November 7, 2000

DAR OPINION NO. 33-00

Mr. Samuel Martinez

73 Sikaba St., Sta. Mesa Heights

Quezon City

Dear Mr. Martinez:

This has reference to your letter dated 18 November 1999 seeking opinion on whether the change of crop from sugarland to riceland constitutes conversion.

You stated that a landowner of sugarlands converted the use of said lands to riceland without the approval of the DAR; that when the shift was discovered, the landowner was sued for unauthorized conversion; that the landowner put up the defense that he did not violate the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) as the land continues to remain agricultural and within its coverage; that he further argues that there is no need to secure the approval of the DAR for this purpose; and that despite all these contentions, the DAR is firm on its stand that its regulations on conversion are valid, thus, the landowner was sued pursuant to law.

Conversion refers to the act or process changing the current use of a piece of land into some other uses. Specifically for the DAR, land use conversion refers to the actual change of agricultural land to non-agricultural uses (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) as approved by DAR. Accordingly, there may, strictly speaking, be no conversion when what is being changed is only the crop as the nature of the land remains to be agricultural.

We hope to have clarified the matter with you.

Very truly yours,

(SGD.) FEDERICO A. POBLETE

Undersecretary for Legal Affairs, and Policy and Planning