FIFTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
First Regular Session 
) 
) 
) 
SENATE 
S.B. 74 
Introduced by Senator Manny Villar 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
The preamble of the Constitution provides that we should establish a 
Government which shall "conserve and develop our patrimony." Our "patrimony" 
includes our public forests, mangroves, wildlife, and flora and fauna which should be 
conserved, protected and renewed. This measure seeks to achieve that end as a 
national policy and sets forth an eight-point comprehensive program framework. 
This bill provides for classification and percentages allocation of public forests. 
Protected public forests are envisioned to comprise at least sixty percent of all public 
forests. Production forests are proposed to comprise not more than twenty percent and 
agro-forestry projects to cover not more than twenty percent of public forests. It is 
estimated that there are about 15 million hectares of public forest land. 
The object of this bill is to rehabilitate public forest lands and revert areas 
presently denuded and eroded to become thriving forest reserves. 
A coordinating council headed by the Secretary of Environment and Natural 
Resources is to be created and a Fund for conservation, protection and renewal is 
contemplated. The Fund will consist of public funds, donations and fees and imposts 
from users of the national patrimony. 
The dismal conditions of our public forests today is a sad commentary of our 
wanton and mindless exploitation of our forest resources. Ideally, our reforestation rate 
should be at least five times our deforestation rate and should surpass deforestation 
within the next five years. 
This we can do by embarking on a massive reforestation program and 
rehabilitation of our forest lands. 
Immediate approval of this bill is highly recommended. 


FIFTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
First Regular Session 
) 
) 
) 
SENATE 
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Introduced by Senator Manny Villar 
AN ACT 
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TO CONSERVE AND PROTECT THE PUBLIC FORESTS, MANGROVES 
AND WILDLIFE THEREIN THROUGH A PROGRAM OF RENEWAL, 
REFORESTATION AND REPLANTING, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in 
Congress assembled: 
SECTION 1. Title. - This Act shall be known as the "Conservation, Protection and 
Renewal of the Nation's Patrimony Act." 
SEC. 2. Declaration of National Policy and Program Framework. - It is hereby 
declared the policy of the State to conserve, protect, and renew public forests, 
mangroves and the wildlife therein. To these ends, the State hereby adopts the 
following comprehensive program frameworks: 
(a) The specific limits of public forests, national parks and other forest reserve 
areas, including mangroves with forest cover, shall be determined, and public forests of 
the public domain shall constitute at least fifty percent (50%) of the lands of the public 
domain classified as follows: production forest, about 3 million hectares or not more 
than twenty percent (20%) of public forest lands; agro-forest, about 3 million hectares or 
not more than twenty percent (20%) of public forest lands; and protection and 
conservation forest, at least nine (9) million hectares or at least sixty percent (60%) of 
the public forests. 
(b) There shall be a "buffer area" .between the protection and conservation forest 
and other forests. Between alienable agricultural lands of the public domain or private 
agricultural land and protection and conservation forests, a "buffer area" of natural or 
replanted forested area of at least one (1) square kilometer, shall be declared in order to 
conserve and protect public forests and wildlife therein. 
(c) Public forests under lease andlor which have been denuded and deforested 
due to logging shall be reforested, with tree species of its original forested state or 
similar specie, and reclassified protection and conservation forest, until the limits 
provided in paragraph one hereof shall have been attained. 
(d) Mangroves without forest cover which have been utilized and cut to the 
detriment of ecological balance and to the destruction of marine, air and other wildlife 
which take sanctuary therein shall be replenished with the mangrove and other species 
of plants and reseeded with the wildlife which would naturally be supposed to thrive 
therein. They shall be reclassified reserve swamps and mangroves and/or protection 
and conservation forests. 


(e) Virgin forests and public parks and forest reserves declared as such as of the 
approval of this Act shall in no case be opened for exploitation or reclassification and 
shall remain so within the limits of the area provided in paragraph one hereof as 
protection and conservation public forests. 
(f) Marine, air and wildlife, including the endangered species of Philippine fauna, 
shall be returned as protected wildlife within animal reserves or selected public forests 
such that a balance will be attained within the forests of the wildlife therein and the 
resources to maintain the survival of these fauna. 
(g) Philippine flora, both natural to our forests and those which would enhance 
ecological balance and the productivity and aesthetic value of our public forests, shall 
be replanted and maintained in the public forests. 
(h) Areas of the public forests leased or tolerated for use for social forestry or 
agro-forestry shall be limited to the area and percentage of the total public forests 
herein provided. These areas shall be replenished and renewed with flora and fauna 
compatible with ecological balance and the productivity required for the survival and 
development of the forestry-dependent communities permitted to participate in the agro-
forestry program. 
SEC. 3. Coordinating Council for the Conservation, Protection and Renewal of 
the Nation's Patrimony. - There is hereby created a Coordinating Council for the 
Conservation, Protection and Renewal of the Nation's Patrimony. The Council shall be 
headed by the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources as Chairman, with the 
Undersecretaries of Agriculture and Food and of Education, Culture and Sports as Vice-
Chairmen. The members shall include three (3) representatives from the government 
sector and three (3) representatives from the private sector appointed by the President 
of the Philippines upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Environment and 
Natural Resources. 
The Council shall formulate policies and develop projects to implement the 
national policy and program framework as defined in this Act, It shall also promulgate 
rules and regulations to carry out the purposes of this Act and adopt a code of services 
and guidelines to conserve, protect and renew the nation's patrimony in accordance 
with Section Two hereof. 
To assist the Council, the Chairman shall designate an Executive Secretary and 
a Secretariat from among the staff of the Department of Environment and Natural 
Resources, with such allowances as may be approved by the Council. The per diems 
and allowances of the Council shall be approved by the Council, subject to the existing 
rules and regulations and auditing and accounting laws. 
SEC. 4. Reforestation and Renewal Program by the Youth. - Subject to such 
rules and regulations as the Council may promulgate, students and community youth 
below the age of twenty-five (25) years, shall be harnessed for the reforestation and 
renewal of public forests, mangrove and wildlife therein. The youth shall be provided 
such allowances and wages as may be a proved by the Council, but in no case less 
than the minimum wage for equal work as provided by law. 
SEC. 5. Coordination with Agricultural and Fisheries Schools. Subject to such 
rules and regulations as the Council may promulgate, agricultural and fisheries schools, 
botch public and private, shall participate in the projects of this program to the end that 
science and appropriate technology learned in the schools will be applied to public 
forests, mangroves and the renewal of wildlife, both during the training of students and 
thereafter as professionals within the public or private sectors. 
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SEC. 6. 
Comprehensive Progam. 
In consultation with all stakeholders and 
various sectors comprising the entire agriculture and fisheries sectors, agro-business 
and concerned academic communities, a comprehensive program including the projects 
that may be supported by the Council shall be formulated to serve as guide for the 
effective implementation of this Act. 
SEC. 7. Report to the Nation on the Status of the Nation's patrimony. - The 
Council shall give a report to the nation on the status of the Nation's Patrimony and the 
progress of the Government in formulating policies and implementing projects on the 
eight-point comprehensive program framework. The report shall include: 
(a) Progression returning to the reserve pool of the national patrimony leased 
public forests and those opened for agro-forestry projects and the degree to which the 
required limits provided in Section Two hereof for production, agro-forestry and 
conservation-protection forests are being achieved. 
(b) Information on every logging lease; particularly on the extent to which the 
denuded forests have been reforested and state of compliance, with scientific selective 
logging, as well as the species being replanted to renew the trees being cut. 
(c) Violations of contracts and ecological balance by users of production and 
agroforestry public forests and the state of conservation-production public-forests, 
particularly the explOitation, if any, of virgin forests and park reserves. 
(d) Harnessing of youth for the conservation and protection of the nation's 
patrimony, and the progress of partnership between the agricultural and fisheries 
schools and the government in the appropriate application of science and technology by 
the students and graduates of these schools. 
(e) Results of monitoring of forest products and forest flora and fauna which are 
marketed, both domestically and for export, and the comparison of these monitored 
products with approved logging and other forest-related leases and licenses, as well as 
the declared individual or corporate income of the users, lessees, or sellers of the forest 
products. 
(f) Record of prosecution for violations and/or revocation of lease or license as a 
result of violations. 
(g) Record of recognition and, where warranted, commendation for compliance 
with contracts and reforestation and selective logging and other commendable activities 
which conserve, protect and renew the Nation's Patrimony. 
The Council shall render this report annually, or often as needed, and submit the 
same to the President and Congress and disseminate it to the public. 
SEC. 8. Conservation, Protection and Renewal Fund. - There is hereby 
authorized to be appropriated the amount of One Million Pesos (P1,000,000.00) for the 
operations of the Council, and Ten Million Pesos (P10,000,000.00) for the projects 
under this Act to conserve, protect and renew public, forests, mangroves, and the 
wildlife therein under the eight-point comprehensive program framework of this Act. 
Thereafter, the operating expenses of the Council and the projects planned and 
implemented under this Act shall a included in the budget of the Department of 
Environment and N Natural Resources as part of its annual appropriation under the 
program of "Conservation, Protection and Renewal of Public Forests, Mangroves and 
the Wildlife Therein." 
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The Council may receive donations from national and international sources for 
the implementation of this Act or for a specific project or projects. 
The Council may also levy and impose fees and impositions on logging 
concessionaires and lessors of public forest lands in the required amounts to cover the 
reforestation of areas which these concessionaires and lessors have logged and which 
have not been reforested in accordance with sound environmental and ecological 
practices and principles. Such fees shall cover failure to reforest and practice scientific 
selective logging as of the approval of this Act. Such loggers who have denuded and 
deforested leased public lands shall have two (2) years from the approval of this Act to 
reforest the denuded areas in accordance with sound environmental and ecological 
practices and principles. Thereafter, the Council shall impose an amount equivalent to 
the cost of returning the denuded and logged area to its virgin state to be paid by the 
logger or concessionaire. If the I violation continues with other portions of the leased 
public forest, the lease or license shall be revoked by the Council. 
Donations received and fees or imposts collected shall be in a trust fund-for 
specific purposes and projects, as approved by the Council, subject to existing auditing 
and accounting regulations and the purposes of this Act. 
The program harnessing youth for reforestation shall be funded by project funds 
of the Councilor from donations earmarked for the purpose. 
SEC. 9. Separability Clause. - If any part or provision of this Act is held 
unconstitutional or invalid, other parts or provisions hereof which are not affected 
thereby shall continue to be in full force and effect. 
SEC. 10. Repealing Clause. - Any law, decree, rule, regulation, executive order 
or part thereof inconsistent with this Act is hereby repealed or modified accordingly. 
SEC. 11. Effectivity. - This Act shall be effective upon its approval and 
completion of its publication in at least two (2) national newspapers of general 
circulation. 
Approved, 
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