IT’S complicated.
That may have been the reason the President left out the passage of the National Land Use Act (Nalua) in his list of priority bills this year, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).
The bill has been languishing in Congress for over three decades. The annual appeal of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in all of his State of the Nation Addresses (SONAs) did not work to turn the bill into reality.
Last year, President Marcos Jr. also included the Nalua in his first SONA but his appeal to Congress still did not work. This year, the Nalua was not included in the short list but in a longer list, according to Neda Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan.
“In the longer list, the National Land Use is there, [but] it’s more complicated…than some of these other proposals. We’ve been trying to pass the National Land Use for so many decades. But the tension of local vs national, that’s what’s causing the (delay),” Balisacan told reporters on the sidelines of the Post-SONA Briefing.
Balisacan also said the Nalua is still included in the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028 and the list of priority legislation crafted by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac). This only means that the Nalua is still a priority and the Marcos government is not giving up on the passage of the law.
The Socioeconomic Planning Secretary also believes it’s just a matter of time before the Nalua is passed. Balisacan noted that the President has a lot of political capital as he was voted into office by 60 percent of the voting population.
“I think it’s a matter of time, we have so many other priority measures and these are evolving. Now our primary concern are fiscal [issues], because we want to make sure that while we are ramping up spending on infra, social services, the fiscal fundamentals remains strong. That’s why the President in his list of priority measures, [discussed] fiscal measures,” Balisacan said.
Jonathan L. Ravelas, senior adviser at professional services firm Reyes Tacandong & Co., agreed and told BusinessMirror that given the situation of the government right now, it was right that the focus should be on securing the finances of the country.
Ravelas stressed that this does not mean the Nalua is not important but that it was not urgent. “Today, the key is addressing high prices, sustaining the economic gains and improving welfare of Filipinos, especially after the pandemic and staying reslient amid threat of El Niño,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ateneo de Manila University economist Leonardo Lanzona told BusinessMirror the President’s decision to remove the Nalua from the priority list in his SONA may be a sign that the government has thrown in the towel when it comes to passing the bill.
The SONA, Lanzona said, aims to talk about accomplishments and outline priorities for the year. “We have hardly accomplished the previous priorities, and now a new set of priorities is being pursued. A lot of these are just motherhood statements, not solid and complete achievements,” he said.
Last year, former Neda Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said the government must adopt a “door-to-door approach” used by the previous administration in passing the tax reform program when it comes to passing the Nalua.
Chua said the Neda staff could carry on this mandate by explaining to each legislator and making as many presentations as possible.
Chua said there are currently many misunderstood portions of the proposed NALUA.
He said some quarters say land use will be the responsibility of one centralized agency in government.
This is not true, he said, and local government units (LGUs) still have jurisdiction over land use. However, land conversion of land from agriculture to other use has to be decided by a more centralized agency.
The bill currently proposes that this centralized agency be the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) instead of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Land use is very important for an archipelago like the Philippines, and Chua said the entire country only has 300,000 square kilometers of land.
This size is not bound to increase even if the country’s population continues to multiply.