Members of various agencies draft EO on Sustainable Land Use and Management
The Presidential Management Staff (PMS) of the Office of the President (OP) spearheaded the facilitation meeting on the drafting of an Executive Order (EO) for Sustainable Land Use and Management last March 29, 2023, at the PMS Building in Arlegui, Malacañan compound.
Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado M. Estrella III facilitated the meeting attended by representatives from the various departments involved in land use and management including the Departments of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Agriculture (DA), Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), Interior and Local Government (DILG), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO), and the PMS.
Estrella emphasized that the EO should be aligned with the priority set by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on the passage of a National Land Use Act during his first State of the Nation Address last year.
As an executive decree, it can provide a mechanism for inter-agency cooperation but should never supplant established procedures and jurisdictions conferred by the law. The National Land Use Act, if passed by Congress, will provide the legal structure, procedure, system, and enforcement actions for land use management. But the key element in both an EO and the law once passed is to ensure food security.
Guided by the pronouncements of Secretary Estrella, the representatives of the various agencies submitted their comments and recommendations. A Technical Working Group has been set up to work on a version of the EO with the input of the agencies.
The DAR was represented by Undersecretaries Napoleon U. Galit, Marilyn B. Barua-Yap, and Luis Meinrado C. Pañgulayan.