CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Feb. 22, 2011—Various civil society organizations and land use advocates are pushing for the immediate passage of House Bill 478 or the Zoning and Land Use Policy Act that seeks to harmonize all existing laws affecting the land.
Rep. Kaka Bag-ao of the party-list Akbayan, principal co-author of the ZLUPA Bill, explained that HB 478 “seeks to harmonize the reasonable claims of all those who hold interest on land and safeguards and promotes the general welfare of both existing and future generations through the proper management of land resources.”
“It provides guidelines and criteria for land use based on the assessment of the development needs of various sectors in a participatory bottom-up approach,” she added.
In order to “pressure Congress to pass this very important policy measure,” theCampaign for Land Use Policy Now! (CLUP Now!) is holding today (Feb. 24, Thursday) the Mindanao Consultation on the ZLUPA Bill.
The Mindanao Consultation, which is expected to gather at least 60 participants from various sectors, especially from the farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples and urban poor, is aimed at (1) promoting awareness on HB 478 and its importance in addressing conflicting land uses; (2) drawing out local land use issues in Mindanao; (3) engaging Mindanao civil society groups in the campaign for the passage of a national land use law; and (4) introducing CLUP Now! as a national network engaging national and local government on the issue
of conflicting land uses.
CLUP Now!, formerly known as the People’s ALARM, is a national network of 28 Peoples’ Organizations (POs) and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) advocating for the passage of a National Land Use Law for nearly twenty years. Among its members are NGOs for Fisheries Reform (NFR),Urban Land
Reform-Task Force (ULR-TF), Philippine Association for Intercultural Development (PAFID), Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA), Katutubong Samahan ng Pilipinas (KASAPI), Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (SALIGAN), John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues (JJCICSI), Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC),Institute of Politics and Governance (IPG),Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA), Center for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (CARRD),Focus on the Global South (Focus), Pambansang Katipunan ng
mga Samahan sa Kanayunan (PKSK),Center for Agrarian Reform Empowerment and Transformation (CARET), Citizen’s Action Party (AKBAYAN), 53 Ektarya ng Makabud, Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD), Haribon Foundation (Haribon), Task Force Baha Talibayog
(TFBT), People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform Now (AR! Now), Alternative Law Groups (ALG), Kaisahan Tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan (KAISAHAN), Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) and Tambuyog Development Center.
“Conflicts arising from the lack of such a law greatly affect the marginalized sectors since they are the most vulnerable,” said lawyer Mary Claire Demaisip of KAISAHAN-CLUP Now!
Jan Perry Eugenio, legal officer of the Balay Alternative Legal Advocates for Development in Mindanaw(BALAOD Mindanaw), Inc., a member of the ALG, said there is a real and urgent need to pass the LUPA Bill as since “land use is also a priority measure of the Aquino government.”
“The lack of a national land use policy works against the marginalized communities threaten their very livelihood and security and therefore their very existence,” he stressed explaining that conflicting and unclear provisions of land-related policies sow confusion and disputes among and between urban poor settlers and landowner/developer, indigenous peoples’ groups and logging concessionaires/mining companies and even within the marginalized groups.
“Clearly, the absence of a land use framework and sectoral laws conflicting with each other result in increasing cases of conflicting claims on land use. Such are our case in Don Carlos, Bukidnon where the ancestral lands of the Manobo indigenous communities were distributed by the DAR to non-IP groups resulting in conflicting situation between IPs and farmers,” said Datu Marcial Tahuyan of the Lumida group.
Normie Batula, executive trustee of BALAOD Mindanaw, Inc. explained that while the enactment of important social legislations such as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) and Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA), Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA), National Integrated Protected Areas Act (NIPAS), among others, have been very beneficial to sector-specific groups, “their separate implementation have also created an overlapping of claims between marginalized
sectors. This adverse situation is further worsened by the presence of land conversions, mining activities and logging concessions approved by the government.”
Batula said that the ZLUPA Bills seeks the (1) establishment of crucial priorities for land use, especially areas to be protected for ecological purposes and areas to be developed and protected from conversion to ensure food security; (2) Adoption of measures to promote land development, discourage land speculation, and generate revenues; (3) Integration and institutionalization of people’s participation in defining the framework and guiding principles of land allocation and utilization through the provision for the mandatory participation of stakeholders in key decision making bodies on land use policy at all levels; (4) Establishment of a Land Use Policy Council that will act as the highest policy making body on land use with quasi-judicial power to resolve conflicting land use policies; and (5) Formulation of National Land Use Guidelines and Zoning Standards (NLUGZS) that will guide the land use planning and zoning of all the national offices and local government units (CLUPs) and will consider conflicting claims as a factor in land use planning and zoning. (Bong D. Fabe)
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