July 7, 1997
DAR OPINION NO. 78-97
Eugenio B. Bernardo
Regional Director
Department of Agrarian Reform
Region IV
Capitol Compound, Pasig City
Dear Director Bernardo:
This has reference to your letter dated 16 May 1997 requesting for clarification relative to the application of Presidential Decree No. 399 dated February 29, 1974, issued by the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos, being used by some landowners as basis for exemption of their landholdings from CARP coverage.
A perusal of Presidential Decree 399 shows that lands of the public domain as well as lands owned by private persons within the strip of one thousand meters along existing, proposed or on-going public highways or roads may be covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Said Presidential Decree specifically provides that the use of such land shall first be available for human settlement sites, land reform, relocation of squatters from congested urban areas, tourism development, agro-industrial estates, environmental protection and improvement, infrastructure and other vital projects in support of the socio-economic development program of the Government.
Undoubtedly, one of the preferences for the use of said lands is to use the same for land reform purposes. Thus, it cannot be used as a subterfuge for the landowners to exempt their agricultural landholdings from CARP coverage since the law is clear and unequivocal. It is an elementary principle of statutory construction that where the words and phrases of a statute are not obscure or ambiguous, the meaning and intention should be determined from the language employed, and where there is no ambiguity in words, there is no room for construction.
Moreover, nowhere under the provisions of R.A. No. 6657 (e.g., Sections 3 (c) and 10), DOJ Opinion No. 44, Series of 1990, DAR Administrative Order No. 6, Series of 1994 and other existing agrarian laws, rules and regulation were such lands enumerated or contemplated therein as exempt from CARP coverage. Well-established is the rule that what the law does not include it excludes. Accordingly, for a land to be exempt, the same must fall within the purview of the aforementioned laws and guidelines, and any exemption from CARP coverage must be with the approval of the DAR pursuant to its rules on exemption.
We hope to have clarified the matter with you.
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) ARTEMIO A. ADASA, JR.
Undersecretary for Legal Affairs, and Policy and Planning