MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/17 July) – Only two of Bukidnon’s 20 towns and none of its two cities have completed the drafts of their revised Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUP) as of July 16, the Bukidnon Provincial Planning and Development Office said.
Kitaotao and Impasugong have completed their drafts so far, Phoebe Petalcorin, sectoral head for infrastructure at the PPDO told MindaNews Monday.
Three other towns — Baungon, Pangantucan, and Talakag — have already submitted drafts subject to individual comments by the 11-member Provincial Land Use Committee (PLUC), the approving party.
Maramag and Kibawe towns had revised their CLUPs several years back and these covered the period 2008 to 2017.
The rest of the local government units (LGUs) have yet to submit their draft plans, Petalcorin added.
Section 458 of Republic Act No 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 provides that LGUs shall draw up a CLUP as the basis of a zoning ordinance.
Marilyn Goles, PPDO sectoral coordinator for social services, said the CLUP as a guide to defining land use is important to food security.
She noted that based on the CLUPs for the period 2000 to 2010 the area allotted for food production has decreased.
She said that in Kitaotao, for example, there were 28,897 hectares for “production agricultural lands” in 1997. But in 2008 only 5,835 hectares were actually used for production. The town projected 5,637 hectares for the same purpose for 2019.
The PLUC, headed by provincial board member Roland Deticio, is yet to convene to deliberate on the CLUP drafts of Kitaotao and Impasugong.
Deticio said aside from disaster risk mitigation, the updated land use plan is also useful for land valuation.
He said Malaybalay City is giving due attention to its CLUP revision especially with the resolution passed by the city council imposing a moratorium on the expansion of fruit plantations.
Compliance to the revision of CLUP is administered by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, PPDO chief Salvacion Dedicatoria said.
Dedicatoria explained the CLUPs have different timeframes as the LGUs did not follow the same planning schedules, although the land use agency has directed them to update the plans every five years.
Most CLUPs of Bukidnon were only good until 2010. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)