Creation of Committee to Re-examine All National Parks and Other Civil and Military Reservations

July 28, 1982

LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS NO. 1258

 

WHEREAS, the government has launched nationwide human settlements and Kilusang Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran programs and other socio-economic development projects, aimed at the improvement of man, which require the utilization and harnessing of lands as a basic component thereof;

WHEREAS, there have been various petitions and study recommendations from the public and private sectors for the release, declassification and/or reclassification of certain tracts of the public domain reserved in favor of national agencies; cdt

WHEREAS, it has been observed that vast tracts of land of the public domain reserved in favor of national agencies and local government, as well as national parks, tourism areas, wilderness areas, resettlement areas, and other existing civil and military reservations proclaimed, are in excess of, or have not been entirely used for the purposes for which such lands have been reserved, or have entirely been abandoned because they are no longer needed for the purposes of the agencies concerned; and

WHEREAS, it is necessary to re-examine all existing civil and military reservations, wilderness areas, tourism areas, and national parks to ascertain particularly those that are no longer needed for, or in excess of, the purposes for which the same have been established and to make them available in the implementation of government projects requiring the use of such lands; cd

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, do hereby order the creation of a Committee composed of the Minister of Natural Resources, as Chairman, and the Minister of Human Settlements and Ministers or Heads of Agencies in whose favor lands have been reserved, as members, to re-examine all national parks, wilderness areas, tourism areas, resettlement areas, and other existing reservations to ascertain particularly which of these reservations are no longer needed by the agencies concerned or are not being utilized for the purpose or purposes for which the same have been established, and to submit immediately its findings and recommendations to the President of the Philippines, together with the corresponding draft proclamations revoking or amending, as the case may be, proclamations which established such reservations and in turn reserving the land, embraced therein or excluded therefrom, for government projects.

The Chairman of the Committee may call upon any government agency for such assistance as may be deemed necessary to carry out these instructions. acd

DONE in the City of Manila, this 28th day of July, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Two.