[ Act No. 3809, December 06, 1930 ]

AN ACT AMENDING SECTION EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN, SECTION EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN, AND SECTION EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THREE OF ACT NUMBERED TWENTY-SEVEN HUNDRED AND ELEVEN, KNOWN AS THE ADMINISTRATIVE CODE.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Legislature assembled and by the authority of the same:SECTION 1. Section eighteen hundred and sixteen of Act Numbered Twenty-seven hundred and eleven, known as the Administrative Code, is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 1816. Jurisdiction of Bureau of Forestry.—The Bureau of Forestry shall have jurisdiction and authority over the demarcation, protection, management, reproduction, reforestation, occupancy, and use of all public forests and forest reserves and over the granting of licenses for game and fish, and for the taking of forest products, including stone and earth, therefrom."

SEC. 2. Section eighteen hundred and eighteen of the said Administrative Code is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 1818. Authority of employees of Bureau of For estry to make arrests and seizures, and to administer oaths and take testimony.—Officers and employees of the Bureau of Forestry may arrest without warrant in a public forest or territory adjacent thereto, any person committing or attempting to commit an offense against the provisions of this chapter; and they may also make seizures of forest products liable to seizure under this chapter or under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Law applicable to public forests and forest products. In the latter case, the most accessible Internal Revenue Officer shall be notified and the property shall be delivered to him or held subject to his orders."A person arrested by an employee of the Bureau of Forestry under the authority herein above given shall, if such be reasonably practicable, be brought within twenty-four hours after arrest, before a judge or justice of the peace, to be dealt with according to law."The Director of Forestry, the Assistant Director of Forestry, and the chiefs of divisions in the Bureau of Forestry are authorized to administer oaths and take acknowledgments in matters of official business, and to take testimony in official investigations conducted under the authority of the laws and regulations relating to the Bureau of Forestry."A forest officer may administer oaths and take acknowledgments as aforesaid and, when thereunto deputed by the Director of Forestry, may exercise the same authority to take testimony as other officers hereinabove named."

SEC. 3. Section eighteen hundred and twenty-three of the said Administrative Code is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 1823. Pecuniary interest of employees in public forests and forest products.—No officer or employee of the Bureau of Forestry shall have pecuniary interest in any forest or in any forest product therein or taken therefrom."

SEC. 4. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.SEC. 5. This Act shall take effect on its approval.Approved, December 6, 1930.

Source: Supreme Court E-Library