Amending Section 12 of C.A. No. 137

January 14, 1974

PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 377

AMENDING SECTION 12 OF COMMONWEALTH ACT NO. 137, AS AMENDED IN AS FAR AS IT AFFECTS EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 63 DATED JUNE 25, 1914, AND SUPPLEMENTING PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 295

WHEREAS, Presidential Decree No. 295 dated Sept. 18, 1973 amended Section 12 of Commonwealth Act 137, as amended, otherwise known as the Mining Act in as far as its application to Proclamation No. 391 dated March 13, 1939 as amended by Proclamation No. 721 dated July 9, 1970 is concerned, by declaring the commercial timber within some portions of the Surigao Mineral Reservation, as open and available for disposition and utilization; aisa dc

WHEREAS, said Presidential Decree failed to include the portion of the reservation declared by Executive Order No. 63 dated June 25, 1914 of Governor General Francis Burton Harrison, the metes and bounds of which are defined in said Executive Order;

WHEREAS, the remaining unreverted area of the Surigao Mineral Reservation covered by Executive Order No. 63 dated June 25, 1914 also contains valuable commercial timber;

WHEREAS, the purpose and intention of Presidential Decree No. 295 dated Sept. 18, 1973 were to make available the timber in such reserved areas for disposition and utilization in order to hasten the social and economic development of Mindanao;

WHEREAS, in accordance with said purpose and intention, there is also a need to release the area covered by Executive Order No. 63 dated June 25, 1914;

WHEREAS, Section 12 of Commonwealth Act No. 137, as amended, limits the disposition for mining purposes only of a land proclaimed as mineral reserve under Section 11 thereof;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the Philippines, pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081 dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1 dated September 22, 1972, as amended, do hereby order and decree that Commonwealth Act No. 137, as amended, otherwise known as the Mining Act, shall be, as hereby it is amended, in as far as its application to Executive Order No. 63 dated June 24, 1914 is concerned, by declaring all commercial timber within the unreverted area covered by said Executive Order, as open and available for disposition and utilization, subject to existing rights, if any there be, and to existing policies, laws, rules and regulations pertinent thereto.

This Decree supplements Presidential Decree No. 295 dated September 18, 1973.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 14th day of January, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-Four.