October 22, 1973

LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS NO. 138

WHEREAS, it has become necessary for the Government to make available more public agricultural lands to accommodate displaced or landless farmers who are to be resettled under the land reform program;

WHEREAS, it is likewise necessary for the Government to determine areas within the public domain that may be available for other agricultural uses in furtherance of the program to develop other agricultural projects such as grazing and fishery development;

WHEREAS, it has become likewise necessary to determine which of these areas should be reserved for logging, reforestation, parks, and wildlife sanctuaries;

WHEREAS, it is likewise necessary to determine which areas should be available for mineral development and mineral reservations;

WHEREAS, this land classification is necessary for the information to only of the Government for the effective implementation of its policy but would also be useful in helping prospective investors determine the areas that may be open or available to them for exploitation and development;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1, dated September 22, 1972, as amended, do hereby order the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the agencies under the Department; namely, the Bureau of Lands and the Bureau of Forest Development, to accelerate their efforts to survey and systematically classify all lands within the public domain, in accordance with their most profitable uses as herein specified.   

Done in the City of Manila, this 22nd day of October, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-three.