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By Sammy Martin, Reporter
THE House of Representatives,
spearheaded by Speaker Prospero Nograles, together with the
Department of Interior and Local Government and the University of
the Philippines, have agreed to join forces to work for the ultimate
enactment of a National Land Use Code, which will serve as a guide
for the judicious and appropriate utilization of the country’s
land resources.
Rep. Antonio Cerilles of
Zamboanga del Sur, chairman of the House Special Committee on Land
Use, said that a memorandum of cooperation was recently signed by
the Speaker, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Marius
Corpus and Dr. Candido Cabrido Jr., president of the UP Planning and
Development Research Foundation, Inc., for a capacity-building
program involving local government units, for the preparation of
comprehensive land use plans and comprehensive development plans.
Cerilles, author of House Bill
3175 seeking to institutionalize a National Land Use Policy, said
the memorandum affirmed the Speaker’s commitment for the enactment
of a land use act, which Nograles earlier included in his five-point
action plan to address the rising cost and limited supply of rice
and to achieve genuine food security.
“A National Land Use Code will
ensure food security, sound population distribution and settlements
development, rational and sustainable economic growth, sustainable
use of natural resources, maintenance and preservation of the
environment, conservation of soil and water resources, reduction of
vulnerability to natural and man-made disasters, and harmony between
the rights and the varied interests of every Filipino,” said
Nograles.
Training for local units
Nograles said the cooperation
aims to conduct capacity-building activities for local officials and
staff on various aspects of urban and regional planning, by reaching
out to the local units where basic knowledge on land use and
development planning is much sought and needed.
“The ultimate outcome of this
endeavor is the enactment of the National Land Use Code,” said
Nograles.
The lack of a national land use
plan is one of the causes of the indiscriminate conversion of
farmlands for non-agriculture use. The proposal to have a land use
measure dates back to the presidency of Fidel Ramos, when there were
numerous land-use conflicts happening in various parts of the
country, particularly in areas where industrialization and
urbanization was taking place at a rapid pace.
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