PIDS Urges Binding Powers to Settle Land Disputes in Proposed Philippine Law

A land use law needs the power to settle disputes

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) is urging Congress to give an independent body binding authority to resolve competing claims over land as lawmakers consolidate 11 pending national land use bills. Without that power, the proposed law could add another layer of bureaucracy while leaving government agencies unable to settle disagreements over farms, housing, forests, infrastructure and ancestral domains.

In an Oct. 12 position paper, PIDS senior research fellow Adoracion M. Navarro identified a binding mechanism for resolving conflicts as perhaps the most important operational feature that Congress should strengthen. Her central argument is that the Philippines already has planning tools. The deeper problem is that different agencies exercise overlapping powers, sometimes under laws that point them toward incompatible decisions about the same land.

Navarro said the legislation should establish a practical system for making and enforcing decisions, rather than simply require more documents from agencies and local government units (LGUs):

"A strong substitute bill should therefore make the new law the country's operating system for resolving competing claims over land, rather than simply another plan that government agencies and local government units (LGUs) are required to prepare," Navarro said.

The recommendation turns attention from whether a national land use plan is desirable to how it would work when powerful institutions disagree. A map can identify an area for farming, conservation or development. Someone still needs the legal authority to decide what happens when those purposes overlap.

What would binding authority change?

Navarro proposed a national land use adjudicatory body or panel that could issue a binding determination within a prescribed period after technical reconciliation and mediation fail. Technical reconciliation would involve checking maps, records and agency positions; mediation would seek an agreement. Adjudication would provide an enforceable decision when those efforts cannot settle the dispute.

The proposed commission would have separate responsibilities for policy and planning, mediation and technical reconciliation, and binding adjudication. That division would give the institution a role beyond convening agencies and asking them to cooperate.

Navarro warned that weakly defined powers could leave a new council or commission producing meetings, memoranda, recommendations and negotiated compromises without reaching a final outcome. Her proposal therefore addresses the point at which coordination stops working: when an agency or another party refuses to accept a shared solution.

The position paper calls for decisions within a prescribed period but gives no specific duration in its recommendations described here. Congress would need to determine the body's powers and procedures in the legislation.

Why the existing committee falls short

PIDS had already identified this enforcement gap in its February 2024 statement. Published on Feb. 26, it explained that the National Land Use Committee lacks enforcement power and struggles to impose sanctions on parties that fail to respect agreements.

Navarro's December 2023 research described the committee as a body created through an executive issuance under the National Economic and Development Authority Board. Its limited powers meant some disagreements had to be elevated to the President.

A dispute in 2016 illustrates the stakes. The Department of Agrarian Reform proposed a blanket moratorium on land use conversion and prepared an executive order for presidential signature. Economic managers opposed the move at a time when land was needed for major infrastructure projects and housing resettlement. They argued for a national land use law and strict enforcement of regulations instead of a blanket ban.

The disagreement involved competing public priorities: protecting agricultural land while making space for housing and infrastructure. A binding mechanism would give such disputes an established route toward a decision, rather than repeatedly requiring intervention at the highest level of government.

Which land conflicts would the law address?

Government agencies oversee agriculture, natural resources, housing, infrastructure, ancestral domains and local planning under different legal mandates. Navarro identified several recurring points of conflict: agricultural land versus urban expansion, mining versus forests or watersheds, and infrastructure versus protected areas.

Ancestral domains can overlap with government reservations. National agencies can claim authority over the same location, while neighbouring local governments can adopt inconsistent zoning. Different land tenure instruments, the documents establishing rights to own, occupy or use land, can also cover the same area.

Navarro called for the new law to explicitly reconcile its framework with legislation governing local governments, agrarian reform, ancestral domains, protected areas, mining, fisheries, forestry, housing, reclamation, infrastructure and economic zones.

She cautioned against leaving the central legal conflicts to implementing rules and regulations, saying those rules:

cannot safely resolve fundamental conflicts among laws of equal rank.

Congress would therefore need to settle the relationship between competing statutory mandates in the law itself. Implementing rules explain how agencies carry out legislation; the difficult choices about conflicting legal powers belong in the legislation lawmakers approve.

What irrigation records show about conversion

National Irrigation Authority (NIA) figures cited in the full PIDS study recorded 620,399.46 hectares converted from irrigation service areas to uses outside agriculture during 2012 to 2022. Central Luzon accounted for 111,079.46 hectares, the largest regional total.

Central Luzon's figure represents about 17.9% of the national total cited for that period, calculated by dividing 111,079.46 by 620,399.46. The region therefore accounted for nearly one hectare in every six recorded nationally.

The study also reported that converted land represented between 3.38% and 3.93% of gross irrigation service area annually during those years. These figures put numbers behind a central policy tension: land served by irrigation infrastructure can also attract demand for homes, factories, commercial developments and other uses.

The legality of the recorded conversions remains unquantified in those figures. Navarro's study identified a gap in national monitoring of illegal and premature agricultural land conversion, while the NIA's role concerns irrigation rather than approval of conversion applications.

That information gap matters for enforcement. Authorities need to know both where land use has changed and whether the required approvals were obtained. Navarro's proposed attention to shared data and accountability would address that practical need alongside the power to settle disputes.

Northern Mindanao offers a mapping example

Northern Mindanao, or Region X, has tested an approach to identifying overlapping claims. In 2020, the regional office of the National Economic and Development Authority initiated an Inter-Agency Committee for the Conflict Resolution of Tenurial Claims.

The region faced longstanding conflicts involving ancestral domain certificates, agrarian reform beneficiaries and military reservation administrators. An earlier mechanism under Joint Administrative Order No. 01-12 involved the environment and agrarian reform departments, the Land Registration Authority and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). The NCIP chairperson eventually withdrew from that mechanism; regional NCIP representatives participated in the newer regional committee.

Committee members agreed to prepare a common geospatial database called One Map. It brings titles and other tenure documents onto a shared map so officials can identify where rights and claims overlap. Members also agreed to use it as the foundation for future decisions on land use and classification in the region.

The 2023 version showed around 186,000 conflicting tenurial claims. The committee agreed that the map needed updating as claims changed over time. Its work illustrates why shared records and decision powers need to operate together: agencies first need an agreed picture of the land before they can resolve competing claims to it.

Local planning gaps create a funding test

Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development figures cited in the Oct. 12 position paper show the scale of the local planning task. As of Aug. 31, 670 comprehensive land use plans (CLUPs) were updated, 807 were due for updating, 119 would expire in 2027, and 40 LGUs had no CLUP.

A CLUP sets out a local government's intended pattern of land use, including where development and protection should occur. The 807 plans due for updating exceeded the 670 updated plans by 137. Requiring plans through a new law would therefore arrive alongside a substantial existing workload.

Provincial development and physical framework plans showed gaps too. The paper listed 32 as approved, six as adopted, 33 being updated and five provinces without a plan. Provincial plans provide a broader spatial framework across municipalities and cities.

Navarro proposed a dedicated national land use planning and governance fund for the initial years of implementation. It would support plan preparation, geographic information systems, integration of cadastral data, climate risk mapping, technical staff, independent audits and enforcement. Cadastral data identify land parcels and their boundaries; geographic information systems allow those records to be compared with other mapped information.

The fund would allocate some resources according to need and capacity rather than divide money equally among LGUs. That approach would direct support toward poorer municipalities with fewer staff, weaker records or less equipment to carry out the law.

How independent would the new body be?

Navarro warned that the institution must be able to withstand pressure from government agencies, local officials and politically influential private interests. Decisions to convert agricultural land into residential, commercial, industrial or infrastructure uses can produce substantial private gains.

That creates risks from real estate speculation, opportunistic rezoning and regulatory capture, which occurs when a regulator serves the interests of those it is meant to oversee. Binding authority would have limited practical value if powerful parties could override the institution exercising it.

Navarro suggested a professionally qualified commission whose chairperson or lead commissioner would be appointed by the President, hold Cabinet rank and serve a fixed term. Cabinet rank would give its leadership standing when dealing with major departments, while a fixed term would seek to strengthen its independence.

Local governments would retain a central role. PIDS's February 2024 statement argued that a national framework could strengthen local decision making and make land use policies more coherent. It also called for better technical skills among LGUs and participation by local governments, businesses and civil society.

The design challenge is therefore both national and local: a commission needs sufficient authority to resolve conflicts, while municipalities and provinces need the people, records and funding to implement the resulting decisions.

A long campaign reaches a sharper design question

Navarro's December 2023 discussion paper, DP 2023-40, was published on Dec. 28, 2023. It described the campaign for a National Land Use Act as almost three decades old. Its findings drew on land use research, evidence of governance failures, stakeholder focus groups and interviews with key informants.

The research called for work across disciplines and updated evidence to explain the case for legislation. Land decisions involve legal rights, economic opportunities, food production, environmental protection and community needs at the same time. The key developments span several years:

• 2012 to 2022: NIA records cited by PIDS recorded 620,399.46 hectares converted from irrigation service areas to uses outside agriculture.
• 2016: Economic managers opposed the agrarian reform department's proposed blanket moratorium on conversion.
• 2020: Northern Mindanao established a regional committee to address conflicting tenure claims.
• 2023: The regional One Map recorded around 186,000 conflicting claims; PIDS published Navarro's discussion paper in December.
• February 2024: PIDS publicly urged passage of a National Land Use Act and stronger local technical capacity.

The Oct. 12 position paper brings that earlier research into the design of the 11 pending bills. Navarro said the measures generally agree on protecting agricultural land, forests, watersheds and ancestral domains, integrating national and local planning, and preserving the role of LGUs.

Her recommendation is to turn those shared goals into an enforceable governance system. Congress would need to combine clear legal powers, a route for resolving disputes, reliable land records and money for implementation. The proposed law's practical value would rest on whether agencies and local governments can carry out decisions when competing claims collide.

Key Points

• PIDS wants a national land use law to give an independent body binding powers to resolve disputes after mediation fails.
• Congress is consolidating 11 bills with broadly shared goals for land protection and coordinated planning.
• Navarro says the law must reconcile competing legal mandates rather than leave fundamental conflicts to implementing rules.
• Local planning figures include 807 CLUPs due for updating and 40 LGUs without a CLUP.
• A proposed implementation fund would support mapping, technical staff, planning, audits and enforcement, with some allocations based on local need.
• The commission's independence, decision powers and funding are central to the PIDS recommendations.