By Zaldy De Layola
MANILA – The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved on final reading a bill allowing foreign investors to lease private lands in the Philippines for 99 years.
Voting 175 against three and two abstentions, House Bill (HB) 10755 that Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez principally authored addresses the concern of foreign capitalists regarding the shorter rental period under the current law, which is 50 years with renewal for an additional 25 years.
The bill is among the priority measures of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC)
“We hope they would be satisfied with the proposal. We hope it would attract new foreign investments and encourage existing investors to expand their businesses, thereby creating more job and income opportunities for our people and sustaining our economic growth,” Romualdez said.
The proposal, he added, also aligns with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s open-door policy for legitimate foreign capital and with existing practices in many countries in the region.
“We want to be competitive regionally and globally in terms of enticing foreign investments,” Romualdez said.
HB 10755 provides it is state policy to encourage foreign investments consistent with the constitutional mandate to conserve and develop the nation’s patrimony.
It declares that the state adopts a flexible and dynamic policy on the granting of long-term leases on private lands to foreign investors for the establishment of industrial estates, factories, assembly or processing plants, agro-industrial enterprises, land development for industrial or commercial use, tourism, agriculture, agroforestry, ecological conservation, and other similarly productive endeavors.
The bill further declares that it is state policy to ensure the reliability of investors’ lease contracts to guarantee stability and return of investment.
Under the bill, a new provision defines the term “private lands,” which shall mean “those lands which have been segregated from the general mass of the public domain and distributed by any form of gratuitous or onerous grant by the state, such as a deed of sale, adjustment title, special grant, or possessory information title converted into a record of ownership.”
The definition “shall include patrimonial properties of the state-owned, held, controlled, supervised, managed, or administered by investment promotion agencies as definite under Republic Act No. 11534, otherwise known as the Corporate Recovery and Incentives for Enterprises or CREATE Act.”
The bill provides violations carry a fine of PHP1 million to up to PHP10 million.
On Monday, the Senate approved its version, Senate Bill 2898 or the Investors’ Lease Act. (PNA)
