Republic of the Philippines)

Province of Eastern Samar) S.s.

Municipality of Can-avid…)

COUNTER-AFFIDAVIT
I, NILO H. JECOMO, of legal age, Filipino, and resident of
Barangay Canteros, Can-avid, Eastern Samar, after having been duly sworn to
an oath in accordance with law hereby depose and state:

1. That I am named as a respondent in a complaint for violation of

Presidential Decree No. 705 docketed as NPS No. VIII-13a-INV-
23G-00084 filed by a PSMS Emerson N. Balquin and Pcpl
Jeffrey L. Cebrero before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor
(Sub-Office), Dolores, Eastern Samar;

2. That I vehemently deny the imputations of the complainant

police officers for being false, baseless and malicious;

3. As can be gleaned from their joint affidavit I am being charged

under PD 705 for possessing an alleged “Illegally sawn” Narra
lumber and fabricating it into a door panel;

4. That contrary to the imputations of the complainants, the

lumbers and those which I made into door panel were not
illegally sawn lumbers but were made from a log which I
salvaged from the river banks of Barangay Canteros three years
ago and which instead of leaving it to rot I turned into a usable
product for my own use;

5. Section 68 of PD 705 substantially provides that; “Any person

who shall cut, gather, collect, or remove timber or other forest
products from any forest land, or timber from alienable and
disposable public lands, or from private lands , without any
authority under a license agreement, lease, license or permit,
shall be guilty of qualified theft as defined and punished under
Articles 309 and 310 of the Revised Penal Code;
6. Clearly then, nothing in said law punishes the act of possessing
lumber and fabricating a product out of it. It is also clear that
gathering forest product or timber on a river bank does not
constitute an offense as it neither from a forest land, or
alienable and disposable public lands nor a private land, neither
does the law require a person to secure a permit or license
and/or enter into a license or lease agreement when the
product did not come from the places enumerated therein;

7. That aside from their self-serving allegations, the complainants

failed to substantiate their claim that the lumber and the door
panel were made from illegally sawn lumber;

8. That consequently my arrest and the confiscation of the

lumbers and door panel were invalid since I was not at that
time committing any offense;

9. That also made contradictory statements in their joint affidavit

and the spot report attached to the complaint. Complainants
alleged in their affidavit that it was their intel operative, whose
name they inexplicably did not mention and who inexplicably
did not testify to such fact, who chanced upon me fabricating a
door panel, the spot report on the other hand states that it was
complainants, along with the Barangay Tanods and Kalikasan
Advocacy Groups who chanced upon me performing the alleged
violations. The foregoing contradicting statements unmistakably
militates against the veracity of complainant’s allegations and
betrays the malicious nature of the complaint;

10. That I am executing this Affidavit to attest to the truth of the

foregoing and to categorically deny the false, unfounded and
malicious accusations of the above-named complainants
against me.
 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto affixed my signature
below this___ day of August 2023, at_________________________,
Philippines.

NILO H. JECOMO
Affiant

SUBCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this____day of August

2023 at_____________________________,