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The EnP Board Review

Series: Part 7 – Laws
governing
Environmental Planning
Ragene Palma July 5, 2016 17 Comments

“ This is a list of laws governing the practice of environmental

planning. This list links the law titles to online sources for easy
reference.

Any profession is governed by specific laws, and it’s no different in environmental

planning. I’ll try to keep this as concise and organized as possible, since you’re going to
be reading through a whole lot of legal terms and frameworks.

When I first started studying environmental laws, I couldn’t get myself to move forward.
It took practice and constant reading to understand the pattern that appears in every
law. Each one is structured, and when you get to read a couple, you get the hang of how
to analyze the contents. I’ll group the laws together the way I studied them when I was
reviewing for the boards.

Tips:

Take note of the frameworks, plans, and bodies created to implement the plans

Take into context the year the law was created, and know the background of the
administration and the international declarations that were passed (for example,
most laws that deal with policing environmental activities are in the law series
numbered in 9000’s and were passed in the years 2000’s-2010’s. This is because the
Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 and the enforcement of commitments was done
in the 2000’s.) This might help:

Designations used for Philippine laws. Source: Wikipedia

Let’s get started.

The overall basis is our Constitution. Take note that other laws’ objectives, or
the Declaration of Policy, always refer to the what is best for the State, as is written in
the Constitution. Tip: Sometimes Article numbers come up in the exam.

The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines

Then before we go into the institutions and environmental laws, there’s the basis of
environmental planning and practice.

RA 10587: Environmental Planning Act of 2013 (The old law is PD 1308: Law
Regulating the Environmental Planning Profession in the Philippines)

Res. No. 01 Series of 1997: Code of Ethics for Environmental Planners in the
Philippines

Then I’ll just put this here because professionals have to know: RA 8981: PRC
Modernization Act of 2000

It is helpful to understand how government entities were created so that before going
into the laws that discuss their further activities and what they should be policing, you
will have a sound structure of what their mandates and functions are.

RA 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 We understand here the devolution
of powers and functions to the local governments.

For the housing, shelter and urban development agencies: PD 933: Creating the
Human Settlements Commission, which is now Housing and Land Use Regulatory
Board (HLURB); EO 90: Identifying government agencies for the National Shelter
Program and the creation of HUDCC; PD No. 757: Creating the National Housing
Authority and dissolving the existing housing agencies, defining its powers and
functions, providing funds therefor, and for other purposes. Here are the links to
trace the histories of NHA, HLURB, HUDCC, and SHFC.

EO 192 s 1987: Providing for the reorganization of the Department of Environment,

Energy, and Natural Resources, renaming it as the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources, and for other purposes

PD 107: Creating the National Economic Development Authority

For entities that have to do with waterworks: Amended PD 198 (2010) and other
related issuances: Provincial Water Utilities Act of 1973, Local Water District Law,
Local Water Utilities Administration Law, etc.; RA 6234: An act creating the
Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and dissolving the National
Waterworks and Sewerage Authority; and for other purposes

RA 4850: Creating the Laguna Lake Development Authority

Housing, shelter, estate development, urban development

RA 7279: Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (with IRR and amendment: RA
9397)

EO 71: Devolving the powers of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board to
approve subdivision plans, to cities and municipalities pursuant to RA 7160,
otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991

EO 72: Providing for the preparation and implementation of the Comprehensive Land
Use Plans of Local Government Units pursuant to the Local Government Code of
1991 and other pertinent laws

Batas Pambansa 220 (with revised IRR of 2001): An Act Authorizing the Ministry of
Human Settlements to establish and promulgate different levels of standards and
technical requirements for economic and socialized housing projects in urban and
rural areas from those provided under Presidential decrees numbered 957, 1216,
1096, and 1185

PD 957: Subdivision & Condominium Buyers’ Protective Decree (with IRR)

RA 4726: The Condominium Act of 1995

RA 7835: Comprehensive and Integrated Shelter Financing Act of 1994

RA 9507: Socialized and Low-cost Housing Loan Restructuring Act of 2008

EO 184 of 1994: Creating socialized housing one-stop processing centers to facilitate

the processing and issuance of permits, clearances, certifications, and licenses
appropriate and necessary for the implementation of socialized housing projects,
and directing all government agencies concerned to support the operations of the
said centers

House Bill 3769 / Senate Bill 2458: Local Housing Boards

RA 9904: Magna Carta for Homeowners and Homeowners Associations (IRR)

I found that reviewing laws according to development sector was effective for me, so
that’s the way I’ll list them here.

Environmental laws

I’ll group the environmental laws according to land, mineral resources, energy, wildlife,
water, air, and pollution control. These all interlace at some point, but for for
organization purposes, let’s study it as grouped.

Introductory and general laws on the environment

PD 1151: Philippine Environmental Policy

PD 1152: Philippine Environmental Code

RA 9512: National Environmental Awareness and Education Act of 2008

Land Management

1. Commonwealth Act 141: The Public Land Act. Yes, this was enacted in 1936 and is
enforced to date.

2. PD 1517: The Urban Land Reform

3. PD 27: Decreeing the emancipation of tenants from the bondage of the soil,
transferring to them the ownership of the land they till and providing the
instruments and mechanism therefor

4. PD 1529: Amending and codifying the laws relative to registration of property and for
other purposes

5. RA 11023: An Act Authorizing the Issuance of Free Patents to Residential Lands

(I placed all laws on agriculture and agrarian reform later on in this post, under the
heading of economic laws for agriculture.)

Mineral Resources

1. RA 7942: Philippine Mining Act of 1995 (with DMO 99-34 Clarificatory Guidelines)

2. RA 7076: Peoples’ Small Scale Mining Act

3. PD 1899: Establishing Small Scale Mining as a new Dimension in Mineral

Development

Energy

1. RA 9367: Biofuels Act of 2006

2. RA 9513: Renewable Energy Act of 2008

 Forestry 

1. PD 705: Revised Forestry Code

2. PD 953: Requiring the planting of trees in certain places and penalizing unauthorized
cutting, destruction, damaging, and injuring of certain trees, plants, and vegetation

3. EO 263: Adopting community-based forest management as the national strategy to

ensure the sustainable development of the country’s forestlands resources and
providing mechanisms for its implementation

4. RA 9175: Chainsaw Act of 2002

Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation and Protected or Critical Areas

1. RA 9147: Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act

2. RA 7611: Strategic Environment Plan for Palawan Act, which created the Palawan
Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD)

3. RA 9072: National Caves and Cave Resources Management and Protection Act

4. RA 7586: National Integrated Protected Areas System Law of 1992 (with IRR,
also DENR AO 2008-26)

5. PD1586: Environmental Impact Assessment

6. DENR DAO 1996-37 Environmental Impact System

7. Proclamation No. 2146: Proclaiming certain areas and types of projects as

environmentally critical and within the scope of environmental impact statement
system established under PD 1586

Water Use and Management

1. PD 1067: Water Code of 1976 (with IRR)

2. RA 9275: Clean Water Act of 2004 (with DAO 05-10 and IRR)

3. RA 8041: National Water Crisis Act of 1995

Air Management

1. RA 8749: The Clean Air Act of 1999

2. DENR DAO 2003-51: Revised Vehicle Emission Standards

Waste 

1. RA 9003: Ecological Solid Waste Management of 2001 (with IRR)

2. RA 6969: Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990

3. PD 825: Anti-Littering (Garbage Disposal)

4. PD 856: Sanitation Code of 1975 (with IRR)

Climate change adaptation and Disaster risk reduction (CCA-DRR)

1. RA 9729: Climate Change Act of 2009, which created the Climate Change Commission

2. RA 10121: The Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Law of 2010,
which created the NDRRMC

3. I’ll put the Fire Code here because it’s part of DRR. RA 9514: Revised Fire Code of
2008

Social, cultural, and institutional laws

1. RA 8371: Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997, which created the National
Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)

2. RA 10066: National Culture Heritage Act of 2010

3. RA 9418: Volunteer Act of 2007

4. RA 9710: Magna Carta of Women of 2009 (IRR)

5. RA 7877: Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995

6. RA 9485: Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007

7. RA 9184 Procurement Law (with IRR as per EO 40 of 2001). Brace yourself for how
long and detailed this law is. Here’s a presentation by the Government Procurement
and Policy Board to sum up the law and present it in the simplest way.

(#s 5 and 6 were referenced during my exam, so best to include them here.)

Economic Laws

Agricultural, agrarian reform, and fishery laws

1. For the series of laws on agrarian tenancy and reform, we have a list: RA 1199:
Agricultural Tenancy Act; RA 3844: Agrarian Reform of 1963 (this link is a direct
download); RA 6657 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988; RA 7907 Amended
Code of Agrarian Reform of the Philippines; RA 9700 Extension of Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Program.

2. RA 8435: Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA), which brought about
the delineation of SAFDZs (strategic agriculture and fisheries development zones)
which are very important in land use

3. RA 8550: Fisheries Code of 1998 (with IRR). This law gives guidance on the privileges
of fishing within municipal waters (as does RA 7160), as well as the FARMCs (fisheries
and aquatic resources management councils)

4. EO 481: Promotion and Development of Organic Agriculture in the Philippines

Commerce and credit, services, and economic zones

1. RA 7916: The Special Economic Zone Act of 1995 (with IRR), which established the
Ecozones and created the PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority) that is attached
to the DTI.

2. RA 9593 Tourism Act 2009 (with IRR), which created the TIEZA (Tourism Infrastructure
and Enterprise Zone Authority), and designated the TEZs (Tourism enterprise zones),
greenfield tourism zones, and brownfield tourism zones

3. EO 226: Omnibus Investments Code of 1987, which protects our Philippine

enterprises and states our business rights

4. RA 9520: Revised Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008

5. RA 9510: Credit Information System Act of 2008

6. RA 6977: Magna Carta for Small Enterprises

7. RA 9501: Amendments to Magna Carta for Small Enterprises, which became inclusive
of micro-, small-, and medium enterprises (MSMEs)

Infrastructural laws

1. RA 6541: National Building Code (with IRR of 2004–IRR link is a direct download)

2. RA 6957 and RA 7718 (amendment): Financing, construction, operation, and

maintenance of infrastructure projects by the private sector (with IRR and Joint
Venture Guidelines), where guidelines are given on build-operate-transfer (BOT) and
build-and-transfer schemes with the private sector

3. RA 9295: Domestic Shipping Shipbuilding

International Covenants and Commitments

1. UN Declaration of Human Rights

2. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

3. International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

4. Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination

5. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or

Punishment

6. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

7. Convention on the Rights of the Child

8. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of their Families

9. Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of
Prostitution of Others

10. UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. I wrote a little bit about our history of
climate change commitments and efforts in another blog post (just scroll down to
the part of Philippines and COP21).

11. Lastly, given the much-disputed Philippine Sea / China Sea territory, here’s the
UNCLOS or UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. While we’re at it, here’s RA 9522:
Baselines of Philippine Territorial Sea.

So there’s the long list of laws. Gather up the perseverance to study all of them, but if
your time is limited, learn to prioritize. Good luck!

Here are other parts of my online board review series.

Part 1: Why take the exam, getting the right mindset, and preparatory activities

Part 2: Exam overview

Part 3: Your application

Part 4: Exam expectations

Part 5: Planning bibles

Part 6A: Urban and Regional Planning History and Principles

Presentation on Planning and Information Management

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The EnP Board Review Series - Part 3: EnP Board Review Series Board Exam,
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In "EnP Board Review Series" Environmental Planning,
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In "EnP Board Review Series" Laws

The EnP Board Review Series - Part 1:

Why take the exam, getting the right
mindset, and preparatory activities
In "EnP Board Review Series"

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Environmental Bloggers FEBRUARY 16, 2017

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17 Comments

richard
JULY 18, 2016 AT 9:16 AM

Thanks again for another helpful blog post. Do you have any post with
regards to Environmental planning process, methods and strategies?

 Like

Reply

enpjean
JULY 25, 2016 AT 6:19 AM

Hello, Richard. I’m not sure I’ll be able to write a post on that before
your exam, but since it’s the process, read the Rationalized Planning
System and HLURB Guidebooks (the link is in my post Part 3 –
Planning Bibles).

 Like

Reply

Arnel Bilibli
AUGUST 3, 2016 AT 7:09 AM

hello mam, your blog is much appreciated and i can sense your kindness and
willingness to share your knowledge for a better philippines. i hope to take
the EnP exams in 2017. please update me of UP Plano schedule of reviews so i
can attend . can we also request for practice tests in your blog, if it is not
asking so much. thanks so much!

 Like

Reply

Margaret
NOVEMBER 29, 2016 AT 2:12 PM

Thanks for this Jean! I always check your blog for board exam tips.

 Like

Reply

Ren Capati
JANUARY 12, 2017 AT 3:16 AM

Hello Jean, im planning to take the exam this year ..Your blog has given me a
better perspective on what i have to prepare for..kudos.Anyways I have a
querry…Is it true that all CPDC/MPDC should be licensed EnPs?.When will this
take effect?

 Like

Reply

EDELSON DELA CRUZ

FEBRUARY 7, 2017 AT 7:00 AM

i am a ‘young’ MPDC. I find your materials very helpful in my attempt to take

the EnP Board by June.Your kindness is very much appreciated.

 Like

Reply

OSCAR M. CANINO
FEBRUARY 8, 2017 AT 12:39 AM

As a struggling MPDC with still conditional appointment (will become

permanent only after I will be able to pass the EnP exam), I really appreciate
your materials. Thank you for your patience and kindness in sharing these
references and tips.

 Like

Reply

JOE D A
FEBRUARY 20, 2017 AT 1:48 PM

Very comprehensive and informative.Going through the content, inspire me

to pursue the plan in taking the board exam. How could i get the review
materials from UP Plano and how much it will cost? I will take the review
classes here in Cagayan de Oro.

 Like

Reply

Emer
MARCH 24, 2017 AT 12:06 PM

Hello Jean,

Thank you very much for your kindness and generosity in providing us
valuable review materials through your blog. How do we communicate with
UP Plano? Would you also recommend other review centers?

Thanks again!

 Like

Reply

Emer
MARCH 26, 2017 AT 4:25 PM

Just like you Jean, I belong to another field of specialization or industry that
does not require supervision or monitoring from an environmental planner.
How did you explain it to PRC for it to reconsider your application and allowed
you to take the board exam?

Thanks again and more power!

 Like

Reply

Cornelio Rebaula Adame

FEBRUARY 28, 2018 AT 3:12 AM

when browsing internet regarding information related to EnP i found your

blogs. You had shared very comprehensive and informative information on
taking this kind of exam.Thank you very much for your kindness and
generosity especially for us planning who will plan to take the exam. More
power and God bless you.

 Like

Reply

angeline simacon
MAY 10, 2018 AT 9:22 AM

I am a graduate of Environmental Resource MAnagement Major in Coastal

Resource Management,will it be possible for me to take the EnP, what will i
do?
Thank you and God Bless

 Like

Reply

Amillah Rodil
MAY 18, 2018 AT 8:01 AM

Thanks for the comprehensive list! I encountered the following while doing
the review: UDHA 7279 has been further amended with RA 10884
http://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2016/07/17/republic-act-no-10884/, while
DAO 2016-08 issues Water Quality Standards and General Effluent Standards
including water body classification (A, B, C, D, etc.).

 Like

Reply

Amillah Rodil
MAY 18, 2018 AT 8:21 AM

Also building code the revised law is PD 1096

http://www.dpwh.gov.ph/dpwh/sites/default/files/laws_codes_orders/PD%201096_%20BASIC%20LAW_%28book

 Like

Reply

Gold Araneta
JUNE 14, 2018 AT 9:50 AM

Hi EnP Jean! I was so stressed that I have decided and actually applied for the
2018 EnP examination without having any reviewer or reading materials but
then I found your blog and I reviewed using your materials. I’m so happy that
I passed the 2018 exam and I really would like to thank you for being a part of
my success! God bless you and more power!

 Like

Reply

Ragene Palma
JUNE 14, 2018 AT 10:08 AM

Congratulations! And you are most welcome.

 Like

Reply

geoffrey saavedra
NOVEMBER 21, 2018 AT 11:05 PM

Hi ma’m, can I take the EnP exam? though Im a graduate of BS

Architecture. Im planning to take by 2019.

thank you in advance.

 Like

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