Act No. 2532




[ Act No. 2532, October 26, 1915 ] AN ACT TO AMEND ACT NUMBERED FOURTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVEN, BY EXTENDING TO FIFTEEN YEARS THE TIME DURING WHICH TIMBER, FIREWOOD, RESINS, STONE, EARTH, AND OTHER FOREST PRODUCTS MAY BE CUT IN OR TAKEN FROM THE PUBLIC FORESTS FREE OF FORESTRY CHARGES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. By authority of the United. States, be it enacted by the Philippine Legislature, that: Section 1. Subsection (b) of section nine of Act Numbered Fourteen hundred and seven, as amended by Acts Numbered Eighteen hundred, Eighteen hundred and seventy-two, Nineteen hundred and seventy-six, Twenty-one hundred and sixty-five, and Twenty-three hundred and seventy-one, is hereby further amended to read as follows: "(b) For the period of fifteen years from the date of the passage of this Act every person who is a resident of the Philippine Islands and a citizen of the United States or a native of the Philippine Islands, or an honorably discharged soldier or sailor of. the Army or Navy of the United States, or a person who has under and by virtue of the Treaty of Paris acquired the political rights of natives of the Philippine Islands, may cut or take, or hire cut or taken, for himself 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 may be required for house building, fencing, boat building, or other personal use of such person ,or his family and the Director of Forestry is authorized to grant to duly organized religious, educational or charitable "institutions in the Philippine Islands gratuitous licenses '"for such timber of the second and lower groups as may be needed for building, repairing, and fencing of churches and their adjacent parsonages or conventos, and other buildings owned by such religious, educational, or charitable institutions and used exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, or educational purposes and not for private profit. 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 house building, fencing, boat building, or other personal use of himself, or his family, shall then be exercised only within the communal forest thus set aside: Provided further. That when the area of a municipality, township, or settlement is so extremely large and its barrios are so remote from one another that the inhabitants thereof are deprived, on account of their distance from the communal forest, from the enjoyment of the benefits of this Act, the Director of Forestry, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, shall, upon application by the municipality, township, or settlement, set aside two suitable tracts of forest as communal forest, from which said inhabitants may cut, take, or hire cut or taken, without license and free of charge, such timber, other than timber of the first group, as they may require for their personal use. Such communal forest 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 is 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.(awÞhi( On satisfactory showing that a resident of any municipality, townhip, or settlement or religious, educational, or charitable institution 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: And provided further, That when a communal forest has not been set aside for the use of the inhabitants of any municipality, township, or settlement, any adult inhabitant of such municipality, township, or settlement who is a citizen of the United States or a native of the Philippine Islands or an honorably discharged soldier or sailor of the Army or Navy of the United States, or a person who has, under and by virtue of the Treaty of Paris, acquired the political rights of natives of the Philippine Islands, and any duly organized religious, educational, or charitable institution may secure a permit to cut and use, free of charge, timber of the first group other than ebony, camagon, or lanete, under the following conditions: (1) The applicant shall forward to the Director of Forestry, or to his duly authorized agent, a guaranty that he will construct a building or buildings of strong materials for the personal use of himself or his family in the case of an individual, or for religious, charitable, scientific, or educational purposes and not for private profit, in the case of a religious, educational, or charitable institution, stating the nature and size of such building or buildings and the character and approximate amounts of the materials which will enter into their construction. The " guaranty shall bear upon it a statement from the president of the municipality or township or the headman of the settlement, as the case may be, to the effect that the applicant is a responsible resident of his municipality, township, or settlement, and that there is reason to believe that he is financially able to construct the proposed building or buildings and that he will do so. The applicant will state the amount and kind of first-group timber which he requests to be allowed to use for the building or buildings which he guarantees to erect, and the amount of timber requested shall not be in excess of that reasonably necessary for the construction of such building or buildings. Upon the receipt of such application the Director of Forestry, or his duly authorized agent, shall issue a free permit to cut the first-group timber reasonably necessary for the construction' of such building or buildings. (2) The provisions of this section relative to the free use of timber of the first group shall be made applicable to any province by order of the Secretary of the Interior upon receipt by him of a resolution of the provincial board of such province requesting that they be made applicable to such province. "A house which has its frame, floor, and sides made of wood shall be considered a house of strong materials within the meaning of this Act. "Dealers in forest products, stone, or earth, taken from the public forests shall pay the charges prescribed in article 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. This Act shall take effect on its passage. Enacted, October 26, 1915. 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