COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT EXECUTIVE ORDER DECLARING A

MORATORIUM ON THE PROCESSING AND APPROVAL OF ALL

APPLICATIONS FOR LAND USE CONVERSION OF AGRICULTURAL
LANDS TO NON-AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES
PREFATORY STATEMENT
The proposed 2-year moratorium on the conversion of certain types of
agricultural lands to residential and other uses is expected to have a dent on
the national shelter program of the government as this will restrict the
availability of lands for development as housing sites.
The moratorium will likewise unnecessarily lock up and suspend for two (2)
years the alienability and disposition of certain agricultural lands which have
either ceased to be economically feasible and sound for agricultural
purposes or are found to have substantially greater economic value for
residential, commercial, or industrial purposes.
On the part of the local government units (LGUs), the proposed freeze in the
conversion of lands which have existing and updated comprehensive land
use plans (CLUPs) and enabling zoning ordinances (ZOs) and other
concomitant local plans and programs in the pipeline will have to
momentarily take a backseat due to the moratorium which will have the
effect of suspending the reclassification and conversion of lands pursuant to
Section 3 of Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code (LGC)# of
1991.
In the case of Presidential Proclamations reserving public agricultural lands in
whole or in part for public use or purpose such as socialized housing,
conversion is no longer necessary. As held in Republic v. Estonilo, only a
positive act of the President is needed to segregate or reserve a piece of land
of the public domain for a public purpose. As such, reservation of public
agricultural lands for public use or purpose in effect converts the same to
such use without undergoing any conversion process and that they must be
actually, directly and exclusively used for such public purpose for which they
have been reserved, otherwise, they will be segregated from the
reservations and transferred to the DAR for distribution to qualified
beneficiaries under the CARP (CREBA v. Secretary of Agrarian Reform, GR
183409, June 18, 2010).
COMMENTS
The draft EO must also take into account the separate power of the LGUs to
reclassify lands which has already been resolved by the Supreme Court in
the case of Province of Camarines Sur vs. Court of Appeals (G.R. No. 103125
May 17, 1993) wherein it was held that local government units need not

obtain the approval of the DAR to convert or reclassify lands from agricultural
to non-agricultural use.
Meanwhile, in order to cushion the impact of the moratorium and provide for
certain exceptions and give the government elbow room to respond to
exigent needs, it is recommended that the following provision be inserted in
Section 7 of the draft EO, viz:

However, the President may, when public interest so

requires, authorize a city or municipality to reclassify lands and
the DAR to approve applications for conversion of lands for use
in government housing and resettlement projects approved and
endorsed to the President by the Housing and Urban
Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).