Section 1. Except as provided in this Act, it shall be
unlawful for any person in the Philippine Islands to take collect,
kill, mutilate, or have in his or her possession, living or dead, or to
purchase, offer or expose for sale, transport, ship, or export, alive
or dead, any protected flowering plant, fern, orchid, lycopod or club
moss or other wild plants in the Philippines.
Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of
Agriculture and Natural Resources to issue and promulgate regulations
which shall specify from time to time the classes or species of the
rate and flowering plants including orchids, ferns, lycopods or club
mosses (known in some localities as buntot pusa or palawit), which
shall be protected under this Act; and to issue such other regulations
as may be necessary prescribing the conditions governing the
collection, alive or dead, possession, destruction, killing,
transportation, sale or exposure for sale, or export, alive or dead, of
any of the protected wild plants in the Philippines.
Sec. 3. The rules so promulgated shall also
specify the bureau or office of the Department of Agriculture and
Natural Resources, to which the duty of carrying out the purposes of
this Act may be delegated by the Department Head; shall fix the fees
for the collection of individual species or group of species of
protected wild plants; and may be made applicable to the whole
Philippine Islands or any specified locality or localities and may be
continued in force indefinitely or for a given number of years or for
any specified portion or portions of each successive year.
Sec. 4. The Secretary of Agriculture and Natural
Resources is hereby empowered to issue licenses for the collection,
possession, transportation, sale, or export of such protected wild
plants as should be collected only by licensed collectors, upon payment
of the fees to be fixed in accordance with this Act. Such licenses
shall specify the number and kind of plants which may be collected, and
the conditions under which they may be kept or disposed of. The
Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources may issue a special
permit for the possession of very rare specimens.
Sec. 5. A permit may be granted by the Secretary
of Agriculture and Natural Resources free of charge to any person of
good repute of legal age, permitting the holder to collect specimens of
protected wild plants for scientific or educational purposes. Such
permits shall be in force for a period of one year only and shall be
subject to such conditions as the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural
Resources may deem wise to impose for the proper carrying out of the
purposes of this Act. Upon proof that the holder of such permit has
taken, killed or destroyed any protected wild plant in whole or in part
for other than a scientific or educational purpose, he shall be subject
to the same penalty as if he had no permit.
Sec. 6. No license or permit shall be granted
under the provisions of this Act except to citizens of the Philippine
Islands or of the United States, or to associations or corporations
that are duly registered or incorporated under the laws of the
Philippine Islands or of the United States or of any State thereof and
authorized to transact business in the Philippine Islands and sixty-one
per cent of whose capital stock or interest in said capital stock is
owned wholly by citizens of the Philippine Islands or of the United
States, or to citizens of countries the laws of which allow similar
rights to citizens of the Philippine Islands.
Sec. 7. The making of any false statement upon the
application blank for a collecting license or permit shall subject the
offender both to the forfeiture of his license or permit and to the
other penalties hereinafter provided.
Sec. 8. The taking, collection, destruction, or
mutilation of orchids, ferns, and lycopods or club mosses and such
other plants as may be designated by the Secretary of Agriculture and
Natural Resources is prohibited within a distance of one hundred meters
from any public highway or trail: Provided, however, That this
prohibition shall not apply to the owner of land on which such plants
may be found or the duly authorized agent of the owner.
Sec. 9. Members of the Philippine Constabulary;
members of municipal and municipal district police, and such foresters,
rangers and forest guards of the Bureau of Forestry; botanists,
geologists, and field chemists of the Bureau of Science, public lands
inspectors, special attorneys and surveyors of the Bureau of Lands;
agronomists and plant inspectors of the Bureau of Plant Industry, and
other competent persons as may be designated in writing by the
Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, are hereby made deputy
wardens of protected wild plants and are hereby given full authority
and directed to enforce the provisions of this Act and the regulations
promulgated thereunder and to arrest offenders against the same.
Sec. 10. Any person, association or corporation
violating this Act or any order or regulation deriving force from its
provisions shall be punished for each offense by a fine of not less
than ten pesos nor more than two hundred pesos, or by imprisonment not
to exceed thirty days, or both such fine and imprisonment, in the
discretion of the court: Provided, That in the case of an association
or corporation, the president or manager shall be directly responsible
for the acts of his employees or laborers if it is proven that the
latter acted with his knowledge; otherwise the responsibility shall
extend only as far as fine is concerned: Provided, further, That all
plants gathered or collected in violation of this Act shall be
forfeited to the Government.
Sec. 11. This Act shall take effect on its
approval.
APPROVED, December 3, 1932.
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