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LEGISLATOR urged his colleagues to speed up passage of
the National Land Use Act included in the five-point
action plan of Speaker Prospero Nograles to address the
rising cost and limited supply of rice and achieve
genuine food security.
Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Antonio Cerilles of
Zamboanga del Sur, chairman of the House Special
Committee on Land-Use, said it is time Congress enacts a
sound Land Use Act that will promote rational land-use
pattern, sustainable development, equitable access to
natural resources, food security and maintenance of the
integrity of the environment.
“By
setting his sight on the enactment of a National
Land-Use Act, Speaker Nograles recognized the importance
of having such to balance the development and food
security of our nation,” said Cerilles.
Nograles
earlier included in his five-point action plan to
achieve food security the identification of new
production areas not only for rice but for other major
agricultural crops.
He said
that a National Land-Use Act will help greatly in
facilitating the proper identification and delineation
of lands for agricultural and other purposes.
Cerilles
said the Land-Use Act is among the 28 priority bills
agreed upon by the Executive and Legislative branches
during the first meeting of the Legislative-Executive
Development Advisory Council (Ledac) in August 2007 for
the 14th Congress.
Cerilles
said his committee will start conducting hearings on
several proposals to institutionalize a National Land
Use Policy, including House Bill 3175, which he himself
filed, when session resumes this month.
“Land as
a finite resource has been indiscriminately used in the
past. Now in a state of degradation due to incompatible
uses, it is necessary for the state to institutionalize
a rationalized land-use framework that will ensure the
protection of land as a resource for generations to
come,” Cerilles said.
Toward
this end, Cerilles proposed that the state adopt a
land-use and allocation pattern that will promote and
ensure food security through efficient and sustainable
use of land resources; sound population distribution and
settlements development; rational and sustainable
economic growth and balanced and dispersed industrial
and tourism development in tune with the principles of
sound agricultural development;
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 within
the framework of people empowerment and the greatest
good for the greatest number.
By land
use, Cerilles said this refers to the manner of
utilization of land, including its allocation,
development and management.
A
land-use plan, he said, will be the document embodying a
set of policies accompanied by maps and similar
illustrations which represent the community-desired
pattern of population distribution and a proposal for
future allocation of land to the various land-using
activities, in accordance with the socioeconomic goals
of the people.
It will
identify the location, character and extent of the
area’s land resources to be used for different purposes
and includes the process and criteria employed in the
determination of the land use.
Cerilles
proposed that for consistency in planning at all levels,
the four land-use classifications to be used will be:
•
Protection Land Use, which encompasses sensitive or
critical terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems
and resources that are in need of protection,
preservation, rehabilitation, conservation and
appropriate management;
•
Production Land Use, which encompasses land and water
resources for crop production, fisheries, livestock and
poultry production, timber production, agro-forestry,
mining, industry and tourism that are to be utilized,
managed and developed in an efficient, equitable and
sustainable manner;
•
Settlements Development, which refers to lands used or
to be allocated for an orderly and efficient spatial
design of human settlements that will be responsive to
the needs of the present and future population
requirements and promote sustainable use of the
environment; and
•
Infrastructure Development, which refers to lands that
will be allocated for
priority infrastructure-development projects that are
brought about by the needs of the population and
supportive of national and local development objectives. |
