Philippines Eyes August Release of Farmland Conversion Guidelines Amid Development Push

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is targeting the release of its revised guidelines on farmland conversion in August after months of reviewing its regulatory framework. "Actually, mayroon nang final draft, kaya lang noong ni-review ko last week, hindi ako kontento. So binago namin, maybe another week or two," Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said on the sidelines of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP) Food Security Forum on Thursday. (Actually, we already have a final draft, but when I reviewed it last week, I wasn't satisfied. So we revised it. Maybe it will be ready in another week or two.) Tiu Laurel said the new policy aims to streamline the farmland conversion process while ensuring safeguards remain in place to protect agricultural land. "But pagdating sa development, we will maintain na kailangan may land use plan ang munisipyo bago kami mag-grant ng conversion. Ilalagay din sa bagong policy na we need to maintain at least 3 million hectares of rice land, at i-identify ng DA 'yan at a later date," he said. (When it comes to development, we will maintain that municipalities must have a land use plan before we approve any land conversion. The new policy will also state that we must maintain at least 3 million hectares of rice land, which the DA will identify at a later date.) The DA earlier lifted the moratorium on farmland conversion that it imposed in January. Under Department Circular No. 32, series of 2026, dated June 30, Tiu Laurel withdrew the suspension on the acceptance and processing of applications for the reclassification of agricultural lands. With the moratorium lifted, the department resumed processing new land conversion applications as well as pending appeals before the Office of the Secretary that had been put on hold since early this year. In January, the DA issued Department Circular No. 1, suspending the acceptance and processing of applications for land-use reclassification until June. The moratorium was intended to prevent the undue conversion of agricultural land. —VBL, GMA News