An Act Amending Act No. 1407

October 12, 1907

ACT NO. 1800

AN ACT AMENDING ACT NUMBERED FOURTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVEN BY PROVIDING FOR THE SETTING ASIDE OF COMMUNAL FOREST FOR THE BENEFIT OF MUNICIPALITIES, TOWNSHIPS, AND SETTLEMENTS

SECTION 1. Subsection (b) of section nine of Act Numbered Fourteen hundred and seven is hereby amended to read as follows:

"(b) For the period of five years from the date of the passage of this Act any resident of the Philippine Islands may cut or take, or hire cut or taken, for himself from the public forests, without license and free of charge, such timber, other than timber of the first group, and such firewood, resins, other forest products, and stone or earth, as he may require for housebuilding, fencing boat building, or other personal use of himself or his family. Timber thus cut without license shall not be sold nor shall it be exported from the province where cut, except as hereinafter authorized: PROVIDED, That the Director of Forestry, with the approval of the Secretary, of the Interior, may set aside for the use of the inhabitants of any municipality, township, or settlement a suitable tract of forest, which shall be known as a communal forest, and the privilege of cutting, taking or hiring cut or taken from the public forest without license and free of charge such timber other than timber of the first group, and such firewood, resins, other forest products, and stone or earth, as any resident of the municipality may require for housebuilding, fencing, boat building, or other personal use of himself or his family, shall then be exercised only within the communal forest thus set aside. Such communal forests shall be on lands more suitable for forestry than for agriculture. They shall be administered by the Director of Forestry, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, in such a way as to assure the people having rights therein of a continued supply of forest products necessary for their home use, and to this end the Director of Forestry may prescribe the species and sizes of trees that may be cut and the manner of removal of such trees or other forest products, stone, or earth. When there is no public forest land conveniently situated within the limits of a province to which any municipality, township, or settlement belongs, and when such public forest land exists in a neighboring province, it may be set aside as a communal forest for such municipality, township, or settlement, and timber cut in it without a license may then be exported from such communal forest to the municipality, township, or settlement in question. Exploitation of a communal forest for revenue shall be allowed only when the best interest of such forest demands cutting in excess of local needs. Such exploitation for revenue shall be carried on under license in the same manner and subject to the same conditions as in public forests. On satisfactory showing that a resident of any municipality, township, or settlement for which a communal forest has been set aside will erect a house of strong materials the Director of Forestry may issue or cause to be issued to such resident a written permit for the cutting within such communal forest of the requisite amount of first-group timber without charge, and such cutting shall then be lawful. Subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, the Director of Forestry may issue rules for carrying out the provisions of this paragraph, and such rules may provide for the suspension or withdrawal from any person of the free-use privilege herein provided as a punishment for the violation of the Forest Act, as amended, the forest rules, or of the provisions of this paragraph and the rules promulgated hereunder.

"Dealers in forest products, stone, or earth taken from the public forest shall pay the charges prescribed in section fourteen of Act Numbered Eleven hundred and eighty-nine, entitled "The Internal Revenue Law of Nineteen hundred and four," on all such products taken by them. Every person, firm, or company whose business it is to sell timber or other forest products, stone, or earth shall be regarded as a dealer in such products within the meaning of this Act."

SECTION 2. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

ENACTED, October 12, 1907.