What is a Comprehensive Land Use Plan?

CTTO: EnP Tinio

In the Philippine context, a comprehensive land use plan (CLUP) is a

“rational approach of allocating available land resources as equitably as possible
among competing user groups and for different functions consistent with the
development plan of the area… .”
(Section 3, Republic Act 7279)
It is one of two documents mandated by the Local Government Code (Republic Act
7160) that must be prepared by local government units in the Philippines. The other is
the Comprehensive Development Plan.
What is the purpose of the Republic Act 7279?

RA 7279 OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING ACT OF 1992,
PROVIDING TAX INCENTIVES TO GOVERNMENT-OWNED AND CONTROLLED CORPORATIONS
AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS AS WELL AS PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATING IN
SOCIALIZED HOUSING AND COMMUNITY MORTGAGE PROGRAM.

Read: Formulating Comprehensive Land Use Plans in the Philippines

Why is a Comprehensive Land Use Plan important?

With the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, the local government unit:

• realizes the local government vision for its land resources

• allocates available land resources for different sectors of the population
• communicates the plans of the local government unit

Read: 3 reasons why CLUPs are important

How we completed the Comprehensive Land Use Plan of Tiwi
• Techniques in Land Use Planning
• Ideology in Land Use Planning
• Politics in Land Use Planning
How is a Comprehensive Land Use Plan different from other local
plans required from local government units?
The Comprehensive Land Use Plan is a document that encompasses the whole
territory of the local government unit.

The municipal territory includes municipal land area and municipal waters. No
area in the municipality must be left unplanned.
The DILG estimates that an LGU creates around 33 sectoral and thematic
plans mandated by national government agencies. These plans typically cover only
portions and certain concerns of the municipality.

An updated Comprehensive Land Use Plan can be a resource hub for other local
plans.

What is the process in completing a Comprehensive Land Use

Plan (CLUP)?
Read: Formulating Comprehensive Land Use Plans in the Philippines
The Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (now the Department of Human
Settlements and Urban Development) prescribes a 12-step process for the
formulation of a Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

The 12-step CLUP process

Being an iterative process, the Comprehensive Land Use Planning process
is cyclical. The results of the monitoring and evaluation must be used as input into
another cycle of the process.

What principles and approaches are considered in the

Comprehensive Land Use Plan?
Principles and approaches important to the formulation of the Comprehensive
Land Use Plan are:

1. the watershed approach,

2. inclusive and expansive governance,
3. the co-management principle,
4. gender responsiveness and sensitivity,
5. bottom-up approach, and
6. top-to-bottom approach.

Supplemental guidelines from the HLURB (now DHSUD) also mandate that
CLUPs mainstream two themes:

• disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation

• sustainable land management

Download CLUP Guidebooks from DHSUD…

How can local government units formulate and update

Comprehensive Land Use Plans regularly?
Being the Chief Executive, the mayor is the key official for ensuring
that Comprehensive Land Use Plans are formulated and updated regularly.

An updated and accessible database is also essential for regularly updated local plans
in the Philippines.

Here are my past projects in local government planning…

How many years should a Comprehensive Land Use Plan in the
Philippines cover?
At present, the typical CLUP in the Philippines covers 8 to 10 years.

Serote (2004) recommends a 30-year planning period with revisions every six
years. In 2000s, the population of the Philippines was estimated to double after
around 30 years.
The doubling time of the population of a local territory is a convenient alternative
for the planning period before a full revision of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan
(Serote 2004).

How long is the process of formulating a Comprehensive Land

Use Plan?
The Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board provides a sample Comprehensive
Land Use Planning schedule that covers 18 months.
The process may extend to a longer period because of issues in the review and
approval of the CLUP (CLUP Step 10).

In my professional experience, I was involved in the Tiwi CLUP process that only
covered 4 months from Step 1 (Organize) to Step 8 (Drafting the Zoning
Ordinance).

How much will a Comprehensive Land Use Plan process cost a

local government unit?
Cost is a big consideration for local governments in updating their Comprehensive
Land Use Plans and Comprehensive Development Plans.

Here are approved budget of contracts previously posted on PhilGEPS

for consulting services on the CLUP and other local plans.

For example, the Municipality of Anao in Tarlac, a 5th class municipality, posted
a PhilGEPS request for proposal amounting to P500,000 for CLUP and CDP
updating.

Formulating the Comprehensive Land Use Plan is often done through

hiring external consultants.
Besides consultant fees, additional costs may be incurred for travel expenses, food
for workshops and meetings, and the daily opportunity cost of officials involved in
the planning process.
Here are my past projects in local government planning…

Which Philippine local government units have outdated

Comprehensive Land Use Plans?
A Comprehensive Land Use Plan is considered updated when it covers at least
the current year.

Data from the DHSUD suggests that of the LGUs in the Philippines (1,634 per
LUZIS),

• 580 LGUs have updated CLUPs (35%),

• 894 LGUs have CLUPs for updating (55%),
• 160 have no CLUPs (10%).

In my own opinion, a CLUP is updated when it covers at least the next three years.
This is because updating a CLUP, when maximized for participation, takes at least 18
months.

Who monitors the compliance of local government units in

updating CLUP?
The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development is the “sole and
main planning and policy-making, regulatory, program coordination, and performance
monitoring entity for all housing, human settlement and urban development
concerns.”

Three CLUP status monitoring dashboards are available online:

• The LUZIS CLUP Monitor hosted by DHSUD

• This one by Richmond Manuel on Google Data Studio, based on 2020 data.
• This other one by EnP. Oshean Lee Garonita, though using 2019 data.

What are penalties for local officials of a local government unit

without an updated Comprehensive Land Use Plan?
Local officials of LGUs with outdated plans can be subjected to administrative cases.
The most recent deadline for compliance to updated Comprehensive Development
Plans and Comprehensive Land Use Plans was December 10, 2021 (DILG MC
2021-049).

The Circular stated that officials that failed to comply will be subjected to appropriate
administrative case…pursuant to Section 60 of the Local Government Code.

Section 60. Grounds for Disciplinary Actions. – An elective local official may be
disciplined, suspended, or removed from office on any of the following grounds…
(c) Dishonesty, oppression, misconduct in office, gross negligence, or dereliction of
duty
Local Government Code of 1991 (RA 7160)
This Code establishes the system and defines powers of provincial, city, municipal
and barangay governments in the Philippines. It provides for a more responsive
local government structure instituted through a system of decentralization
whereby Local Government Units are delegated more powers, authority,
responsibilities and resources.
It also empowers local governments to enact local tax measures, including real
property taxes and it assures the local governments a share in the national internal
revenue.
The Code defines the powers of Local Government Units and specifies programmes
that are transferred to them, including: agricultural extension and on-site research;
infrastructure projects; field health and hospital services; social welfare services;
community-based forestry programmes and other investment support services.
The Code further provides for: powers of a city or municipality to authorize the
reclassification of lands; duties of national government agencies to maintain an
ecological balance; relations with people’s and non-governmental organizations;
settlement of boundary disputes; property and supply management in the local
government units; penalties; etc.