March 27, 1996
DAR OPINION NO. 18-96
Executive Director Rey Ernesto N. Millan
Office of the President of the
Philippines-Mindanao
3rd Floor Central Bank Regional Office Bldg.
E. Quirino Ave., Davao City
Dear Director Millan:
This refers to your letter inquiring as to whether Municipal Ordinance No. 10 dated August 23, 1995 of the Sangguniang Bayan of Tagum, Davao del Norte, which declared the district of Apokon in Tagum an industrial zone, needs DAR approval before it becomes final and executory.
You raise said issue, considering that huge parts of Apokon, Tagum, Davao del Norte are occupied by farmers who are tilling the land; that several families have built their houses in the area; and that DAR has the final say on land conversion.
At the outset, we wish to clarify that reclassification and conversion are not synonymous and therefore do not refer to one and the same thing. Land reclassification is a power exercised by the municipal or city government through the town planning process, subject to review and approval by the Provincial Sanggunian through the Provincial Land Use Council (PLUC). Land use conversion, on the other hand, is the actual change in land use from agricultural to non-agricultural and goes through the DAR's evaluation process, which takes into account the tenants and farmworkers, if any, on the landholding and the ascertainment of disturbance compensation. Section 20 of R.A. 7160 and Malacañang Memorandum Circular No. 54, dated 08 June 1993, prescribing the guidelines governing Section 20, states that a city or municipality may through an ordinance passed by the Sanggunian after conducting public hearings, authorize the reclassification of agricultural lands and provide for the manner of their utilization or disposition. However, before enacting the ordinance reclassifying agricultural lands, the Sanggunian concerned must first secure the following certificates: . . . Certification from DAR indicating that such lands are not distributed, or not covered by a notice of coverage or not voluntarily offered for coverage under CARP (Sec. 2, b(2), Malacañang Memorandum Circular No. 54, Series of 1993). Consequently, ordinances reclassifying lands (in this particular instance, Ordinance No. 10), are not subject to DAR approval. However, the finality of the ordinance reclassifying the land will not convert the agricultural areas covered thereby to non-agricultural uses. Since land use conversion falls within the jurisdiction of the DAR, the use of an agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes is subject to DAR's evaluation and approval. This means that before an agricultural land embraced by Ordinance No. 10 may be used for non-agricultural purposes, an application for conversion thereof must be filed with the DAR.
Thank you for communicating with us and we hope to have clarified the matter with you.
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) HECTOR D. SOLIMAN
Undersecretary
LAFMA
Copy furnished:
OSEC
Doc. No. 95120256
Sangguniang Bayan
Tagum, Davao del Norte
The Regional Director
DAR Region XI
Ecoland, Davao City
Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer
DAR Provincial Office
Tagum, Davao del Norte
Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer
DAR, Tagum, Davao del Norte