The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) has urged Congress to pass major bills creating the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and instituting a National Land Use Act in the country.
The move aims to reinforce sustainable development and boost agricultural productivity in the country, it said.
The DepDev in a statement on Wednesday lauded the 19th Congress for passing 40 priority bills under the Common Legislative Agenda (CLA) set by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).
It said the achievement of the 19th Congress of passing 40 priority legislations was the highest since the 10th Congress during the Ramos Administration between 1992 and 1998.
“As we look ahead to the 20th Congress, we are hopeful for continued momentum in advancing our legislative agenda,” DEPDev Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said in the statement.
“In particular, DEPDev fully supports the passage of the Department of Water Resources Bill and the proposed National Land Use Act, as part of our thrust to complete the groundwork for more efficient governance and sustainable development in the years ahead,” he added.
The Marcos administration’s senatorial candidates had vowed to pass the National Land Use Act if they won in the May 2025 midterm elections.
The Philippine Greenprint, a network of environmental non-government organizations, said in its website that the National Land Use Act will “govern the management and execution of a comprehensive land use system and physical planning mechanism in terms of land protection, production, infrastructure use, and settlement uses. It clearly lays out land use parameters, long-term planning, and reviews of sustainable land use at all levels of government.”
It added that the National Land use act should provide “a just, holistic & ethical planning for using and protecting our country’s land and water resources.”
The Philippine Institute of Development Studies, meanwhile, said in a statement posted on its website that the absence of a National Land Use Act in the country has led to “conflicting land uses, environmental degradation, and inefficient resource allocation.”
It said a proposed National Land Use Act (NaLUA) should provide a “crucial solution to these issues, promising sustainable development and harmonious land management.”
PIDS Senior Research Fellow Adoracion M. Navarro, who conducted a study on the creation of a National Land Use Act, called for “a transdisciplinary approach and updated data to bolster the case for the enactment of NaLUA” and put an end to “land use misgovernance.”
In a statement posted on the DepDev website in December, Secretary Balisacan said “the creation of the DWR would help the country in mitigating floods and managing agricultural productivity.”
Balisacan said, “The DWR will be mandated to coordinate with relevant agencies on the construction of water projects, which will improve our irrigation and flood management.”
A DWR would help prevent “the recurring devastation caused by heavy typhoons,” Balisacan said.
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Before the 19th Congress adjourned sine die on June 11, 2025, the Senate and House of Representatives ratified the reconciled versions of seven priority bills under the CLA, namely the Government Optimization Act, Liberalizing the Lease of Private Lands by Foreign Investors, E-Governance Act, Konektadong Pinoy Act, Virology Institute of the Philippines, Accelerated and Reformed Right-of-Way Act and Enhanced Fiscal Regime for Large-Scale Metallic Mining Act.
Once signed by the President, these seven bills will be added to the 33 measures already enacted under the CLA, raising the total to 40, DEPDev said.
DEPDev said this achievement in legislative productivity was enabled by strengthened collaboration and cooperation between the executive and legislative branches during the 19th Congress.
The 33 enacted measures include landmark economic and tax reforms such as the Public-Private Partnership Code of the Philippines, the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy Act, the Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act, the Capital Markets Efficiency Promotion Act, the Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act and the Tatak Pinoy Act.
Moreover, critical measures on social development, particularly in education, such as the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning Program Act, and the Enterprise-Based Education and Training Framework Act, as well as measures to boost agricultural productivity such as the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act and the Amendments to the Agricultural Tariffication Act were also signed into law.
