THE House of Representatives yesterday approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to allow foreign investors to lease private lands in the country for 99 years, which is almost double the present term of 50 years.
Voting 175-3 with two abstentions, lawmakers approved House Bill (HB) No. 10755, which makes it a state policy to encourage foreign investments consistent with the constitutional mandate to conserve and develop the nation’s patrimony.
The bill declares that the state shall adopt “a flexible and dynamic policy on the granting of long-term lease on private lands to foreign investors for the establishment of industrial estates, factories, assembly or processing plants, agro-industrial enterprises, land development for industrial or commercial use, tourism, agriculture, agroforestry, ecological conservation, and other similarly productive endeavors.”
Speaker Martin Romualdez, the bill’s principal author, said the measure aims to address the concern of foreign capitalists over the 50-year rental period under the present law, which is renewable for an additional 25 years.
“We hope they would be satisfied with the proposal. We hope it would attract new foreign investments and encourage existing investors to expand their businesses, thereby creating more job and income opportunities for our people and sustaining our economic growth,” he said.
“We want to be competitive regionally and globally in terms of enticing foreign investments,” he added.
Romualdez said the proposal also aligns with the open-door policy of the Marcos Jr. administration “for legitimate foreign capital and with existing practices in many countries in the region.”
The bill’s co-authors include Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr., Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, Senior Deputy Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander Marcos of Ilocos Norte, and Reps. Yedda Romualdez and Jude Acidre of Tingog party-list.
The measure also declares it a state policy “to ensure the reliability of investors’ lease contracts to guarantee stability and return of investment.”
It defines the term “private lands” as “lands which have been segregated from the general mass of the public domain and distributed by any form of gratuitous or onerous grant by the state, such as a deed of sale, adjustment title, special grant, or possessory information title converted into a record of ownership.”
Such private lands “shall include patrimonial properties of the state owned, held, controlled, supervised, managed, or administered by investment promotion agencies as defined under Republic Act No. 11534, otherwise known as the Corporate Recovery and Incentives for Enterprises or CREATE Act.”
