CREBA defines stand on land use policy

National President
Chamber of Real Estate & Builders Association

The Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Association (CREBA) has always made a firm and unequivocal stand on equitable and democratic allocation of land for housing and urban development. Designations and allocations must be well studied, well planned and well coordinated so that the different sectors of the economy – specifically industrial, residential, tourism and infrastructure – can use land effectively for growth and productivity.

This is the essence of Section 34, Chapter VII of the proposed Omnibus Housing and Urban Development Act, subtitled Designation and Use of Lands for Housing and Development Purposes.

The provisions that are embodied here aims to make millions of Filipinos legal owners of real estate properties – definitely a way of resolving the age-old problem of poverty and lack of shelter security.

One provision of the bill is that local governments whose localities do not meet the population density requirement of at least 500 persons per square meter may reclassify agricultural lands for residential, commercial and other urban development purposes according to corresponding zoning ordinances. In case of fourth to sixth class municipalities, however, reclassification shall not affect lands duly awarded under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program or CARP.

Relative to this, the bill also provides that whether or not irrigated or arable, tenanted or untenanted, no notice of coverage under the CARP, notice of acquisition, notice of valuation, or any similar instruments of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) shall be used to cover the following: lands designated for housing and urban development; lands zoned prior to or after the effectivity of R.A. No. 6657 for residential, commercial, industrial or other urban development purposes under local zoning ordinances duly approved by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB); and areas specifically listed as eco-zones under R.A. 7916.

In order to maximize land use, however, the bill also states that lands designated for housing and urban development may be used for short gestating agricultural production activities in the meantime that they await actual development or use, provided that any arrangement to this effect shall not be subject to provisions of agrarian reform laws.