Question & AnswerQ&A (PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1517)
The title of Presidential Decree No. 1517 is the Urban Land Reform Act.
The main policy purposes include liberating human communities from blight, congestion, and hazard, promoting the optimum use of land for public welfare, providing equitable access to land use and enjoyment, preventing speculative land buying, and supporting a responsive private enterprise system in urban land use and development.
Urban lands are defined as lands in cities and municipalities with at least 1,000 persons per square kilometer density and over 50% of economically active population in non-agricultural activities; barangays including or part of the former poblacion with population density between 500 and 1,000 persons per sq km and similar economic profile; or barangays with at least 1,000 population with over 50% in non-agricultural activities.
Urban Land Reform Zones, or Urban Zones, are specific parcels of urban and urbanizable lands proclaimed by the President for development and zoning plans under the Ministry of Human Settlements' direction for land reform purposes.
The Council is composed of the Ministers of Human Settlements, Agrarian Reform, Finance, Justice, Local Government and Community Development, Industry, Natural Resources, and the President of the Land Bank, chaired by the Minister of Human Settlements.
Such legitimate tenants and residents have the right not to be dispossessed and are given the right of first refusal to purchase the land within reasonable time and prices as determined by the Urban Zone Expropriation and Land Management Committee.
The Ministry is vested with the power of eminent domain to expropriate lands within Urban Zones for tenant purchase or government acquisition and management.
The Official Development Registry continuously registers existing land rights, interests, and development proposals in Urban Zones, providing detailed boundaries, titles, and intentions to acquire or develop land, helping regulate land transactions and aiding Ministry decisions.
Violations are subject to administrative fines up to P10,000 imposed by the Ministry, and upon conviction, criminal penalties including fines up to P20,000, imprisonment up to ten years, or both; corporate officers are liable, and aliens may be deported after serving penalties.
It is a system where no development, use, alteration, or construction on land in proclaimed Urban Zones or Bagong Lipunan sites may take place without a Development Use Permit issued by the Ministry through the Human Settlements Regulatory Commission.