Belmonte still hoping for land use act approval

MANILA, Philippines -  Speaker Feliciano Belmonte  Jr. is still confident that the proposed National Land Use and Management Act of the Philippines could still get the Senate’s green light before the June sine die adjournment of the 15th Congress.

“Aside from other vital economic reform legislation to attract direct investments into the country, a clear Land Use Policy -- one the measures certified as urgent by the President -- is needed to rationalize the use of lands and make land markets work,” Belmonte said.

The proposed land use statute should complement the proposed amendment to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law to encourage more private sector investments in infrastructure, he added.

This proposed Land Use and Management Act aims to institute reforms in land administration, eliminating wastage of resources and manpower, according to authors of the measure.

HB 6545, a consolidation of several bills was passed by the House on third reading last September 20, 2012 and transmitted to the Senate on September 26.

“The reform bill seeks to integrate all land administration functions currently dispersed among multiple agencies into a single agency, the Land Administration Authority,” they said.

Despite the time constraint faced by the current Congress, Belmonte is optimistic that the 16th Congress would strongly reconsider all these reform measures already in their advanced legislative stages.

“Although the 15th Congress is about to end, many of these vital reform measures are already in the advanced stages of the legislative process, and therefore could be strongly reconsidered by the incoming 16th Congress,” he said.

Congressional records would show that since the 8th Congress, the proposed Land Administration Reform Act (LARA) and related measures have been filed and refiled without much legislative success.

“We still have until June 6 and anything can happen,” Belmonte remarked, adding, “We cannot waste the opportunity that sustained economic growth is presenting to us.”