Decision
G.R. No. 224469
12
'
from any forest land, or timber from alienable or disposable public land, or
from private land, without any authority, or possess timber or other forest
products without the legal documents as required under existing forest laws
and regulations, shall be punished with the penalties imposed under
Articles 309 and 310 of the Revised Penal Code .... "
Section 7 of RA 7161 (1991) repealed what was then Section 77 of PD
705, as amended and renumbered Section 68 of PD 705 to Section 77 thereof
and replaced the repealed Section 77. Note that the repealed Section 77 was
a carry-over from Section 297 of the National Internal Revenue Code ~f 1977,
as amended which was then incorporated into PD 705 as Section 77 by EO
273 (1987) and RA 7161. This repealed Section 77, formerly Section 297 of
the National Internal Revenue Code of 1977, read:
Illegal cutting and removal of forest products. - [a] Any person
who unlawfully cuts or gathers forest products in any forest lands without
license or if under license, in violation of the terms hereof, shall, upon
conviction for each act or omission, be fin¼d fot not less than ten thousand
pesos but not more than one hundred thousand pesos or imprisoned for a
term of not less than four years and one day but not more than six years, or
both.
Construing the original iteration of Section 77, as then Section 68 of
the original version of PD 705, People v. CFI o_fQuezon (Branch V/1) 49 held
that the elements of this offense are: 1) the accused cut, gathered, collected
or removed timber or other forest products; 2) the timber or other forest
products cut, gathered, collected or removed belongs to the government or to
any private individual; and 3) the cutting, gathering, collecting or removing
was without any authority granted by the State. Note that CFI o_f Quezon
(Branch VII) included the ownership of the timber or other forest products
as the second element of this offense. In the same decision, however, the
Court also ruled that Ownership is not an essential element of the offense as defined in
Section [68] of P.D. No. 705. Thus, the failure of the information to allege
the true owner of the forest products is not material, it was sufficient that it
alleged that the taking was without any authority or license from the
government.
Hence, we do not consider the ownership of subject timber or other
forest products as an element of the offense under Section 68 of PD 705, now
Section 77 of PD 705, as amended.·
We include one more element: the timber or other forest product must
have been cut, gathered, collected, or removed from any forest land, or
timber, from alienable or disposable public land or from private land.
This is based on the language of the offense as defined in either Section 68
or Section 77 which expressly requires the source of the timber or other
forest products to be from these types of land.
49
283 Phil. 78, 84 (1992).