JAN.

14, 2015

NR # 3711

Lawmakers urge Senate to pass National Land Use and Management Act
Lawmakers led by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. expressed confidence that the
proposed National Land Use and Management Act, designed to attract investments and
unleash land productivity in the country, would finally be enacted during the current
Congress.
We have to end the current degradation of the countrys land resource through a
clear land use policy which would rationalize the use of lands and make land markets
work and attract more direct foreign and local investments, the Speaker stressed.
As early as June 2, 2014, the House of Representatives approved on final reading
HB 4382 and transmitted the same to the Senate two days later for its consideration and
appropriate action.
HB 4382 is entitled An Act instituting a National Land Use and Management
Policy, providing the implementing mechanisms therefor, and for other purposes.
We are confident that our colleagues in the Senate would allow this important
legislative reform measure to see the light of day before the end of the 16 th Congress, the
authors said.
Principal authors of the reform measure, a consolidation of several similar bills,
among others, include: Rep. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, Rep. Diosdado Macapagal Arroyo,
Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Rep. Winston Castelo, Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, Rep. Rufus
Rodriguez, Rep. Walden Bello, and Chairperson Kaka Bag-ao of the sponsor-Special
Committee on Land Use.
We should also take advantage of the growing international confidence in the
country as an investment haven in Asia, the authors said, noting that since the 8 th
Congress the proposed Land Administration Reform Act (LARA) and related measures
have been filed and re-filed without much legislative success.
The authors pointed out that the proposed land use statute should complement the
proposed amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law to encourage more private
sector investments in infrastructure.
One of the key provisions mandates the standardization of the classification of land
use, for purposes of planning and management, into the following areas: 1) Protection
Land Use; 2) Production Land Use; 3) Settlement development; and 4) Infrastructure
development.

Likewise, it creates the National Land Use Policy Council (NLUPC) as the highest
policy-making body on all matters pertaining to land use and management. It shall be
headed by the Secretary of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) who
shall be responsible for all concerns within the ambit of land use and management on a
national level.
The measure determines the scope and nature of responsibilities of national
government agencies and addresses the long-overdue task of determining and delineating
the countrys permanent forest line.
It mandates the completion and upgrading of existing cadastral surveys as well as
the creation of a National Spatial (multi-dimensional) Database Information and Mapping
System (NSDIMS) with an NSDIMS-Inter-Agency Mapping Support System headed by
the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA).
HB 4382 mandates the institutionalization of land use and physical planning as a
mechanism for identifying, determining, and evaluating appropriate land use and
allocation patterns that promote and ensure:
--- Maintenance and preservation of environmental integrity and stability;
--- Sustainable and just management and utilization of natural resources;
--- Disaster risk reduction and climate risk-based planning;
--- Protection of prime agricultural lands for food security in basic food
commodities with emphasis on self-sufficiency in rice and corn through efficient and
sustainable use of land resources consistent with the principles of sound agricultural
development, natural resources development, and agrarian reform;
--- Sustainable development and management of water resources towards water
security;
--- Settlements, transportation and other infrastructure development in support of
inclusive growth and rural, urban regional development;
--- Improved access to affordable housing by increasing supply through direct
allocation, better access to unutilized lands, and multiple use of lands with higher
population densities, among other suitable and feasible land use strategies;
--- Respect for and protection of the sustainable traditional resource right of the
ancestral domains, compliance with free and prior informed consent of ICCs IPs as well
as recognition of customary laws and sustainable traditional resource use and
management, knowledge, and practices in ancestral domains;
--- Equitable access of basic sectors to the countrys land through state intervention
in ensuring affordability of land for the basic sectors;
--- Protection and conservation of the countrys natural heritage, permanent forest
lands, natural forests and critical watersheds and biodiversity to ensure the 54% forest
cover to maintain ecological processes in the country; and
--- Energy security and self-sufficiency. (30) dpt