March 7, 1994
DAR OPINION NO. 19-94
Mr. Rodrigo N . Pongco
Mangga, Arayat, Pampanga
Dear Mr. Pongco,
This has reference to your letter of 27 January 1994 inquiring on whether or not you can avail of the services of DAR or PAO lawyers in the filing of an action for ejectment against your two tenants and requesting assistance relative to your desire to take possession of the 2-hectare agricultural land which you and your brothers and sisters inherited from your parents.
Anent your first query, please be informed that under Section 163 of the Code of Agrarian Reforms (RA 3844, as amended), the responsibility of the Bureau of Agrarian Legal Assistance (BALA), as successor of the defunct Office of the Agrarian Counsel, is to represent tenants, agricultural lessees, agricultural farmworkers, and agricultural owner-cultivators or members of their immediate farmhousehold who cannot engage the services of competent private counsel. Said responsibility includes representation before courts, including appellate, in cases civil or criminal, instituted by or against said tenant, agricultural lessees, farmworkers or owner-cultivators or the members of their immediate farmhousehold, where the cases arise from or are connected with, or results or effects of an agrarian dispute. Considering said mandate, the BALA is constrained from rendering assistance to others in connection with cases filed against said tenants and farmworkers. As to your request for the assistance of a PAO lawyer, we suggest that you address the matter directly to said Office as it is in the best position to decide thereon.
As regards your desire to take possession of your 2-hectare landholding, please be informed that under Section 7 of RA 3844, tenants are entitled to security of tenure, which means that they may not be ejected from their tillage unless authorized by the court for causes provided in said law. Moreover, personal cultivation is no longer a ground to terminate tenancy relationship because the same has been deleted as a ground for the ejectment of the tenant under Section 7 of RA 6389 which amended Section 36 (1) of RA 3844. Such being the case, you may not dispossess your tenant of his farmlot on the ground that you will personally cultivate you landholding.
Finally, Section 8 of RA 3844 provides for the circumstances under which the agricultural leasehold relation is extinguishes, namely: "(1) Abandonment of the landholding without the knowledge of the agricultural lessor; (2) Voluntary surrender of the landholding by the agricultural lessee, written notice of which shall be served three months on advance; or (3) Absence of the persons under Section nine to succeed to the lessee in the event of death or permanent incapacity of the lessee."
We hope we have clarified matters for you.
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) HECTOR D. SOLIMAN
Assistant Secretary Legal Affairs Office