WHEREAS,
public forests and forest reserves are important natural resources of
the country which must be preserved and conserved for future
generations;chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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; chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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;chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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;chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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:cralaw:red
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inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.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.
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