Moreover, a study conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources found out that at least 24 government agencies are involved in land management.
Often, protected areas overlap with settlement areas or ancestral domain areas, and prime, irrigated agricultural lands would be converted to commercial and other uses.
Absence of a rationalized land use has also been blamed for the establishment of settlement areas in known geohazard zones.
Bag-ao said HB 478 “is a development planning guide on land use with public interest and welfare as the overarching principles.”
Some of the salient points of the proposed measure include the establishment of an Inter-agency Mapping Support System, the establishment of the Land Use Conflict Claims Council and the Land Use Planning Council (LUPC).
These systems and councils shall be grassroots-based starting from the city and municipal local governments.[]
Bag-ao said they are confident that the bill, which was certified as urgent by President Aquino, will be passed in the 15th Congress.
She, however, admitted that the biggest barriers to the passage of the law would be big economic interests like those of the mining industry.
The consultation was organized by the civil society coalition Comprehensive Land Use Policy Now or CLUP Now and attended by about a hundred civil society leaders from all over the island.[]
