Senate OKs bill extending land lease limits for foreigners to 99 years

The Senate on Monday approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to extend land lease limits for foreign investors from 75 years to 99 years.

Senate Bill 2898 or the proposed Act Liberalizing the Lease of Private Lands by Foreign Investors was approved with 17 affirmative votes, one negative vote, and zero abstention.

A priority measure of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., the bill seeks to entice foreign investors to sublet properties unless barred by a contract.

This will amend the 31-year-old Investors' Lease Act.

Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros voted against the passage of the measure.

While her amendments to the bill were accommodated and accepted, Hontiveros said she had to vote against SB 2898 after consulting with groups from agrarian reform communities

"Our partners have flagged that the impact of this measure to smallholder farmers, despite safeguards, would be disastrous," Hontiveros said in explaining her vote.

"Sa ngayon po, laging dehado ang mga magsasaka sa mga kontrata kung saan halos singkong duling lang ang nakukuha nila, at palawak nang palawak ang lupang hawak ng mga korporasyon.  No, these are not aberrations. These are not isolated cases. These are clear and discernible patterns that have been observed in a national study conducted on agri-business arrangements across the country," she added.

Hontiveros also raised possible implications of the measure on national security, considering the "current geopolitical realities."

"I am aware that investment areas in the foreign investment negative list are exempt from the provisions of this bill, but there are many large tracts of land outside the coverage of the foreign investment negative list that open us to national security vulnerabilities," she said.

She mentioned the findings of some members of the intelligence community during the recent Senate hearings on POGOs where it was divulged that large agricultural lands near EDCA sites are being gobbled up by foreign-looking buyers and in the south of the Philippines, the country was being penetrated by malign foreign influence.

"Nag-aalala po ako at what this bill might contribute towards our country’s vulnerabilities," she said.—LDF, GMA Integrated News