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ADMINISTRATIVE ORDERS
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ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 363 -
PRESCRIBING GUIDELINES FOR THE PROTECTION OF AREAS NON-NEGOTIABLE FOR
CONVERSION AND MONITORING COMPLIANCE WITH Sec. 20 OF THE LOCAL
GOVERNMENT CODE
WHEREAS, Sec. 21, Article II of the 1987
Constitution provides that "the State shall promote comprehensive rural
development and agrarian reform";
WHEREAS, Sec. 1, Article XII
of the Constitution provides that "the State shall promote
industrialization and full employment based on sound agricultural
development and agrarian reform, through industries that make full and
efficient use of human and natural resources";
WHEREAS, Sec. 9, Article XIII
of the Constitution provides that "the State shall, by law, and for the
common good, undertake, in cooperation with the private sector, a
continuing program of urban land reform and housing which will make
available at affordable cost decent housing and basic services to
underprivileged and homeless citizens in urban centers and resettlement
areas";
WHEREAS, it is necessary to
rationalize the policy of government in protecting prime agricultural
lands and in providing areas for industry, housing and commerce;
WHEREAS, the President is
empowered to issue guidelines to Executive Agencies to further define
the roles they are to undertake in pursuing the mandate of their
respective agencies and in accordance with the priorities of government.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FIDEL V.
RAMOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in
me by law, do hereby direct the observance of the following guidelines:
Section 1.
A.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
B.
1.
a.
b.
c.
For this purpose, the Network of
Protected Areas for Agriculture (as of 1991), as determined by the DA
and/or NIA shall serve as guide in determining non-negotiable areas.
The Network may only be revised upon the approval of the President,
upon favorable recommendation by the Cabinet Cluster on Agro-Industrial
Development.
In all cases, applications for
conversion involving lands protected from and non-negotiable for
conversion shall not be given due course by the DAR.
2.
a.
a.1
a.2
a.3
b.
c.
Lands classified as highly
restricted from conversion may be converted only upon compliance with
existing laws, rules and regulations. An additional requirement of the
social benefit cost analysis approved by the DA shall also be required
before these lands may be approved for conversion.
Applications for conversion
covering areas under 2 (c) above shall be subject to the Environmental
Impact Assessment (EIA) and/or Environmental Compliance Certificate
(ECC) of the DENR.
3.
a.
b.
c.
4.
5.
a.
b.
c.
d.
6.
a.
b.
The DENR, in coordination with
the DAR, shall institute an Environmental Guarantee Fund to ensure
environment protection and to provide government the financial
capability to handle negative impacts of the conversion;
c.
d.
7.
Sec. 2.
Agricultural Lands refer to
lands devoted to agricultural activity and not classified as mineral,
forest, residential, commercial or industrial land (Sec. 3 (c), RA
6657).
Aquifer Recharge Areas refer to
sources of water replenishment where rainwater or seepage actually
enters the aquifers. Aquifers are sources of water from the ground.
Environmentally Critical Areas
refer to areas declared by law as: a) areas for natural parks,
watershed reserves, wildlife preserves, and sanctuaries; b) areas set
aside as aesthetic potential tourist spots; c) areas which constitute
the habitat for any endangered or threatened species of indigenous
Philippine wildlife (flora and fauna); d) areas of unique historic,
archeological, or scientific interests; e) areas which are
traditionally occupied by cultural communities and tribes; f) areas
with critical slopes; g) areas frequently visited and/or hard hit by
natural calamities (geologic hazards, floods, typhoons and volcanic
activities); h) areas classified as prime agricultural lands; (i)
recharge areas of aquifers; j) water bodies; k) mangrove areas; l)
coral reefs; m) mossy and virgin forests; n) river banks; and o) swamp
forests and marshlands.
Highly Restricted Areas Within
Network of Protected Areas for Agricultural Development refers to the
most efficient agricultural land that can be grown to a wide range of
crops with minimum to moderate level of farm management requirement.
Land Use refers to the manner of
utilization of land, including its allocation, development and
management.
Land Use Conversion refers to
the act or process of changing the current use of a piece of
agricultural land into some other use.
Land Use Plan refers to a
document embodying a set of policies accompanied by maps and similar
illustrations which represent the community-desired pattern of
population distribution and a proposal for the future allocation of
land to the various land-using activities. It identifies the
allocation, character and extent of the area's land resources to be
used for different purposes and includes the process and the criteria
employed in the determination of the land use.
Network of Protected Areas for
Agriculture (NPAA) refers to land reserved for agricultural activities.
The specific types of land reserved for agricultural activities covered
by the NPAA are:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
National Integrated Protected
Areas System is the classification and administration of all designated
protected areas to maintain essential ecological processes and
life-support systems, to preserve genetic diversity, to ensure
sustainable use of resources found therein, and to maintain their
natural conditions to the extent possible.
Premature Conversion of
Agricultural Land means the undertaking of any development activities
whose results will modify or alter the physical characteristics of the
agricultural lands to render them sustainable for non-agricultural
purposes without an approved order of conversion from the DAR.
Prime Agricultural Lands refer
to lands that can be used for various or specific agricultural
activities and can provide optimum and sustainable yield with a minimum
of inputs and development cost as determined by the DA.
Protected Areas refer to
identified portions of land and water set aside by reason of their
unique physical and biological significance, managed to enhance
biological diversity, and protected against destructive human
exploitation.
Reclassification of Agricultural
Lands refers to the act of specifying how agricultural lands shall be
utilized for non-agricultural uses such as residential, industrial,
commercial, as embodied in the land use plan, subject to the
requirements and procedure for conversion. It also includes the
reversion of non-agricultural lands to agricultural use (Joint HLURB,
DAR, DA, DILG Memorandum Circular, s. 1995).
Regional Agri-Industrial Growth
Centers are specific locations in each of the country's regions outside
the National Capital Region (NCR) identified for development by
providing it with the full range of infrastructure/utilities needed by
industries to establish operations in the countryside. The RGCs are
growth centers envisioned to strengthen complementary linkages between
agriculture and industry; between urban centers and rural areas; and
their integration into a mutually reinforcing national system of
production, distribution and exchange, and into the highly competitive
international market.
Regional Growth
Networks/Corridors are neighboring provinces/regions which are linked
together and are identified through the collaboration and cooperation
of various local government units. The linking of these areas permits
the comparative advantages/strengths of each area to be shared with one
another, thereby ensuring the optimum utilization of resources and the
development of networks/corridors and its radiation areas.
Socialized Housing refers to
housing programs and projects covering houses and lots or homelots only
undertaken by the government or the private sector for the
underprivileged and homeless citizens which shall include sites and
services development, long-term financing, liberalized terms on
interest payments, and such other benefits in accordance with RA 7279.
Special Economic Zones refer to
selected areas with highly developed or which have the potential to be
developed into agro-industrial, industrial, tourist/recreational,
commercial, banking, investment and financial centers. An ecozone may
contain any or all of the following: industrial estates, export
processing zones, free trade zones, and tourist/recreational centers.
Tourism Development Areas refer
to specific sites for tourism development located in areas identified
as priorities in the national and regional tourism master plans as well
as those designated through legislative and executive issuances as
tourist spots and tourist zones which can be developed into tourism
estates or integrated resort, leisure and recreation compes, and other
tourism related facilities.
Watershed refers to a catchment
area or drainage basin from which the waters of a stream or stream
system are drawn.
Zoning refers to the
delineation/division of a city/municipality into functional zones where
only specific land uses are allowed. It directs and regulates the use
of all lands in the community in accordance with an approved or adopted
land use plan for the city/municipality. It prescribes setback
provisions, minimum lot sizes, building heights and bulk.
Zoning Ordinance refers to a
local legislation approving the development control/zoning plan and
providing for the regulations and other conditions, on the uses of land
including the limitation on the infrastructures that may be places
thereon within the territorial jurisdiction of a city or municipality.
Sec. 3.
Sec. 4.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Sec. 5.
The following agencies are also
mandated to perform the following functions towards the full
implementation of this Order within six (6) months from the effectivity
hereof:
1.
a.
b.
c.
d.
2.
a.
b.
3.
4.
5.
In the absence of a Presidential
Approval of the delineation of irrigated and irrigable lands
non-negotiable for conversion, the DA's Network of Protected Areas for
Agriculture shall govern.
Sec. 6.
Sec. 7.
DONE in the
City of Manila, this 9th day of October in the year of Our Lord,
Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Seven.
ANNEX A
REGIONAL AGRI-INDUSTRIAL GROWTH
CENTERS (RGC's)
SPECIFIC SITE
ANNEX B
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