Philippines faces land governance crisis, says Dominguez
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by Land Asia Listings
- February 9, 2017
- Real Estate Updates
- 0
Posted at Feb 08 2017 04:02 PM
http://news.abs-cbn.com/busine
MANILA – The country is facing a land governance crisis that should be addressed by overhauling policies, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Wednesday.
The Department of Finance has been doing its part in “bringing coherence” to the country’s land governance by moving to reduce estate taxes to encourage the documentation of land assets and free them up for productive use, he said.
Local government units are also encouraged to update land valuations to discourage owners of prime land from keeping these assets idle or non-productive, he added.
“Our cities are congested. Our forested areas have been stripped to make way for human habitation. We are truly facing a land governance crisis and we must respond decisively to this,” Dominguez said at the Conference on Sustainable Governance organized by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The two-day conference was held to form a multi-sectoral coalition from the national and local governments, business, civil society and other groups that will pursue a common agenda to improve sustainable land governance.
