By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Up to the early 1980’s, the stretch from Km 3 to Km 4 in La Trinidad, and along the Pico road up to Puguis barangay in the same town, there were still very few buildings and houses. The said areas were still mostly vegetable or strawberry gardens.
Now, the said garden areas had been totally replaced by commercial establishments and a few houses. The same scenario happened in many parts of La Trinidad and in most other places in the entire country. Because of this development, La Trinidad stopped being referred to as the vegetable bowl of the Philippines.
The land devoted to rice and corn cultivation considerably shrunk too, putting a lot of pressure on our food security concerns. Our rice supply became problematic, prompting our congress to enact a law to stem the tide of land conversion from agricultural into commercial or industrial. That act of Congress was ineffective as real estate developers and big businesses had imposed their will.
It was a case of progress or backwardness. More direct to the point, it was a matter of the interest of a few against the interest of the people or the country.
To somehow ease that ugly problem, the land use plan of the Philippines was crafted in the early 2000’s by our Congress. It never got to the finish line, never enacted after more than 2 decades.
Why? It is still a case of the rich’s interest first before that of the poor or the country. Land conversion was wanton, and the avarice of the rich dogs is imprinted everywhere. The question has now evolved into something like food security against housing needs of the 119 million Filipinos.
Result? The bigger real estate developers and big businesses had become so filthy rich, they are now even considered some of the richest people in the entire world. Prices of agricultural commodities especially rice, had skyrocketed.
This reminds me of the heated arguments between Senator Raffy Tulfo and Senator Cynthia Villar during the budget deliberations of the Department of Agriculture about 2 years ago. It is very interesting and instructive.
Being the chairperson of the Senate committee on agriculture, Senator Villar was the sponsor of the DA budget. For his part, senator Tulfo focused his interpellations on conversions of agricultural lands into commercial spaces, National Land Use Act, and farm to market road.
Some salient points of the hot interpellation are given space here.
On land conversion: Senator Tulfo stated matter-of-factly; “Lumiliit po nang lumiliit ang ating farmlands. Binibili po ng malalaking developer at ginagawang residential at commercial land. Ano po ang ginagawa ng DA dito?”
According to DAR, there were more than 13,000 hectares of rice land converted into commercial lands, from 1998-2022. At an average yield of 4 tons/ha, that would amount to 52 thousand tons per season. If there are 2 cropping seasons in a year, that would mean 104 thousand tons per year harvest. That would be substantial by any yardstick.
To the statement of Tulfo, Villar was the one who replied: “That is our business. We don’t buy lands in the provinces. We buy lands only in cities and capital towns. Where will the people live when subdivisions are not developed? Developer can buy land at an expensive price, then they can reinvest somewhere. It’s an investment decision. It’s not the amount of farmland. It’s the efficiency on how the farm is used”.
Like other rich developers or business people, Villar was not forthright about this. Just ask those concerned people in Tuba municipality, which is neither a city nor a capital town, who had a bad experience with Vista Land people some years back.
On the enactment of the National Land Use Act:
Because of the almost unabated land conversion, Senator Tulfo is advocating for the enactment of the law, which is actually a priority bill of the current President, PBBM. Tulfo was incredulous on why the National Land Use Act has not been enacted into law although 4 Presidents have already passed since it was first proposed, yet it is still lurking in the dark.
Naturally, Villar is not enamored with the subject act, stating that the power to determine the use of land is in the hands of the LGUs. Besides, according to her, all LGUs has now made their land use plan.
Let me present a case where a municipal LGU is cognizant of the need to maintain rice farms. It involves Pavia, booming town in Iloilo, adjacent to Iloilo city. I recently stayed there for one month, from middle of October to middle of November last year. If La Trinidad is to Baguio city, Pavia is to Iloilo city. Although it is a town where two important bridges, costing close to a billion pesos each, are not completed yet because of faulty planning and insufficient prior testing, it has passed a resolution protecting at least 600 hectares of rice lands from being converted into commercial use.
It is a model for other LGUs to follow. I heard there are other towns in the province that would like to emulate the footsteps of Pavia.
On farm-to-market road:
Tulfo was quite direct in saying that FMRs were built not always for farmers but also for sabungan, subdivisions and private resorts. In such cases, the support to farmers thru the FMRs appear to be just a mirage.
The issues that came out in the discussions between Senator C. Villar and Senator R. Tulfo are still hot concerns at this time. They are concerned with the choice of food security but not at the expense of housing needs, better land use plans, better use of support to farmers, and implying to address even corruption, especially in relation to rice importation.**
