August 14, 1996
DAR OPINION NO. 67-96
MR. DAVID E. DE LARA
3552 Magistrado Imperial St.,
Bacood, Sta. Mesa
Manila
Dear Mr. De Lara:
This refers to your request for opinion/advice relative to your rights as tenant.
You state that you are one of the tenants of Norberto Estanislao in a five-hectare riceland situated at Barangay Liwayway, Santa Rosa, Nueva Ecija; that you have been religiously paying the amortization on the land, being a registered tiller thereof with the MARO at Santa Rosa, Nueva Ecija; that per Regional Trial Court decision and which was subsequently affirmed by the Court of Appeals, a certain Mr. Abesamis won the case for nullification of the title of Mr. Estanislao; and that consequently the sheriff is now enforcing said decision by ordering you and other tenants affected to vacate said landholding in order to deliver the same to its rightful owner.
At the outset, we wish to clarify that tenancy relationship can only be created with the consent of the true and lawful landowner who is the owner, lessee, usufructuary or legal possessor of the land. It cannot be created by the act of a supposed landowner, who has no right to the land subject of the tenancy, much less by one who has been dispossessed of the same by final judgment (Cunanan vs. Aguilar, et al., CA-G.R. No. L-31963, August 31, 1978). It is established by operation of law, or in other cases, either orally or in writing, expressly or impliedly, (Sec. 5, R.A. 6389). The consent of the true and lawful landholder, is indispensable, for without such consent, juridical tie cannot be created.
Likewise, a registered tenant instituted by a possessor in the concept of an owner cannot be deprived of possession simply on the strength of a court decision. Whoever is adjudged as the rightful owner by the court should continue to respect the rights of the tenant. Section 7 of R.A. 3844, as amended (Code of Agrarian Reform of the Philippines) gives the agricultural lessee the right to work on the landholding once the leasehold relationship is established. It also entitles him to security of tenure on his landholding. He can only be ejected by the court for cause. Time and again, the Supreme Court has guaranteed the continuity and security of tenure of tenant even in cases of a mere transfer of legal possession. As elucidated in the case of Bernardo vs. Court of Appeals (168 SCRA 439 (1988), security of tenure is a legal concession to agricultural lessees which they value as life itself and deprivation of their landholding is tantamount to deprivation of their only means of livelihood. Also, under Section 10 of the same Act, the law explicitly provides that the leasehold relation is not extinguished by the alienation or transfer of the legal possession of the landholding. The only instances when the agricultural leasehold relationship is extinguished are found in Sections 8, 28 and 36 of the Code of Agrarian Reform of the Philippines.
We hope to have clarified matters with you.
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) LORENZO R. REYES
OIC-Undersecretary
LAFMA
Copy furnished:
The Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer
Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija