Module 1 - Legal Framework on Natural Resources and the Environment

1987 Constitution

Art 1. - National Territory

The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters

embraced therein, and all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or

jurisdiction, consisting of its terrestrial, uvial and aerial domains, including its territorial sea,

the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas. The waters around,

between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth and

dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines.

Art. 2 - Principles and State Policies

Sec. 15 - Right to Health

The State shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health

consciousness among them.

Sec 16. - Right to Health Ecology

The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful

ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.

Sec. 22 - Right of Indigenous People

The State recognizes and promotes the rights of indigenous cultural communities within

the framework of national unity and development.

Sec. 25 - Local Autonomy

The State shall ensure the autonomy of local governments.

Art. 3 - Bill of Rights

Sec. 7 - Right to Information

The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized.

Access to o cial records, and to documents and papers pertaining to o cial acts,
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transactions, or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy

development, shall be a orded the citizen, subject to such limitations as may be provided by

law.

Art. 10 - Local Autonomy

Sec. 4 - Power of Supervision over LGUs

The President of the Philippines shall exercise general supervision over local

governments. Provinces with respect to component cities and municipalities, and cities and

municipalities with respect to component barangays, shall ensure that the acts of their

component units are within the scope of their prescribed powers and functions.

Art. 12 - National Economy and Patrimony

Sec. 1 - Exploration of natural resources

The goals of the national economy are a more equitable distribution of opportunities,

income, and wealth; a sustained increase in the amount of goods and services produced by

the nation for the bene t of the people; and an expanding productivity as the key to raising the

quality of life for all, especially the underprivileged.

The State shall promote industrialization and full employment based on sound agricultural

development and agrarian reform, through industries that make full and e cient use of human

and natural resources, and which are competitive in both domestic and foreign markets.

However, the State shall protect Filipino enterprises against unfair foreign competition and

trade practices.

In the pursuit of these goals, all sectors of the economy and all regions of the country shall be

given optimum opportunity to develop. Private enterprises, including corporations,

cooperatives, and similar collective organizations, shall be encouraged to broaden the base of

their ownership.

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 Sec. 3 - Lands of the Public Domain

Lands of the public domain are classi ed into agricultural, forest or timber, mineral

lands and national parks. Agricultural lands of the public domain may be further classi ed by

law according to the uses to which they may be devoted. Alienable lands of the public domain

shall be limited to agricultural lands. Private corporations or associations may not hold such

alienable lands of the public domain except by lease, for a period not exceeding twenty- ve

years, renewable for not more than twenty- ve years, and not to exceed one thousand

hectares in area. Citizens of the Philippines may lease not more than ve hundred hectares, or

acquire not more than twelve hectares thereof by purchase, homestead, or grant.

Taking into account the requirements of conservation, ecology, and development, and subject

to the requirements of agrarian reform, the Congress shall determine, by law, the size of lands

of the public domain which may be acquired, developed, held, or leased and the conditions

therefor.

Sec. 5 - Ancestral Lands

The State, subject to the provisions of this Constitution and national development

policies and programs, shall protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to their

ancestral lands to ensure their economic, social, and cultural well-being.

The Congress may provide for the applicability of customary laws governing property rights or

relations in determining the ownership and extent of ancestral domain.

Sec. 7 - Acquisition of Private Lands

Save in cases of hereditary succession, no private lands shall be transferred or

conveyed except to individuals, corporations, or associations quali ed to acquire or hold lands

of the public domain.

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 Sec. 10 - Filipino First Policy

The Congress shall, upon recommendation of the economic and planning agency, when

the national interest dictates, reserve to citizens of the Philippines or to corporations or

associations at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens, or such

higher percentage as Congress may prescribe, certain areas of investments. The Congress

shall enact measures that will encourage the formation and operation of enterprises whose

capital is wholly owned by Filipinos.

In the grant of rights, privileges, and concessions covering the national economy and

patrimony, the State shall give preference to quali ed Filipinos.

The State shall regulate and exercise authority over foreign investments within its national

jurisdiction and in accordance with its national goals and priorities.

Art. 13 - Social Justice

Sec. 6 - Agrarian Reform

The State shall apply the principles of agrarian reform or stewardship, whenever

applicable in accordance with law, in the disposition or utilization of other natural resources,

including lands of the public domain under lease or concession suitable to agriculture, subject

to prior rights, homestead rights of small settlers, and the rights of indigenous communities to

their ancestral lands.

The State may resettle landless farmers and farmworkers in its own agricultural estates which

shall be distributed to them in the manner provided by law.

Sec. 7 - Rights of Fishermen

The State shall protect the rights of subsistence shermen, especially of local

communities, to the preferential use of the communal marine and shing resources, both inland

and o shore. It shall provide support to such shermen through appropriate technology and

research, adequate nancial, production, and marketing assistance, and other services. The
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 State shall also protect, develop, and conserve such resources. The protection shall extend to

o shore shing grounds of subsistence shermen against foreign intrusion. Fishworkers shall

receive a just share from their labor in the utilization of marine and shing resources.

Module 2 - Forestry

A. Governing Law - Forestry Reform Code (P.D. 705; Sections 1 - 83), May 19, 1975

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B. Policy - (Sec. 2, PD 705; Sec. 2 to 4, Art 12, 1987 Constitution)

C. De nition of Terms - Sec 3, PD 705

Mustang Lumber vs. CA, GR No. 104988, June 18, 1996

D. Organizational Structure - (Sec. 4; Sec. 6; Sec. 7; Sec. 8; Sec. 10)

Sec. 4 - Creation of, and merger of all forestry agencies into, the Bureau of Forest

Development.  For the purpose of implementing the provisions of this Code, the Bureau of

Forestry, the Reforestation Administration, the Southern Cebu Reforestation Development

Project, and the Parks and Wildlife O ce, including applicable appropriations, records,

equipment, property and such personnel as may be necessary, are hereby merged into a single

agency to be known as the Bureau of Forest Development, hereinafter referred to as the

Bureau.

Sec. 6 - Director and Assistant Director and their quali cations.  The Bureau shall be

headed by a Director, who shall be assisted by one or more Assistant Directors. The Director

and Assistant Directors shall be appointed by the President.

No person shall be appointed Director or Assistant Director of the Bureau unless he is a

natural born citizen of the Philippines, at least 30 years of age, a holder of at least a Bachelor's

Degree in Forestry or its equivalent, and a registered forester.

Sec. 7 - Supervision and Control.  The Bureau shall be directly under the control and

supervision of the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, hereinafter referred to as

the Department Head.

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 E. Jurisdiction of the Bureau of Forest Development - Sec. 5

Sec. 5 - Jurisdiction of Bureau. The Bureau shall have jurisdiction and authority over all

forest land, grazing lands, and all forest reservations including watershed reservations

presently administered by other government agencies or instrumentalities.

It shall be responsible for the protection, development, management, regeneration, and

reforestation of forest lands; the regulation and supervision of the operation of licensees,

lessees and permittees for the taking or use of forest products therefrom or the occupancy or

use thereof; the implementation of multiple use and sustained yield management in forest

lands; the protection, development and preservation of national parks, marine parks, game

refuges and wildlife; the implementation of measures and programs to prevent kaingin and

managed occupancy of forest and grazing lands; in collaboration with other bureaus, the

e ective, e cient and economic classi cation of lands of the public domain; and the

enforcement of forestry, reforestation, parks, game and wildlife laws, rules, and regulations.

The Bureau shall regulate the establishment and operation of sawmills, veneer and plywood

mills and other wood processing plants and conduct studies of domestic and world markets of

forest products.

F. Rule-Making Power - Sec. 9

Sec. 9 - Rules and Regulations.  The Department Head, upon the recommendation of

the Director of Forest Development, shall promulgate the rules and regulations necessary to

implement e ectively the provisions of this Code.

G. Classi cation and Survey - Sec. 15 to 18

Sec. 15 - Topography. No land of the public domain eighteen per cent (18%) in slope or

over shall be classi ed as alienable and disposable, nor any forest land fty per cent (50%) in

slope or over, as grazing land.

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 Lands eighteen per cent (18%) in slope or over which have already been declared as alienable

and disposable shall be reverted to the classi cation of forest lands by the Department Head,

to form part of the forest reserves, unless they are already covered by existing titles or

approved public land application, or actually occupied openly, continuously, adversely and

publicly for a period of not less than thirty (30) years as of the e ectivity of this Code, where the

occupant is quali ed for a free patent under the Public Land Act: Provided, That said lands,

which are not yet part of a well-established communities, shall be kept in a vegetative

condition su cient to prevent erosion and adverse e ects on the lowlands and streams:

Provided, further, That when public interest so requires, steps shall be taken to expropriate,

cancel defective titles, reject public land application, or eject occupants thereof.

Section 16.  Areas needed for forest purposes.  The following lands, even if they are below

eighteen per cent (18%) in slope, are needed for forest purposes, and may not, therefore, be

classi ed as alienable and disposable land, to wit:

1. Areas less than 250 hectares which are far from, or are not contiguous with, any certi ed

alienable and disposable land;

2. Isolated patches of forest of at least ve (5) hectares with rocky terrain, or which protect a

spring for communal use;

3. Areas which have already been reforested;

4. Areas within forest concessions which are timbered or have good residual stocking to

support an existing, or approved to be established, wood processing plant;

5. Ridge tops and plateaus regardless of size found within, or surrounded wholly or partly by,

forest lands where headwaters emanate;

6. Appropriately located road-rights-or-way;

7. Twenty-meter strips of land along the edge of the normal high waterline of rivers and streams

with channels of at least ve (5) meters wide;

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8. Strips of mangrove or swamplands at least twenty (20) meters wide, along shorelines facing

oceans, lakes, and other bodies of water, and strips of land at least twenty (20) meters wide

facing lakes;

9. Areas needed for other purposes, such as national parks, national historical sites, game

refuges and wildlife sanctuaries, forest station sites, and others of public interest; and

10. Areas previously proclaimed by the President as forest reserves, national parks, game

refuge, bird sanctuaries, national shrines, national historic sites:

Provided, That in case an area falling under any of the foregoing categories shall have been

titled in favor of any person, steps shall be taken, if public interest so requires, to have said title

cancelled or amended, or the titled area expropriated.

Section 17.  Establishment of boundaries of forest lands.  All boundaries between permanent

forests and alienable and disposable lands shall be clearly marked and maintained on the

ground, with infrastructure or roads, or concrete monuments at intervals of not more than ve

hundred (500) meters in accordance with established procedures and standards, or any other

visible and practicable signs to insure protection of the forest.

Section 18. Reservations in forest lands and o -shore areas. The President of the Philippines

may establish within any lands of the public domain, forest reserve and forest reservation for

the national park system, for preservation as critical watersheds, or for any other purpose, and

modify boundaries of existing ones. The Department Head may reserve and establish any

portion of the public forest or forest reserve as site or experimental forest for use of the Forest

Research Institute.

When public interest so requires, any o -shore area needed for the preservation and protection

of its educational, scienti c, historical, ecological and recreational values including the marine

life found therein, shall be established as marine parks.

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 H. Utilization and Management - Sec. 19 to 67

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I. Criminal O enses and Penalties - Sec. 68 to 80

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Module 3 - Water in General

A. Governing Law - Water Code of the Philippines (PD 1607; sections 1 to 101)

B. Objectives and Underlying Principles - Chap 1, Art 1 to 4

Article 1. This Code shall be known as The Water Code of the Philippines.

Article 2. The objectives of this Code are:

(a) To establish the basic principles and framework relating to the appropriation, control and

conservation of water resources to achieve the optimum development and rational utilization of

these resources;

(b) To de ne the extent of the rights and obligations of water users and owners including the

protection and regulation of such rights;

(c) To adopt a basic law governing the ownership, appropriation, utilization, exploitation,

development, conservation and protection of water resources and rights to land related

thereto; and

(d) To identify the administrative agencies which will enforce this Code.

Article 3. The underlying principles of this code are:

(a) All waters belong to the State.

(b) All waters that belong to the State can not be the subject to acquisitive prescription.

(c) The State may allow the use or development of waters by administrative concession.

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(d) The utilization, exploitation, development, conservation and protection of water resources

shall be subject to the control and regulation of the government through the National Water

Resources Council, hereinafter referred to as the Council.

(e) Preference in the use and development of waters shall consider current usages and be

responsive to the changing needs of the country.

Article 4.  Waters, as used in this Code, refers to water under the grounds, water above the

ground, water in the atmosphere and the waters of the sea within the territorial jurisdiction of

the Philippines.

C. Ownership of Waters - Chap 2, Art 5 to 8

Article 5. The following belong to the State:

(a) Rivers and their natural beds;

(b) Continuous or intermittent waters of springs and brooks running in their natural beds and

the beds themselves;

(c) Natural lakes and lagoons;

(d) All other categories of surface waters such as water owing over lands, water from rainfall

whether natural, or arti cial, and water from agriculture runo , seepage and drainage;

(e) Atmospheric water;

(f) Subterranean or ground waters; and,

(g) Seawater.

Article 6. The following waters found on private lands belong to the State:

(a) Continuous or intermittent waters rising on such lands;

(b) Lakes and lagoons naturally occuring on such lands;

(c) Rain water falling on such lands;

(d) Subterranean or ground waters; and,

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(e) Water in swamps and marshes.

The owner of the land where the water is found may use the same for domestic purposes

without securing a permit, provided that such use shall be registered, when required by the

Council. The Council, however, may regulate such when there is wastage, or in times of

emergency.

Article 7. Subject to the provisions of this Code, any person who captures or collects water by

means of cisterns, tanks, or pools shall have exclusive control over such water and the right to

dispose of the same.

Article 8. Water legally appropriated shall be subject to the control of the appropriator from the

moment it reaches the appropriator's canal or aqueduct leading to the place where the water

will be used or stored and, thereafter, so long as it is being bene cially used for the purposes

for which it was appropriated.

D. Appropriation of Waters - Chap3, Art 9 to 30

- Citizenship Requirement

- Filing of Application

E. Utilization of Waters - Chap 4, Art 31 to 52

- Prohibitions and conditions for use of waters

- Renman Enterprises vs. CA, GR 125018, Apr 6, 2000

F. Control of Waters - Chap 5, Art 53 to 65

- Lovina vs. Moreno, GR L-17821, Nov 29, 1963

G. Conservation and Protection of Waters and Watersheds and Related Land Resources -

Chap6, Art 66 to 78

- Sta. Rosa Realty vs CA, GR 112526, Oct 12, 2001

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 H. Administration of Waters and Enforcement of the Provisions of this Code - Chap 7, Art 79 to

89, PD 1607

- Tanjay Water District vs. Gabon, GR L-63742, Apr 17, 1989

- Metro Iloilo Water District vs. CA, GR 122855, Mar 31, 2005

I. Penal Provisions - Chap 8, Art 80 to 94

J. Transitory and Final Provisions - Chap 9, Art 95 to 101

Clean Water

A. Governing Law - Clean Water Act of 2004 (RA 9275)

B. Declaration of Policy - Sec 3, paragraphs a to j

C. De nition of Terms - Sec 4

D. Water Quality Management System - Sec 5 to 12

E. Water Pollution Permits and Charges - Sec 13 to 14

F. Institutional Mechanism - Sec 19 to 24

G. Incentives and Rewards - Secs 25 to 26

H. Civil Liability / Penal provisions - Sec 27 to 29

I. Actions - Sec 30

Module 4 - Protected Areas

A. Governing Law - National Integrated Protected Areas system Act of 1992 (RA 7586 as

amended by RA 11038)

B. Declaration of Policy - Sec 2

C. Categories of Protected Areas - Sec 3

D. De nition of Terms - Sec 4

E. Establishment and Extent of the System - Sec 5

F. Protected Area and Management Board - Sec 9

G. Classi cation and Survey Integrated Protected Areas Fund - Sec 16

H. Prohibited Acts - Sec 20

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 Module 5 - Indigenous Cultural Communities / Indigenous People

A. Governing Law - The Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997 (RA 8371)

B. State Policy - Sec 2, Art XII 1987 Constitution

C. Declaration of Policy - Chap 1, Sec 20

D. De nition of Terms - Chap 2, Sec 3

E. Concept of Ancestral Domains - Chap 3, sec 4

F. Right to Ancestral Domains - Sec 9

G. Right to Ancestral Lands - Sec 9

H. Classi cation and Survey Integrated Protected Areas Fund - Chap 3, Sec 9

Module 6 - Clean Air

A. Governing Law - Clean Air Act of 1999 (RA 8749, sec 1 to 12)

B. Declaration of Principles - Sec 2

C. Declaration of Policy - Sec 3

D. Recognition of Rights - Sec 4

E. Air Quality Management - Chap 2, Sec 15

F. Pollution from Stationary Sources - Secs 19

- MMDA vs JANCOM, GR 147465, Jan 30, 2002

G. Pollution from Motor Vehicles - Sec 21

- Henares vs LTFRZB & DOTC, GR 158290, Oct 23, 2006

H. Pollution from other Sources - Sec 24

I. Pollution from Other Pollutants

J. Institutional Mechanisms - Sec 34

K. Actions - Sec 40

Module 7 - Biofuels

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 A. Governing Law - Biofuels Act of 2006 (RA 9367, Sec 1 to 21)

B. Declaration of Policy - Sec 2

C. De nition of Terms - Sec 3

D. Phase out of use of Harmful Gasoline Additives - Sec 4

E. Mandatory Use of Biofuels - Sec 5

- Henares vs. LTFRB & DOTC

F. Incentive Schemes - Secs 6

G. Role of Government Agencies - Sec 7

H. Prohibited Acts - Sec 12

I. Penal Provisions - Sec 13