September 23, 1996
DAR OPINION NO. 80-96
Ms. Sonia A. Zablan
Manager Corporate Development
and Relation Department
JG Summit Holdings, Inc.
29th Flr., Galleria Corporate Center
EDSA corner Ortigas Avenue
Mandaluyong City
Dear Ms. Zablan:
This has reference to your letter requesting the Department of Agrarian Reform to issue a certification to the effect that the subject parcels of land no longer need conversion clearance for being outside the coverage of R.A. 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law).
You state that JG Summit Holdings, Inc. (JGSHI) is intending to convert its four (4) contiguous parcels of land, situated at Barangay Simlong, Batangas City into an ecozone; that all the subject properties are registered in the name of JGSHI affiliates, to wit: JG Summit Petrochemical Corporation, Robinsons Land Corporation and Universal Robina Corporation; that all the properties mentioned are classified as industrial in their respective tax declarations; and that the Department of Agrarian Reform had previously issued a conversion clearance for the first (2) parcels of land acquired from the previous owner, Pinaumucan Industrial Estate and covered by TCT Nos. T-26247 and T-26248.
Please be informed that your desire to convert the four (4) parcels of land into ecozone cannot be legalized by a mere certification of the Department of Agrarian Reform. Specifically, DAR Administrative Order No. 12, Series of 1994, paragraph VIII (copy attached) laid down the procedures in applying for land use conversion. Clearly, it can be inferred from the said implementing guidelines that all the requirements prescribed by law for land use conversion must be adhered strictly to the letter. While the DAR may have on previous occasion issued a mere certification authorizing the conversion of the first (2) parcels of land, such authority has no bearing in the instant proposal for land use conversion as the situation in both instances are entirely different. Briefly, classification of landholdings in tax declarations are not conclusive and does not place the same property outside CARP coverage. As the subject landholdings are to be converted after the effectivity of CARL, the law requires that an application for land use conversion should be filed. Under the Department of Justice Opinion No. 44, Series of 1990, a parcel of land is considered non-agricultural and, therefore, beyond the coverage of CARP if it has been classified as residential, commercial or industrial in the City or Municipality Land Use Plan or Zoning Ordinance and approved by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) before 15 June 1988, the date of effectivity of CARL. Even granting for the sake of argument that the subject properties are indeed exempt from CARP coverage, still the exemption is not automatic as the law further requires that an application for exemption clearance is to be filed pursuant to DAR Administrative Order No. 06, Series of 1994.
Moreover, the clear mandate of the law that the applicant should observe strictly the usual procedure for land use conversion is a manifestation that conversion is looked upon with disfavor. This is so because conversion reduces substantially the productivity of agricultural lands and results to displacement of farmer-beneficiaries. Above all, the approval of application for land use conversion by the DAR is intended as a safeguard against indiscriminate land use conversion to the detriment of agricultural production. Suffice it to say that a mere certification cannot substitute the requirements prescribed by law for land use conversion.
We hope to have clarified matters with you.
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) LORENZO R. REYES
OIC-Undersecretary
LAFMA