Press Release - Omnibus Sponsorship Speech of Senator Cynthia Villar 11 Protected Area Bills

As your Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change, I am pleased to sponsor today the 11 bills declaring ecologically vital areas in the Philippines as additional protected areas under our existing National Integrated Protected Areas Systems, as amended.

At a time when we are finally taking notice of our protected areas as a part of our heritage, and there is substantial clamor for more effective protections as we have seen recently for the Chocolate Hills National Monument, I take this opportunity to affirm my commitment to the country's protected area system.

Prior to the enactment of Republic Act No. 7586, known as the "National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992" or the NIPAS Act we had multiple declared national parks whose protections were basically just on paper. NIPAS rationalized this by establishing management boards, funding mechanisms, recognizing ancestral domain owners and according rights to long term migrant communities whose incomes are derived only from the protected areas.

13 ecologically important areas were established through individual legislations while the rest continued to be managed as initial components of the system.

It was in the 17th Congress when I was installed Chairperson of the Senate Environment Committee, when I worked on the passage of Republic Act No. 11038 known as the "Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 2018" or the ENIPAS Act revised the original based on the experiences of nearly two decades and included the legislation of ninety -four (94) more protected areas.

And during the previous 18th Congress, we were able to pass into law seven (7) legislative measures declaring seven individual sites as protected areas under the mantle of the ENIPAS Act. This brought the country's total legislated protected areas to one hundred fourteen (114) or a total area of 4,432,984.76 hectares.

Upon enactment, these laws automatically shifted the lands of the public domain to the classification of national park, no longer subject to private titling under the Public Land Act. Since the controversy surrounding the Chocolate Hills came to light, allow me to take