April 14, 1997

DAR OPINION NO. 40-97

Mr. Renato G. Pelayo

Director, Bureau of Land Development

Department of Agrarian Reform

Quezon City

Dear Director Pelayo:

This has reference to your Memorandum dated 15 October 1996 addressed to Hector D. Soliman, Undersecretary for Field Operations and Support Services, seeking opinion on the queries posed therein, to wit:

a)         Can the technical descriptions of the CARP covered landholdings be corrected or rectified notwithstanding the opposition or refusal of the landowner to sign the petition for inscription? and

b)        Can a landowner validly refuse to turnover his landholdings to the Department of Agrarian Reform for distribution to qualified-beneficiaries on the bare allegation that the subject property is a mineral land?

Anent your first query, the answer is in the affirmative. While petitions should as a rule be commenced only in the name and at the instance of the interested party, the same should not be accorded a narrow interpretation so as to defeat the very purpose of the law. Section 4 of R.A. No. 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law) is strongly worded by providing that: "The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 shall cover, regardless of tenurial arrangement and commodity produced, all public and private agricultural lands as provided in Proclamation No. 131 and Executive Order No. 229, including other lands of the public domain suitable for agriculture". The mandatory tenor of the language used in the law in effecting coverage should not be subordinated nor, rendered nugatory by technicalities or mere formal defects in the petition for inscription. Consequently, the opposition or refusal of the landowner to sign the Petition for Inscription to rectify mistakes is not material so as to render the DAR powerless and spare the subject property from CARP coverage. The implementation of the CARP should never be left at the mercy of the landowners opposed to it in order to effectively carry out the State's policy where land has a social function and land ownership has a social responsibility (Section 2, R.A. No. 6657). This is in line with the State's objective of controlling and democratizing the ownership of land as a natural resource with the end view of a more equitable distribution thereof (Section 1, Article XII, 1987 Philippine Constitution). Thus, the DAR being constitutionally and legally aptly clothed with more than ample authority and personality should strongly undertake whatever necessary action to cause the inscription of the corrected technical descriptions in the titles of the subject landholdings and, accordingly, to cover the subject landholdings under the compulsory acquisition scheme of the Program.

Anent your second query, corollarily from the first, the answer is in the negative. The ultimate determination on whether the subject property is covered under R.A. No. 6657 is a matter that is exclusively lodged with the Department of Agrarian Reform, being the agency tasked to implement the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. It is not incumbent on the landowner to unilaterally declare that his property is mineral. The landowner should still apply for exemption from CARP coverage pursuant to existing laws, rules and regulations. Under Section 7 of R.A. No. 6657 it provides in part that: "the DAR, in coordination with the PARC shall plan and program the acquisition and distribution of all agricultural lands through a period of ten (10) years from the effectively of this Act". Thus, the acquisition of agricultural lands for distribution to qualified-beneficiaries is not dependent on the willingness nor on the volition or plans of the landowner. Wherefore, by express mandate of the 1987 Philippine Constitution on social justice for the State to regulate the acquisition, ownership, use and disposition of property (Section 1, Article XIII), and in view of the earlier aforementioned provisions of the law and the Constitution, it is a foregone conclusion that landowners are morally and legally bound to surrender their agricultural landholdings in excess of the allowable retention area in favor of the government for distribution to qualified agrarian reform beneficiaries.

Please be guided accordingly.

Very truly yours,

(SD.) ARTEMIO A. ADASA, JR.

Undersecretary for Legal Affairs, and Policy and Planning

Copy furnished:

MR. ESTANISLAO Z. GALANO

Regional Technical Director, LMS

Office of the Regional Executive Director

DENR Region 7

Banilad, Mandaue City