The Philippine topography and terrain is quite unique in that we are archipelagic in nature and there are very varied situations as we go from island to island. The proposal, wanting to gather all acts related to land use, to become one big act managing that actually, can have both positive and negative connotations. On the one hand, it frees more land for 21st century developments in infrastructure and provide more affordable homes, through the developments of villages and low cost housing projects, or build structures that house businesses and provide more jobs. On the other hand, it also signals the actual departure of our focus from an agricultural economy to a more infrastructure based economy. In this sense, the NLUA can foster economic growth that is more forward looking than backward looking.
What are the objectives of NLUA?
These are the general and basic objectives of the NLUA;
In general, the act seeks to provide a policy for the rational, holistic and just allocation, utilization, management and development of our land resources.
In specific, the act, Pursuant to the constitutional provision or mandate, will make sure to provide for a rational, holistic, and just allocation, utilization, management, and development of the country's land to ensure their optimum use, consistent with the principle of sustainable development as mentioned in the paper and listed below.
The act also seeks to institutionalize land use and physical planning as mechanisms for identifying, determining, and evaluating appropriate land use and allocation patterns that promote and ensure:
a) Sustainable management and utilization of natural resources;
b) Maintenance and preservation of environmental integrity and stability specifically the perpetual protection of permanent forests and watershed for the attainment of food, water and energy sufficiency;
c) Disaster risk-reduction and climate change resiliency;
d) Protection of prime agricultural lands for food security in basic commodities with emphasis on self-sufficiency in rice and corn;
e) Water security through sustainable development and management of water resources towards water security;
f) Settlements, transportation and infrastructure development in support of urban, rural and regional development and inclusive growth;
g) Harmony between the rights and the varied interests of every Filipino within the framework of people empowerment, decentralization, social justice, and equity;
h) Respect for and protection of the sustainable traditional resource rights of the Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs) to their ancestral domains to ensure their economic, social, and cultural well-being as well as recognition of the applicability of customary laws and sustainable traditional resource use and management, knowledge, and practices in ancestral domains in compliance with free and prior informed consent of ICC/IPs;
Protection of the rights of basic sectors to equitable access to the country's land;
j) Protection, preservation, and development of the Filipino historical, cultural and built cultural heritage and resources for the deeper understanding of our history and culture as a people;
k) Attainment of energy security and self-sufficiency; and
I) Market orientation where the interplay of market forces and fair trade within the framework of ecological development and equity consideration is encouraged and adopted as the basic parameter in achieving efficiency in land use and allocation.
The good thing about the provisions in this act is that it still wants to manage our eco-marine diversity, without losing sight of the NLUA’s objectives. It is important that all our protected lands and waters be respected to also protect the lives of the people. Watersheds, conservations, and forests must be protected at all times, and should not become victims to a ruthless drive for a new economics.
How will this affect the real estate industry?
The Philippines traditionally is an agricultural country, but since the 1980s, the shift in business and economic interests turned to urban developments and prioritized building communities, villages, infrastructure, to become more at par with developed countries. Where we used to be the prime agricultural exporter, specially in the 70’s, we have now become one of the major importers of agricultural goods in Southeast Asia. Many young people from farming families now seek to join life in the city, preferring the city life to that of the rural life. As a result, what used to be prime agricultural lands have become unproductive and perhaps need to be reclassified.
Therefore, this act might prove important and beneficial to the country, as long as the geophysical conditions of protected and exempt land be upheld. The real estate industry will now have added spaces for development. Although it is sad that we can no longer provide for ourselves agriculturally, but the lands better be productive than unproductive. From the point of view of Anthropology, this is reversible, but since the country has no real agricultural program to revive the industry, then it is only rational to free some of the lands, programmed to CARP, but not yet instituted, to be released from the program and be marked for new developments. If the stakeholders of this act want to make some remarkable change, and results, this must be instituted soon enough and reevaluated for efficacy in the schedule aforementioned in the paper. And while the real estate industry can look forward to more houses, units, condos, for selling and managing, we need to remember that our integrity as a nation should be the primal consideration and at all times be first in our goals to serve and protect.