EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 506 - FURTHER AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 407, SERIES OF 1990 AMENDED BY EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 448, SERIES OF 1991, ACCELERATING THE ACQUISITION AND DISTRIBUTION OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS, PASTURE LANDS, FISHPONDS, AGROFORESTRY LANDS AND OTHER LANDS OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN SUITABLE FOR AGRICULTURE”

WHEREAS, Executive Order No. 407, series of 1990, directed, among others, all government-owned or controlled corporations to transfer ownership of all lands suitable for agriculture to the Department of Agrarian Reform Program;

WHEREAS, Executive Order No. 448, series of 1991, amended Executive Order No. 407 Series of 1990, including within its coverage all government reservations or portions thereof, which are suitable for agriculture and no longer needed for the purpose for which they are established, to further accelerate the acquisition and distribution of all lands of the public domain suitable for agriculture;

WHEREAS, there is, at the same time, the need to conserve the biodiversity features and the life support system of the country, which are represented by areas of public domain inside protected areas; 

WHEREAS, the preservation of these protected area is a must, considering that these sites contain examples of diverse, unique and important Philippine flora and fauna, which, if properly and effectively managed, will ensure the conservation of biological resources of the country;

WHEREAS, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has an existing Integrated Protected Areas System Project concerned with determining what existing protected areas and those not yet established are qualified to be retained as a protected reserve under the National Integrated Protected Areas System;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, CORAZON C. AQUINO, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the power vested in me by law, do hereby order:

Section 1. Section 1.A. of Executive Order No. 407, Series of 1990, as amended by Executive Order No. 448, Series of 1991, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

“Section 1.A. Except national parks and other protected areas, all lands or portions of the public domain reserved by virtue of proclamation or law for specific purposes or uses by departments, bureaus, offices and agencies of the Government, which are suitable for agricultural and no longer actually, directly and exclusively used or necessary for the purpose for which they have been reserved as determined by the Department of Agrarian Reform in coordination with the government agency or instrumentality concerned in whose favor the reservation was established, shall be segregated from the reservations and transferred to the Department of Agrarian Reform for distribution to qualified beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.”

Sec. 2. A new section is hereby added to Executive Order No. 407, as amended, to read as follows:

“Section 1. B. All existing and proposed National Parks, Game Refuge and Bird Sanctuaries, Wildlife Reserves, Wilderness Areas and Other Protected Areas, including old growth or virgin forests, and all forests above 1,000 meters elevation or above 50 percent slope, are hereby excluded from the present segregation, acquisition and distribution procedures being conducted by the Department of Agrarian Reform until such time as these area shall have been identified, studied and determined to be either retained and reclassified under the National Integrated Protected Areas System of DENR or to be segregated for agricultural purposes.”  

Sec. 3. All proclamations establishing such reservations and falling within the coverage of this Executive Order are hereby revoked, amended or modified accordingly.

Sec. 4. This Executive Order shall take effect immediately.

DONE in the City of Manila this 18th day of February, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and ninety-two.
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Since 19.07.98.