Bill on life imprisonment for illegal loggers okayed

THE House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading House Bill 5485, which seeks to impose life imprisonment on those convicted of illegal logging.

Authored among others by Representative Ignacio Arroyo (5th District, Negros Occidental), lawmaker Angelo Palmones (Agham party-list) and congressman Rufus Rodriguez (2nd District, Cagayan de Oro City), the proposal said: “harvesting, gathering or collecting of timber or other forest products from any forestland with a market value of more than P500,000 and without authority from the DENR shall be declared illegal punishable with life imprisonment.”

Those who illegally acquired forest products with a market value of less than P500,000 shall be punished with imprisonment ranging from prision mayor minimum period to reclusion temporal minimum period and a fine equivalent to 10 times the value of said forest product.

Any person found guilty of buying logs, flitches and lumber from economic saboteurs and use them in government infrastructure projects shall also get life imprisonment, the bill added.

“Persons who are guilty of unlawful occupation of forestlands, illegal conversation of municipal parks, communal forests and tree parks, falsification of reports, inventory scaling and forest survey, unlawful operation of sawmills, unlawful possession of devices used by forest officers, unauthorized introduction of logging tools and equipment inside forestlands as well as non-payment of forest charges shall be meted 12 years and fined not more than P500,000.” (CGC)