Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
UP
August 13, 1991
FACTS: International Hardwood is engaged in the manufacture, processing, and exportation of plywood.
It was granted by the Government an exclusive license for 25 years expiring on Feb 1985 to cut, collect
and remove timber from a timber land in the provinces of Quezon and Laguna.
Sometime on 1961, during the effectivity of the License Agreement, the President issued Executive
Proclamation No. 791. Under this proclamation, certain parcels of land of the public domain in Quezon
and Laguna were withdrawn from sale or settlement and were reserved for the UP College of Agriculture
as experiment station for the college.
On 1964, still during the effectivity of the License Agreement, RA 3990 was enacted establishing a
central experiment station for UP for the colleges of agriculture, veterinary medicine, arts and sciences.
Under RA 3990 the land described in Proc. 791 was fully cede to UP, subject to any existing concessions,
if any.
International Hardwood filed before the CFI a petition for declaratory relief seeking a declaration that UP
does NOT have the right to:
1. Supervise and regulate the cutting and removal of timber and other forest products,
2. Scale, measure and seal the timber cut and/or
3. Collect forest charges, reforestation fees and royalties from Hardwood and/or
4. Impose any other duty or burden upon the latter in that portion of its concession covered by a
License Agreement, ceded in full ownership to UP by RA 3990
ISSUE: WON UP as owner had the right to scale, measure, and seal the timber cut by Hardwood and
collect forestry charges thereon.
As owner, UP has the right to enjoy and dispose of the thing without other limitations than those
established by law. In this case, that exception is made for Hardwood as licensee or grantee of the
concession, which has been given the license to cut, collect, and remove timber from the area ceded and
transferred to UP until February 1985.
However, Hardwood has the correlative duty and obligation to pay the forest charges or royalties to the
new owner, UP. Thus, the charges should not be paid to the Government but to UP. It follows then that
respondent UP is entitled to supervise, through its duly appointed personnel, the logging, felling and
removal of timber within the area covered by R.A. No. 3990.