President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has enacted the Accelerated and Reformed Right-of-Way (ARROW) Act, designed to streamline government land acquisition for major infrastructure developments.
The legislation establishes a new framework for determining compensation, requiring government offers to align with valuation systems from the Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act of 2024. When those market value schedules aren’t available, officials must use Bureau of Internal Revenue zonal valuations and assessed improvement values instead.
Property structures and machinery will be compensated according to New Civil Code standards, while the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development must collaborate with local governments to create resettlement areas for displaced informal settlers.
The law expands beyond basic acquisition procedures, incorporating provisions for ancestral domain access, utility facility relocations, and public disclosure of critical right-of-way data.
Right-of-way complications have consistently hampered the country’s most significant infrastructure initiatives. The Metro Manila Subway and North-South Commuter Railway have faced substantial delays, while private developments like elevated tollways and the LRT-1 Cavite Extension have encountered similar obstacles.
During his 2023 State of the Nation Address, Marcos outlined an ambitious P9 trillion infrastructure program encompassing 194 flagship projects. His transportation infrastructure commitments included expanding roads, bridges, airports, ports and terminals, alongside continuing the previous administration’s digital infrastructure push.
Progress on his infrastructure pledges has been mixed, with only two of nine promises completed, six still underway, and one pending evaluation. Government infrastructure spending from 2022 to 2024 reached P4.2 trillion, maintaining the promised 5.8 percent of gross domestic product allocation annually.
