MUSTANG LUMBER INC. vs.

COURT OF APPEALS
DAVIDE, JR., J.: G.R. No. 104988 June 18, 1996

Facts: Acting on information that a huge stockpile of Nara flitches, shorts and his labs were seen inside the lumber yard of the
petitioner, respondents organized a team of foresters and policemen and sent it to conduct surveillance at the said lumber yard. In
the course thereof, the team members saw coming out from the lumberyard the petitioner’s truck loaded with lauan and almaciga
lumber of assorted sizes and dimensions. Since the driver could not produce the required invoices and transport documents, the
team seized the truck together with its cargo and impounded them at the DENR. After that, the team obtained a search warrant to
inspect the premises of Mustang lumber. The team found more lumber in the lumberyard and confiscated it. Secretary Factoran
ordered the disposal of the confiscation lumber. A complaint against Mustang lumber’s president and general manager was filed
in court. The petitioner filed a motion to quash on the ground that the possession of lumber as opposed to timber is not penalized
under section 68 of PD number 705.

Issue: Whether possession of lumber as opposed to timber is penalized in Section 68 of PD No. 705.

Held: Yes, lumber is covered by Section 68 of PD 705. While the Revised Forestry Code does not contain any definition of
timber or lumber it does define forest products. The definition of processing plant includes: “processing plant in any mechanical
setup, machine or combination of machine use for the processing of logs and other forests raw materials into lumber, veneer,
plywood, wallbound, black blackboard (sic), paper board, pulp or other finish wood products”.
This simply means that lumber is a process log or process forest raw material. Clearly, the code you says the theater lumber in its
ordinary or common usage. In the 1993 copyright edition of webster's third new international dictionary, lumber is defined,
interalia, asking bar or after being prepared for the market. Simply put, lumber is a process lag or timber.