The National Economic and Deve-lopment Authority (Neda) said it remains optimistic that President Duterte will listen to his economic ma-nagers, who have argued against imposing a ban on land conversion.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said the President’s economic team has “strong” arguments against the issuance of an executive order that would authorize the ban.
“We feel we have stronger arguments, stronger economic arguments,” Pernia said. “But it’s still being studied by the Office of the President.”
Pernia and other members of the economic team, particularly Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno and Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez issued a joint position paper on the proposed ban on land conversion.
The position paper was also signed by Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo, who was then the chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC). The joint position paper states that, “overall, the land-use conversion ban is antithetical to economic growth, job generation and poverty reduction”.
According to the position paper, a two-year ban on land conversion can derail efforts to revitalize agriculture, meet the housing backlog, accelerate infrastructure development and expand other economic activities.
The paper nonetheless supported the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) proposal to create a task force that will assess the status of land-use conversion in the country and seek the necessary support of other implementing agencies.
Instead of imposing a two-year ban, the position paper called for the implementation of national land-use regulation and the enactment of a national land-use law.
The position paper also underscored that the ban on land-use conversion will introduce more delays in reducing the government’s housing backlog, which HUDCC projects to have reached more than 5.5 million units in 2016.
Real-estate developers have also warned the government that the country’s housing backlog could easily balloon to 6.5 million units by 2020, from the current 5.5 million units, if the moratorium on the conversion of agricultural lands being pushed by the DAR is implemented.
The ban will also impede the development of resettlement and evacuation areas in disaster-stricken areas, which are mostly agricultural. Last year the DAR proposed a moratorium on land conversion to boost the country’s bid for food security.