Act No. 274




[ Act No. 274, October 21, 1901 ] AN ACT PROHIBITING THE UNAUTHORIZED DESTRUCTION OF TIMBER ON PUBLIC LANDS. By authority of the President of the United States, be it enacted by the United States Philippine Commission, that: Section 1. The making of so-called "caingins," or clearings on public lands, by felling or burning trees, is hereby prohibited. Section 2. Any person violating the foregoing provision of this Act shall, upon conviction, be punished by a line of not more than one hundred dollars, in money of the United States, or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both, in the discretion of the court, for each offense, and shall pay charges on timber unlawfully cut or burned in accordance with the rates fixed in General Order Number Ninety-two, Office of the United States Military Governor in the Philippine Islands, issued June twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred, or in lieu of such payment shall suffer one day's imprisonment for each dollar of unpaid charges. Section 3. It shall be the duty of the civil governors of provinces, of the Philippines Constabulary, and of municipal presidents to arrest and turn over to the proper authorities for trial all persons within the territory under their respective jurisdictions who violate the provisions of this Act, and municipal presidents are hereby empowered to use the municipal police in making such arrests.1aшphi1 Section 4. Where the person or persons found making "caingins" are members of a non-Christian tribe, or are ignorant of the law, they shall be dismissed with a warning, in the case of a first offense, but, upon conviction for a second offense, shall be punished as hereinbefore provided. Section 5. 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 6. This Act shall take effect on its passage. Enacted, October 21, 1901. The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation