Palace readies E.O. on agri land conversion moratorium

The government is preparing an executive order seeking a two-year moratorium on the conversion of agricultural lands in the country.

The proposed moratorium on land use conversion was formally adopted by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council during a meeting convened by President Duterte in Malacañang last Monday.

“PARC has agreed and adopted the imposition of a two-year moratorium of conversion of agricultural lands. We have started to draft an executive order that will be subject to the study and approval of President Duterte,” Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano said in a Palace press conference.

“There is a state policy to preserve agricultural lands to ensure food security,” he said.

Mariano said the draft E.O. seeks to declare a “moratorium on the processing and approval of all applications for land use conversion of agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses.”

If approved, the two-year moratorium will cover all awarded lands under Republic Act No. 6657 as amended, Presidential Decree No. 27, and other agrarian reform laws.

Included are agricultural lands with notices of coverage issued by DAR, irrigated and irrigable lands, prime agricultural lands, retention areas of land owners which are tenanted, and lands with presence of agricultural activity or cultivated by farmers individually or collectively.

“We are trying to immediately protect 4.7 million agricultural lands distributed or awarded to our more than 2.7 million agrarian reform beneficiaries,” Mariano said.

Mariano said the proposed E.O. seeks the creation of a task force to assess the status of land use conversion and will empower the DAR to seek the support of other implementing agencies.

Under the proposed E.O., a task force will be created to assess the status of land use conversion in the country, and will also give DAR the power to call upon the support of other implementing agencies.

In the same PARC meeting, Mariano said the President has also ordered the distribution of agrarian reform lands to “qualified farmer-beneficiaries.” He said the President wants the DAR “to take the lead in addressing issues in agrarian reform” and to be more responsive to the issues by imposing timelines.”

Around 800,000 hectares of lands are still up for acquisition and distribution to agrarian reform beneficiaries, he added.

The President also ordered the Land Bank of the Philippines to provide more assistance to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs). “Land Bank should function as the bank for ARBs and less of a commercial bank,” Mariano said.

Also tackled in the meeting was the return of coco levy funds to farmers, and improved irrigation services for farmers.