DEPDev pushes passage of National Land Use Act

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev) is urging Congress to approve the National Land Use Act to address food security.

As the country continues to grapple with high food costs and food inflation, DEPDev Secretary Arsenio Balisacan pushed for the proposed measure during the Development Budget Coordination Committee budget briefing at the Senate last Friday.

“We haven’t passed a National Land Use Code that would have allowed us to rationally manage our land resources,” he said.

“That will be a game-changer for this country if this Congress can finally pass a law, the National Land Use Code, that has been languishing for the last 25 years,” he said further.

The National Land Use Act forms part of the government’s priority bills for approval within the current Congress.

The proposed measure seeks to establish a unified framework for sustainable land use, while taking into account agriculture, housing, infrastructure needs, as well as environmental protection and economic development.

Last May, the House of Representatives approved the proposed National Land Use Act on third and final reading.

However, the counterpart measure remains pending at the Senate.

Balisacan said that the National Land Use Act is expected to allow the country to address the high food costs in the country.

“The price of food in the country is almost twice what you can get in Vietnam, Thailand or Indonesia. This is really a very serious problem on food security and that cuts across our social fabric, education, health and so on and the competitiveness of our workers,” he said.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that food inflation at the national level remained at 5.3 percent in July.

Balisacan said that the lack of a National Land Use Plan has contributed to the problem with productive farms being converted into other land uses.

In particular, he cited the decline in agricultural lands to 6.31 million hectares in 2022 from 9.67 million hectares in 2002.

Of the 6.31 million agricultural lands, he said about 3.13 million have potential for irrigation, but only 1.84 million are irrigated.

Apart from loss of agricultural land, he said the country was unable to make the remaining land productive due to the lack of investment in irrigation facilities to enhance productivity.

He said food costs remain high and the country has to import because it is not able to produce enough for its needs.

He said rice production, in particular, grew by only 0.9 percent annually in the last 10 years, below the population growth of around 1.2 percent per year.

“So are we surprised why we are importing so much? You shouldn’t be surprised because of that situation where we have allowed our very productive farms converted into other land uses,” he said.

He said the government needs to approve the National Land Use Act so the country can properly designate the areas that should not be converted into other uses.