Law On Land Use Plan Is Extremely Important-GTZ Official

August 26,2011

Law On Land Use Plan Is Extremely Important-GIZ Official
By Quirico M. Gorpido,.Jr.

San Roque, Macrohon, So.Leyte-A law on land use plan is extremely important as the blueprint in the proper utilization of a certain country’s land resources.
The abovementioned statement was part of Dr. Walter Salzer’s speech during a recent turnover of the P3M worth Mangrove Resource Environmental Learning Center here that were attended by Congressman Roger Mercado, Governor Damian Mercado, Vice-Governor Miguel Maamo,11, GTZ(GIZ) officials, some municipal Mayors,PIA-Maasin Staff, Tacloban/Maasin media and PENRMO personnel led by Eva Abad.
In an interview with the press Salzer, Program Director and Principal Adviser GIZ(German International Cooperation)EnRD program, explained that a country like the Philippines should have its own Land Use Plan where its provisions would serve as bases on how its land resources could be properly utilized for the benefit of the people.
“With a law on land use plan”, he said, “anybody cannot just occupy a lot where he wants without the approval of a government authority”.
H e estimated that about 15 to 20 percent of the Philippine population were living in the forests” And the government cannot just drive them away from their settlements since there’s no specific provisions and rules whether their forest occupancies were legal or illegal”, he pointed out.
“With the Land Use Plan their are specific provisions and rules to follow’, he said, “whether the inhabitants with no lands can settle in the forests. Whether this or that vast tract of land is for agricultural production or for housing projects where the squatters can be properly settled; where the areas for industrial production and cottage industry are to be located; whether part of the provincial government lands could be allotted for the construction of commercial buildings; whether a particular area is a protected area for endangered species and mangrove plantations, others”.
Salzer implied that without Land Use Plan there’s a perennially improper utilization of a country’s great percentage of lands that are even unproductive.
The GIZ official also urged the LGUs to enact in their respective jurisdictions their own LUP with specific rules and regulations that should be strictly followed.”The law’s provisions should be strictly implemented by punishing the violators. Laws must have teeth that will bite the violators”, he stressed.
Salzer further emphasized that a national law on Land Use Plan should be supported by the representatives in Congress. He strongly persuaded Congressman Mercado to give his full support of the LUP Bill in Congress, which if it has already been finished on its third reading, might have been approved the soonest.
The GTZ (now called GIZ) has been providing funds for various government in Southern
Leyte, particularly in relation to the conservation, protection and preservation of the environment, it was learned.
He underscored that mangrove plantations in various municipalities of the province should be sustainably conserved and preserved. Mangrove trees are the natural habitat and breeding places for various fish species. It also serves as breakwaters of huge waves and lessens the adverse effects of flashfloods.
Recalling past incidence of great floods as high price to pay for cutting the plantations of mangroves that were naturally grown in Burma along its deltas and rivers, thousands of people were killed,Salzer unfolded.
Asked by PDI correspondent Jani Carbonilla Arnaiz how much funds the German Government has already released to the different areas of the country relative to their various projects,the GIZ Program Director of EnRD divulged that it has already reached an estimated of P18B which is equivalent to 50M Euro.
The speaker furthermore disclosed that 90 to 95 percent of the total land area in the country needs a comprehensive land use. “One of the reasons why there’s huge destruction of natural resources and large part of land are left unproductive is because of the absence of a Land Use Plan”, he claimed.
(Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.)

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