timber or other forest products without the proper legal
documents as malum prohibitum.
 Mustang Lumber, Inc. v. Court of Appeals

– Ponente: Justice Davide, Jr.

FACTS:
Petitioner was duly registered as a lumber dealer with the Bureau of Forest Development. The Special
Actions and Investigation Division (SAID) of the DENR were informed that a huge stockpile of narra
flitches, shorts, and slabs were seen inside the lumberyard of the petitioner. The SAID organized a team of
foresters and policemen and sent it to conduct surveillance. In the course thereof, the team members saw
coming out from the lumberyard the petitioner's truck loaded with lauan and almaciga lumber of assorted
sizes and dimensions. Since the driver could not produce the required invoices and transport documents, the
team seized the truck together with its cargo and impounded them at the DENR compound. The team was not
able to gain entry into the premises because of the refusal of the owner. The team was able to secure a
search warrant. By virtue thereof, the team seized on that date from the petitioner's lumberyard four
truckloads of narra shorts, trimmings, and slabs; a negligible number of narra lumber; and
approximately 200,000 board feet of lumber and shorts of various species including almaciga and
supa. On 4 April 1990, the team returned to the premises of the petitioner's lumberyard and placed under
administrative seizure the remaining stockpile of almaciga, supa, and lauan lumber with a total volume of
311,000 board feet because the petitioner failed to produce upon demand the corresponding certificate of
lumber origin, auxiliary invoices, tally sheets, and delivery receipts from the source of the invoices covering
the lumber to prove the legitimacy of their source and origin.
Parenthetically, it may be stated that under an administrative seizure the owner
retains the physical possession of the seized articles. Only an inventory of the
articles is taken and signed by the owner or his representative. The owner is
prohibited from disposing them until further orders. On 10 April 1990, counsel for
the petitioner sent a letter to the Chief of SAID Robles requesting an extension
of fifteen days to produce the required documents covering the seized articles
because some of them, particularly the certificate of lumber origin, were
allegedly in the Province of Quirino. Robles denied the petition. Subsequently,
the Sec. of DENR issued an order confiscating the woods seized in the truck of the
petitioner as well as those found in their lumberyard.
ISSUE:
Whether or not that a lumber cannot
be considered a timber and that
petitioner should not be held for illegal
logging.
 HELD:
The foregoing disquisitions should not, in any manner, be construed as an affirmance of the
respondent Judge's conclusion that lumber is excluded from the coverage of Section 68 of P.D. No.
705, as amended, and thus possession thereof without the required legal documents is not a crime.
On the contrary, the SC rules that such possession is penalized in the said section because
lumber is included in the term timber. The Revised Forestry Code contains no definition of either
timber or lumber. While the former is included in forest products as defined in paragraph (q) of Section
3, the latter is found in paragraph (aa) of the same section in the definition of "Processing plant,"
which reads: Processing plant is any mechanical set-up, machine or combination of machine
used for the processing of logs and other forest raw materials into lumber, veneer, plywood,
wall bond, block board, paper board, pulp, paper or other finished wood products. This simply
means that lumber is a processed log or processed forest raw material. Clearly, the Code uses
the term lumber in its ordinary or common usage.
The legislative intent to include possession of lumber in section 68 is
clearly gleaned from the expressed reasons for enacting the law which,
under EO no. 277, are to conserve the remaining forest resources of
the country for the benefit and welfare of the present and future
generations of Filipinos and to penalized certain acts to make our
forestry laws more responsive to present situations and realities. To
exclude possession of lumber from the acts penalized in section 68
would certainly emasculate the law itself. After all, the phrase “forest
products” is broad enough to encompass lumber, which, to reiterate, is
manufactured timber. Hence, to mention lumber in section 68 would
merely result in tautology.