Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUP):

Frequently Asked Questions (UPDATED

February 2023!)
Answer your Frequently Asked Questions about Comprehensive Land Use Plans in the Philippines.

 Post authorBy enp.tinio

 Post dateFebruary 23, 2023
 7 Commentson Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUP): Frequently Asked Questions
(UPDATED February 2023!)

Comprehensive Land Use Plans

Here are 10 Frequently Asked Questions about
Comprehensive Land Use Plans!
More articles on Comprehensive Land Use Plans in the
Philippines

What is a Comprehensive Land Use Plan?

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.

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.

My experience 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.
My experience 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).