[ Commonwealth Act No. 304, June 09, 1938 ]

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE REFORESTATION AND AFFORESTATION OF WATERSHEDS, DENUDED AREAS AND COGON OR OPEN LANDS WITHIN FOREST RESERVES, COMMUNAL FORESTS, NATIONAL PARKS AND TIMBERLANDS, SAND DUNES, AND OTHER PUBLIC FOREST LANDS, IN THE PHILIPPINES, AND PROVIDING THE NECESSARY FUNDS THEREFOR.

Be it enacted by the National Assembly of the Philippines:

SECTION 1. There is appropriated out of the excise tax received by the Commonwealth Government from the United States the sum of one million pesos to be disbursed by the  Director  of  Forestry,  with the  approval  of the .Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce, for the reforesta­tion and afforestation of watersheds, denuded areas and cogon or open lands within-forest reserves, communal for­ests,  national  parks,   and timberlands, sand dunes, and such other areas already''certified as public forest lands, which upon investigation, are found needing reforestation : or afforestation, or needing to be under forest cover for : the growing  of  economic  trees  for timber,  tannin,  oils, gums, and other minor forest products or medicinal plants or for watershed protection, or the prevention of erosion and floods,  and  the  preparation of the necessary plans, estimates of costs, and other data.

SEC. 2. The money appropriated herein shall be available for expenditure for the purposes for which it is appro­priated until December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and forty-one.

SEC. 3. The  Director  of  Forestry shall submit to the  National Assembly, through the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce and the President of the Philippines, during the first ten days of its regular session for the years nine teen hundred and thirty-nine, nineteen hundred and forty, nineteen hundred forty-one, and nineteen hundred forty-two, a special report..on the result of the work of reforesta­tion and afforestation authorized by this Act, specifying : the location and area of the sections reforested and afforested the cost of the work accomplished, and such other data as may, in his judgment, be necessary for the information of the Assembly.

SEC. 4. The President is hereby authorized to suspend or otherwise stop the expenditure of any amount herein ' appropriated for any purpose, or of any portion thereof, whenever in his opinion the public interest so requires.

SEC. 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved, June 9, 1938.