Pangilinan bats for bill protecting agricultural lands for food security
Sen. Francis Pangilinan — File photo
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan pushed for a bill to protect agricultural lands and ban their conversion for non-agricultural uses, stressing the measure is key for food security.
“As a country with limited farm lands, it is our duty to care for our remaining agricultural lands for present and future generations,” Pangilinan said in Filipino in a social media post on Friday.
The proposed law is entitled the Agricultural Land Conversion Ban Act, which the senator filed last Thursday.
“You cannot bury the future in concrete. If we want the Philippines to be food secure, the erasure of farms from the map must be stopped,” Pangilinan stressed.
The measure seeks to ban the conversion of irrigated and irrigable agricultural lands for non-agricultural uses like housing and commerce, specifically noting lands viable to grow rice, corn and coconut.
It also aims to impose fines, imprisonment and seizure of non-agricultural structures built on agricultural lands.
READ: Kiko Pangilinan bats for more agri-infra investment for food security
Pangilinan marked his return to the Senate and assumed office last Monday.
The first session of the 20th Congress will begin on July 28. /das
