May 17, 1994
DAR OPINION NO. 31-94
Hon. Frumencio A. Lagustan
Asst. Executive Secretary for Legislation
Office of the President
Malacañang, Manila
Sir:
This has reference to the letter dated 4 March 1994 of the Board of Directors of the Jimenez Landowners Association addressed to His Excellency President Fidel V. Ramos which you referred to this Office for comment and recommendation. Subject letter is a request for the President to certify a bill which will exempt their coconut lands from leasehold under R.A. 3844. Said request stems from the desire of the landowners to plant new hybrid coconuts themselves which they claim they cannot do if the land is under leasehold. Moreover, the landowners allege that guards/watchers/overseers are considered by DAR as tenants of the coconut plantations pursuant to R.A. 3844.
The security of tenure of agricultural lessees, including those on coconut lands, is guaranteed under Sec. 7 of R.A. 3844 to wit:
"Sec. 7. Tenure of Agricultural Leasehold Relation. — The agricultural leasehold relation once established shall confer upon the Agricultural lessee the right to continue working on the landholding until such leasehold relation is extinguished. The agricultural lessee shall be entitled to security of tenure on his landholding and cannot be ejected therefrom unless authorized by the Court for causes herein provided."
It is submitted that enacting a law that would prejudice said security of tenure would not only contravene the provision of the Civil Code of the Philippines on the prospective application of laws, but more importantly, would render nugatory the avowed objective of the State to uplift the living conditions of farmers and farmworkers and to give them a just share of the fruits of the lands they till should the same not fall within the CARP redistribution criteria.
Moreover, it as noted that only agricultural lessees are entitled to security of tenure on the land under their cultivation. For a person to be considered an agricultural lessee, all of the following requisites must be present, namely:
1. The parties are the landowner and the tenant;
2. There is consent by the landowner for the tenant to work on the land — either conveyed verbally or in writing, expressly or impliedly;
3. The subject land is agricultural in nature;
4. The purpose is agricultural production;
5. There is personal cultivation on the part of the tenant, when he does it in person and/or with the aid of labor within his immediate farm household; and
6. There is sharing of harvests or there is a consideration for the lease of the land in an amount certain in money or in produce, or both.
(Rafael Gelos vs. The Honorable Court of Appeals and Ernesto Alzona, G.R. No. 861860, May 8, 1992; Yolanda Caballes vs. DAR, et al., G.R. No. 78214, December 5, 1988, 168 SCRA 247).
Cultivation is not limited to the plowing and harrowing of the land, but also the husbanding of the ground to forward the products of the earth by general industry, the taking care of the land and fruits growing thereon, fencing of certain areas, and the clearing thereof by gathering dried leaves and cutting of grasses. In coconut lands, cultivation includes the clearing of the landholding, the gathering of the coconuts, their piling, husking and handling as well as the processing thereof into copra, although at times with the aid of hired laborers.
(Coconut Cooperative Marketing Association, Inc. (COCOMA) vs. Court of Appeals, Nos. L-46281-83, August 19, 1988, 164 SCRA 568; Wenceslao Hernandez vs. Hon. Intermediate Appellate Court, et al., G.R. No. 74323, September 21, 1990, 189 SCRA 758).
Accordingly, if any of the aforementioned requisites is absent, guards/watchers/overseers do not qualify as agricultural lessees and are therefore not entitled to security of tenure on the property.
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) HECTOR D. SOLIMAN
Assistant Secretary
Legal Affairs Office
Copy furnished:
Atty. Bartolome Domingo
Jimenez Landowners Association
Jimenez, Misamis Occidental
Atty. Clifford C. Burkley
Office of the Secretary
Doc. No. 94040709