SEPT 20, 2015

NR # 3963B

Speaker Belmonte urges anew the Senate to pass proposed Land Use
Act and Final Forest Limits Act
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. today urged the Senate anew to pass two vital
land measures -- the proposed National Land Use and Management Act and the Final
Forest Limits Act, for their enactment into law this 16th Congress.
We urge the Senate to concur and pass these measures, which both
ensure sustainable and productive use, conservation, development and management of our
land resources. Our nation would greatly benefit from the enactment into law of these
proposals which are among our priority measures, said the Speaker.
The Speaker said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR),
the primary government agency responsible for the conservation, management,
development, and proper use of the countrys environment and natural
resources, likewise has been supportive of the bills and awaiting their enactment.
DENR Secretary Ramon Paje, paid the Speaker a courtesy visit last week while at
the House of Representatives for the hearing on the DENR proposed 2016 budget.
Paje relayed his agencys optimism on the enactment of the two important bills.
The House approved both bills on third and final reading last year, the proposed
National Land Use and Management Act embodied in House Bill 4382 on June 2, 2014,
while House Bill 4988 or the proposed Delineation of the Specific Forest Limits of the
Public Domain Act on Oct. 29, 2014.
At the opening of the Third Regular Session of the 16th Congress last July 27, the
Speaker made a pitch for the enactment into law of the two bills as well as the Land
Administration Reform Bill.
Our actions determine the survival of the next generations. There is hardly time or
room for error in this policy area. Denial will not move reforms. We must work vigorously
to ensure that economic growth and sustainability are achieved by giving full attention to
these measures, the Speaker said.
The Speaker said the government should 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.
HB 4382 principally authored by Rep. Kaka J. Bag-ao (Lone District, Dinagat
Islands) seeks to mandate the institutionalization of land use and physical planning as a
mechanism for identifying, determining, and evaluating appropriate land use and

allocation patterns.
It seeks to mandate 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.
It provides for the creation of 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.
Meanwhile, HB 4988 principally authored by Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez (2nd District,
Cagayan de Oro City), seeks to determine by law the specific limits of forest lands,
marking clearly their boundaries on the ground in line with Section 4, Article XII of the
Constitution.
The bill determines what constitutes forest lands, provides guidelines in
determining the specific limits of forest lands, creates the National Review and Evaluation
Committee, delimits and establishes the appropriate permanent boundary monuments on
the ground, conserves permanent forest lands, recognizes the rights of upland dwellers and
creates a Land Conflict Adjudication Board to resolve controversies arising from
boundary conflicts and adverse claims as a result of the delimitation of forest lands.
Rodriguez said without boundaries, the country forest lands would be destroyed,
hence the need to demarcate and properly identify forest lands for their proper use and
preservation.
Rodriguez said according to the DENR, there are 52 provinces where there are
efforts to delineate and establish permanent forest land boundaries, for a total of 54,333
kilometers of forest land from year 2000 to 2007.(30) rbb