Pangilinan denounces 'unbridled' conversions of agricultural lands
Published Aug 25, 2019 04:27 pm
By Hannah Torregoza
Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan on Sunday said the unbridled conversion of agricultural lands into residential, commercial and industrial sites should stop in order to ensure that Filipino farmers are able to produce food for the country.
Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan (Photo from Kiko Pangilinan website / kikopangilinan.com / MANILA BULLETIN)
Pangilinan, who earlier filed Senate Bill No. 256, or the proposed Agricultural Land Conversion Ban Act, lamented that rapid urbanization and population growth have contributed to the problem of shrinking agricultural lands, resulting to less food being produced to feed the population.
The senator noted that since agrarian reform was implemented in 1988 up to 2016, almost 100,000 hectares of agricultural land (97,592.5 hectares)—or the combined size of Metro Manila and Cebu City—have not produced food.
“This measure aims to protect the farm lands for which the government already spent to irrigate,” Pangilinan said.
“We need farmers to feed the country. Farmers need farm lands to feed the country,” he stressed.
The senator said passage of the bill would be critical as it seeks to preserve irrigated and irrigable lands for the country’s food security.
Citing data provided by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Pangilinan said Luzon suffers most from massive land conversion, making up 80.6 percent of the entire country’s approved land conversions, with Visayas at 7.8 percent; and Mindanao, at 11.6 percent.
Pangilinan pointed out that prime agricultural lands are usually the ones targeted for land conversion.
He said that since CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas Rizal and Quezon) represents the provinces that take up a quarter of the total food production in the country, food security is seriously affected, as CALABARZON and Central Luzon are producers of big volumes of palay and other crops.
“This is very critical for the country’s food security. Prime agricultural lands are the ones being targeted for conversion,” he said.
The lawmaker said, the bill seeks to amend Section 20 of the Local Government Code, by requiring additional approval from the Departments of Agriculture (DA), Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), as well as local government units (LGUs) before land reclassification and conversion.
“This additional requirement before the grant of a conversion permit is to ensure the suitability of the conversion of an agriculture lot.
This is timely due to the unbridled land conversion, legal or otherwise),” said Pangilinan, who owns a small vegetable farm in Cavite.
Under the bill, application for land conversion of agricultural lands will require the certification from the DA indicating the total area of existing agricultural land, and that such lands are not included among those classified for conversion or reclassification under existing law (AO 20, series of 1992).
It also requires DA certification indicating that the land has ceased to be economically feasible for agricultural purposes.
The measure also calls for additional certification from the DAR indicating that such lands are not distributed or programmed for distribution to agrarian reform beneficiaries; from the DENR indicating that the proposed reclassification is ecologically sound.
The lawmaker further said studies show that agriculture takes a back seat among other land development projects as it has the smallest return on investment (ROI).
“This means that we need to make farming an attractive enterprise because we all need food to live),” Pangilinan said.
Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan (Photo from Kiko Pangilinan website / kikopangilinan.com / MANILA BULLETIN)
Pangilinan, who earlier filed Senate Bill No. 256, or the proposed Agricultural Land Conversion Ban Act, lamented that rapid urbanization and population growth have contributed to the problem of shrinking agricultural lands, resulting to less food being produced to feed the population.
The senator noted that since agrarian reform was implemented in 1988 up to 2016, almost 100,000 hectares of agricultural land (97,592.5 hectares)—or the combined size of Metro Manila and Cebu City—have not produced food.
“This measure aims to protect the farm lands for which the government already spent to irrigate,” Pangilinan said.
“We need farmers to feed the country. Farmers need farm lands to feed the country,” he stressed.
The senator said passage of the bill would be critical as it seeks to preserve irrigated and irrigable lands for the country’s food security.
Citing data provided by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Pangilinan said Luzon suffers most from massive land conversion, making up 80.6 percent of the entire country’s approved land conversions, with Visayas at 7.8 percent; and Mindanao, at 11.6 percent.
Pangilinan pointed out that prime agricultural lands are usually the ones targeted for land conversion.
He said that since CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas Rizal and Quezon) represents the provinces that take up a quarter of the total food production in the country, food security is seriously affected, as CALABARZON and Central Luzon are producers of big volumes of palay and other crops.
“This is very critical for the country’s food security. Prime agricultural lands are the ones being targeted for conversion,” he said.
The lawmaker said, the bill seeks to amend Section 20 of the Local Government Code, by requiring additional approval from the Departments of Agriculture (DA), Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), as well as local government units (LGUs) before land reclassification and conversion.
“This additional requirement before the grant of a conversion permit is to ensure the suitability of the conversion of an agriculture lot.
This is timely due to the unbridled land conversion, legal or otherwise),” said Pangilinan, who owns a small vegetable farm in Cavite.
Under the bill, application for land conversion of agricultural lands will require the certification from the DA indicating the total area of existing agricultural land, and that such lands are not included among those classified for conversion or reclassification under existing law (AO 20, series of 1992).
It also requires DA certification indicating that the land has ceased to be economically feasible for agricultural purposes.
The measure also calls for additional certification from the DAR indicating that such lands are not distributed or programmed for distribution to agrarian reform beneficiaries; from the DENR indicating that the proposed reclassification is ecologically sound.
The lawmaker further said studies show that agriculture takes a back seat among other land development projects as it has the smallest return on investment (ROI).
“This means that we need to make farming an attractive enterprise because we all need food to live),” Pangilinan said.