Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
IT has been said that an agreement that bestows perpetual rights over a resource is an assault on the constitutional provision that upholds the regalian doctrine where all natural resources are considered to be state-owned, and therefore cannot be alienated or disposed of as titled properties. In Article XII, Section 2 of the 1987 Constitution, it is even clearly stipulated that juridical persons can only be allowed access to use these public lands for private purposes through the awarding or granting of tenure and allocation instruments for a maximum period of 25 years, renewable for another 25 years.
This is the tenor that dominated all government-issued instruments, from the now defunct timber license agreements (TLAs) to mineral production-sharing agreements (MPSA), to community-based forest management agreements (CBFMAs). It is also now a feature of the special use agreement in protected areas (SAPA) which is issued to allow juridical persons to engage in commercial activities within protected areas. In fact, aside from prescribing area limitations, shorter periods are even imposed for specific utilization, harvesting and extraction privileges.
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