September 4, 1998
DAR OPINION NO. 84-98
OIC-PARO Leonora B. Caoili
DAR Provincial Office
Calapan, Oriental Mindoro
Dear PARO Caoili:
This refers to your request for opinion regarding your proposition to place under CARP coverage lands covered by Proclamation No. 588, reserving said lands as rubber experiment station under the administration of the Bureau of Plant Industry, for distribution to qualified farmer-beneficiaries pursuant to Executive Orders Nos. 407 and 448, Series of 1990 and 1991, respectively.
You state that during the PARCCOM meeting held on 08 July 1998, the PENRO argued that unless said proclamation is annulled, cancelled or amended, the same should be respected and those lands covered by it shall not be distributed to qualified beneficiaries.
Executive Order No. 448 which amends Executive Order No. 407 provides for the following:
"Sec. 1-A. All lands or portions thereof reserved by virtue of Presidential Proclamations for specific public uses by the government, its agencies and instrumentalities, including government-owned or controlled corporations suitable for agriculture and no longer actually, directly and exclusively used or necessary for the purposes for which they have been reserved, as determined by the Department of Agrarian Reform in coordination with the government agency or instrumentality concerned in whose favor the reservation was established, shall be segregated from the reservation and transferred to the Department of Agrarian Reform for distribution to qualified beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program."
We submit that based from the aforequoted provision of law, it is very explicit that reserved lands by virtue of a Presidential Proclamation may be covered by CARP for distribution to qualified farmer-beneficiaries provided these are no longer actually, exclusively and directly used or necessary for the purposes for which they have been reserved as determined by the DAR in coordination with the government agency or instrumentality concerned in whose favor the reservation was established. This joint determination must first be made in order that said lands may be covered under R.A. No. 6657 (CARL). This is so in view of the legal mandate and policy of the State to distribute agricultural lands to as many tenants and farmworkers as possible and to pursue a Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program which is founded on the right of farmers and regular farmworkers, who are landless, to own directly or collectively the lands they till, or in the case of other farmworkers, to receive a just share of the fruits thereof.
While we are in accord with the PENRO's opinion that the proclamation would still be valid until annulled, we submit that pursuant to Executive Orders Nos. 407 and 448, all government agencies or government owned and controlled corporations or financial institutions, as the case may be, shall immediately execute a Deed of Transfer in favor of the Republic of the Philippines as represented by the Department of Agrarian Reform and surrender to the latter Department all landholdings suitable for agriculture for distribution to qualified agrarian reform beneficiaries. This is anchored on the State principle that land has a social function and land ownership has a social responsibility, thus, agricultural lands should be turned into their wisest and most productive use for the material upliftment of the many and the prosperity of all.
We hope to have clarified the matter with you.
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) DANILO T. LARA
Undersecretary for Legal Affairs, and Policy and Planning