President orders inventory of idle gov’t lands

DHSUD Sec. Jose Rizalino Acuzar PHOTO FROM DHSUD FB PAGE

MANILA, Philippines — The human settlements agency welcomed a new presidential order that aims to consolidate a comprehensive list of government lands, calling it “another huge push for the ongoing nationwide rollout of the flagship Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (4PH) Program.”

Human Settlements Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar on Saturday said that with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s issuance of Administrative Order No. 21 on April 30, “our housing will become more affordable because of the allocation of government lands for the 4PH.”

The order establishes an Inter-Agency Coordinating Council, which would be “tasked to creating a Master List of all government lands.”

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The council is co-chaired by the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), with the secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) serving as vice chair.

The member agencies of the council are the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Justice, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the Office of the Executive Secretary, the Office of the Solicitor General, the Land Registration Authority, and the Commission on Higher Education.

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LGUs also tapped

“Within 60 days from the effectivity of the implementing guidelines, all national government agencies and instrumentalities are directed to prepare and submit to the council through the DENR-LMB (Land Management Bureau) a complete inventory of lands in their possession,” DHSUD said in a statement on Saturday.

The DHSUD and DENR-LMB will also coordinate with the local government units (LGUs) regarding the inventory of lands, in accordance with Republic Act No. 7279, or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992.

AO 21 is also based on RA 11201 (the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development Act of 2019), which mandates the DHSUD, DENR and DAR to jointly identify government lands suitable for housing and rural development.

“We are giving our full attention to come up with the master list the soonest so that we can identify the areas suitable for housing and immediately consider it [for the 4PH Program],” Acuzar said.

“This order is a big deal for our poor countrymen, who are always on the mind of our beloved President,” he also said.