ILOILO – “It all boils down to our failure to come up with a national land use plan.”
This was the view of former agriculture chief Manny Piñol when asked about the recent massive flooding in northern Iloilo and Capiz province due to Tropical Depression “Agaton”.
There is a need to identify habitation areas as well as agriculture production areas, he stressed.
“Look what happened. Aling communities ang laging nalulugmok? Ang mga low-lying communities because they are not supposed to build houses there,” Piñol said.
“Agaton” pounded the region with heavy rains from April 10 to 12, affecting more than 1,228 barangays and displacing over 339,304 families or 1,279,904 individuals in Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo, and Negros Occidental.
It also brought multi-million losses or damages to the agriculture sector.
To avoid similar losses in the future, Piñol emphasized the need to pass a National Land Use Act (NLUA).
“Para ma-define saan pwede maglagay ng subdivision or pabahay, saan ka pwedeng magkaroon ng agriculture production, saan ang mga areas na hindi natin pwedeng pakialaman sapagkat critical sa ating survival,” Piñol told reporters during a recent visit to Iloilo.
The proposed NLUA should create a national land-use authority that will draft and oversee a national land-use plan that will classify land according to use:
* protection (for conservation)
* production (for agriculture and fisheries)
* settlements development (for residential purposes)
* infrastructure development (for transportation, communication, water resources, social infrastructure)/PN
