Separate Concurring Opinion 21 G.R. No. 224469 forest products." 103 The Organic Law proscribed the cutting, destruction, removal, or appropriation of forest resources "except by special permission of [the] Government and other such regulations as it may prescribe." 104 Gifford Pinchot, an official of the United States Forest Service and primary author of the Forest Act, believed that forests must be harvested on a commercial scale. By this reason, the Forest Act contained provisions which empowered the United States Government "to issue licenses for up to [20] years 'for the cutting, collection, and removal of timber, firewood, gums, resins, and other forest products." 105 One of the salient provisions of the Forest Act is the authority given to the bureau chief to grtmt gratuitous licenses for the free use of timber and other forest products, provided that it shall be reasonable in quantity, within definite territorial limits, and that it is only for domestic purposes. 106 An amendment to the free use provision was later introduced, allowing the bureau director to designate specific parcels of land as communal forests. Persons who wish to utilize timber and other forest products were free to do so within the designated communal forests. After the said amendment took place, numerous municipalities and townships applied for the grant and designation for communal forests within their jurisdiction. 107 Meanwhile, by reason of the deteriorating condition of the public forest, the United States Government issued General Order No. 92 to address the unauthorized practice of swidden farming or kaingin which the Americans considered as "the most destructive agency in the Philippine forests[.]" 108 ~ • The legal prohibition against swidden farming proved to be ineffective in most forest zones. The United States Government claimed that municipal and provincial authorities had full knowledge of the swidden farming happening within their jurisdiction, but had not acted upon it in any way. 109 United States Government officials lamented the continued practice of swidden farming. They stated that if the Filipinos were left on their own devices and desire to continue with their practice of swidden farming, it 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 Owen James Lynch, Jr., Invisible Peoples and a Hidden Agenda: The Origins of Contemporary Philippine Land Laws, 63 PHIL. L. J. 249,272 (1988). Id. Id. at 273. Id. at 274. Id. at 276. Id. at 277. Id. at 278. !