By ANGELICA CARBALLO
0915-9260371/akcarballo@gmail.com
0915-9260371/akcarballo@gmail.com
MANILA, PHILIPPINES -
President Benigno S. Aquino III certified the two-decade old land use bill as
urgent last Friday.
Pres. PNOY AQUINO III |
“Providing for a
rational, holistic and just management and allocation of the country’s land
resources and the introduction of land and physical planning as proper
mechanisms for determining appropriate land use would promote sustainable
economic and social growth without compromising environmental integrity and
stability” President Aquino said in the certification, following the continuous
lobbying of civil society and peoples’ organizations to certify the bill as
urgent.
Senate Bill No. 3091
or the National Land Use Policy Act (NLUA) sponsored by Senator Gregorio
Honasan II, was one of the 35 bills stalled due to the controversies that took
much of the Senate’s time after the resumption of the session last January 21.
The bill aims to
ensure Protection Land Use to guarantee that prime agricultural lands will be
preserved for the needs of future generations of Filipinos, and to strengthen
laws that protect the rights of indigenous peoples in their ancestral lands,
among others. NLUA also mandates the creation of geo-hazard map that will
identify disaster-prone areas in the country for use in land utilization
planning and disaster prevention programs.
"We thank the President for the Certification for a very
important Bill that would define the country's sustainable and just allocation
of our natural resources. We now challenge both Houses of Congress to pass the
NLUA," said Campaign
for Land Use Policy Now! (CLUP Now!) convenor Anthony Marzan.
The NLUA was first
filed in 1994 during the 9th Congress. After more than two decades,
House Bill 6545 or the National Land Use and Management Act, finally passed on
the third and final reading in the Lower House last September 2012. It now
awaits approval on Third Reading in the Senate and finally, its ratification
before the 3rd regular session of the 15th Congress
adjourns.
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