Summary:

Five Palawan protected areas are set to become protected areas by law courtesy
of Sen. Legardas ENIPAS Bill.
The five PAs contain a total of 313,555.22 hectares of Palawan land.
The five PAs are located in ten Palawan municipalities including Puerto Princesa
City.
Regardless of the actual physical or legal status of the land, each area will
become a national park once declared by law.
Under the Constitution, lands of the public domain are unclassified or classified.
Classified lands are of three classes: agricultural, forest or timber, and national
parks.
Since only agricultural lands may be alienated, all lands within the PAs/national
parks, regardless of the actual physical or legal status, will be beyond the
commerce of man.
National parks are governed by distinct rules such as that the management of
parks are delegated to management boards. Conflict between the LGU and
PAMBs are common.
The ENIPAS Bill also introduced more restrictions to the NIPAS Law: prohibition
within the PAs/national parks of motorized conveyance, imposition of real
property tax, occupation and dwelling, large-scale infrastructure/projects, trading
of land, etc.

Discussion:
Expanded NIPAS of 2015 Bill of Sen. Legarda was approved in the Senate on July 29,
2015. The Legarda ENIPAS seeks to amend the NIPAS Law and to declare via one
legislative action113 initial component PAs (PAs declared by virtue of presidential
proclamations) as republic act PAs (PAs declared by law).
The Legarda NIPAS includes five PAs of Palawan.
The bill was never filed in the House of Representatives as a committee bill, nor was a
counterpart bill filed. What exists in the HOR are a number of bills converting into laws
certain initial component PAs declared by presidential proclamations located in other
provinces. There is also no HOR bill pertaining to Palawan PAs.
The bill closest to the Legarda ENIPAS is H.B. No. 4336 authored by Rep. Josephine Y.
Ramirez-Sato, former governor of Occidental Mindoro. The Sato bill is known as the
Protected Areas Declaration Act of 2014 and it seeks to declare via one legislative
action105 initial component PAs as republic act PAs. This bill included the five Palawan
PAs.
Initial component PAs, under the NIPAS Act, must go though certain processes and then
submitted to Congress for institutionalization as PAs. Traditionally, PAs are converted into
republic act PAs individually following the NIPAS procedure.
The Committee on Natural Resources reported to Rep. Franz Alvarez that the bills
converting into laws initial component PAs of other provinces and the Sato bill were
consolidated and somehow incorporated the provisions of Sen. Legardas ENIPAS. The

committee never invited Rep. Alvarez to the hearing that consolidated the bills. Palawan
LGUs were likewise never invited to any committee hearing.
The five PAs of Palawan included in the consolidated ENIPAS bill contain a total of
313,555.22 hectares:
Protected Area
El Nido-Taytay Managed
Resource Protected Area
Puerto Princesa
Subterranean River
National Park
Malampaya Sound
Protected Land and
Seascape
Rasa Island Wildlife
Sanctuary
Mt. Mantalingahan
Protected Landscape

Proclamation

Date

Area

El Nido, Taytay

Location

P.P. No. 32

8 Oct. 1998

89,134.76

Puerto Princesa

P.P. No. 212

12 Nov. 1999

22,202

Taytay, San Vicente

P.P. No. 342

12 July 2000

200,115

Narra

P.P. No. 1000

15 Feb. 2006

1,983

Brookes Point, Espaola,

Bataraza,, Quezon, Rizal

P.P. No. 1815

23 June 2009

120.457

The Committee Report that contains the consolidated bills is set to be submitted to the
plenary on 24 August 2015, per the Committee Secretary.
The bill contain, among others, the following provisions:

1. In pages 14-18, the 5 Palawan PAs were formally incorporated and converted
into national parks.
2. In page 33, Sec. 11, the imposition of real property taxes and issuance of tax
declarations were prohibited.
3. In pages 35-36, 38, the following are prohibited:
a. Operating any motorized conveyance within the PA not otherwise authorized
by law;
b. Occupying or dwelling in any land within the PA without clearance from the
PAMB;
c. large scale infrastructure and other projects such as, but not limited to,
medium to high density residential subdivisions, medium to large commercial
and industrial establishments, golf courses, heavily mechanized commercial
and nontraditional farming, and other activities that cause increased
immigration and resource degradation are absolutely prohibited.
d. Purchasing or selling, mortgaging or leasing lands or other portions of the PA
which are covered by any tenurial instrument.
4. In page 42, Sec. 23, protected area occupants who did not qualify as tenured
migrants shall be resettled outside the protected area.
5. In page 46, Sec. 31, expiring land use and resource permits has to be consistent
with the management plan before qualifying for renewal by the PAMB.
Observations:
The five Palawan PAs should be excluded from the bill for the following reasons:
1. Conversion is arbitrary and premature
a. The conversion by Congressional act smacks of arbitrariness as the interests
of institutions, enterprises, and individuals principally affected were
disregarded and worse, its autonomy blatantly usurped by the Natural
Resources committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Palawan institutions, enterprises, individuals were never given the opportunity
to present its position on the conversion of the PAs at the HOR committee.
Palawan congressmen were never invited nor consulted in the consolidation
of the bills even if the HOR traditionally defers and gives due consideration to
the position of district legislators on bills with local impact.
In the Senate, the opposition of the Palawan Governor and the PCSD were
nonetheless disregarded as no changes were made to the Senate bill that
was passed on third reading.
b. The Constitutional aspiration of giving local autonomy to LGUs will be
defeated

The conversion of the five Palawan PAs into republic act PAs in effect
prematurely classifies the subject territories into national parks regardless of
the physical and legal status of certain built-up or populated areas within the
zones, which, for the longest time, have been proposed for formal
classification into alienable and agricultural lands with the DENR.
Arbitrarily converting vast tracts of lands will deprive the province and 10
municipalities of a multitude of benefits and advantages under the Local
Government Code and other laws that are designed to help it develop and
become self-reliant communities, such as:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.

Control over the areas

Access to resources
Economic benefit from taxes
Economic benefits from enterprises
Limited opportunities for the occupants
Displacement of occupants who are mostly poor

2. The NIPAS process has not been fully implemented and the Constitutional
mandate for Congress to classify and delineate lands is yet to be initiated
The conversion disregards the process laid down in the NIPAS Act particularly
the delineation of what should become permanent forests and those that should
be alienated.
Under the NIPAS Act, the initial component will have to undergo the following:
a. Study and review as to suitability or non-suitability for preservation and
inclusion
b. Notice to the public
c. Public consultation
d. Submission of position papers
e. Proper recommendation to the President
This was never done to the five Palawan PAs. If only the NIPAS was fully
implemented simultaneously with the general classification and delineation of
permanent forest and alienable agricultural lands, the classification of the PAs
into national parks would only cover areas appropriate and ripe for actual and
real protection and management by a special-purpose board.
If this bill will become a law, there will arise an absurd situation where thriving
and growing communities with its own government, industries, and enterprises
inhabit the PAs instead of wild flora and fauna. Not to mention the resulting
flashpoint between the local political governments and the management boards.
For further discussion and strategic action as this may finally be the opportunity to once
and for all call for the permanent delineation of permanent Palawan forests and those
that must be included in the PAs.