AGRARIAN LAW AND SOCIAL LEGISLATION REVIEWER

1. CONCEPT OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

Article II Section 10. The State shall promote social justice in all phases of national development.
Article XIII, Section 1. The Congress shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures that protect
and enhance the right of all the people to human dignity, reduce social, economic, and political
inequalities, and remove cultural inequities by equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the
common good.
To this end, the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, and disposition of property and its
increments.
Section 2. The promotion of social justice shall include the commitment to create economic opportunities
based on freedom of initiative and self-reliance.
Land Classification (Art XII, Sec 3) Section 3. Lands of the public domain are classified into agricultural,
forest or timber, mineral lands and national parks. Agricultural lands of the public domain may be further
classified by law according to the uses to which they may be devoted. Alienable lands of the public domain
shall be limited to agricultural lands. Private corporations or associations may not hold such alienable
lands of the public domain except by lease, for a period not exceeding twenty-five years, renewable for
not more than twenty-five years, and not to exceed one thousand hectares in area. Citizens of the
Philippines may lease not more than five hundred hectares, or acquire not more than twelve hectares
thereof, by purchase, homestead, or grant.
Taking into account the requirements of conservation, ecology, and development, and subject to the
requirements of agrarian reform, the Congress shall determine, by law, the size of lands of the public
domain which may be acquired, developed, held, or leased and the conditions therefor.
Sec 20 LGC
Reclassification of Lands. –
(a) A city or municipality may, through an ordinance passed by the sanggunian after conducting public
hearings for the purpose, authorize the reclassification of agricultural lands and provide for the manner
of their utilization or disposition in the following cases: (1) when the land ceases to be economically
feasible and sound for agricultural purposes as determined by the Department of Agriculture or (2) where
the land shall have substantially greater economic value for residential, commercial, or industrial
purposes, as determined by the sanggunian concerned: Provided, That such reclassification shall be
limited to the following percentage of the total agricultural land area at the time of the passage of the
ordinance:
(1) For highly urbanized and independent component cities, fifteen percent (15%);
(2) For component cities and first to the third class municipalities, ten percent (10%); and
(3) For fourth to sixth class municipalities, five percent (5%): Provided, further, That agricultural lands
distributed to agrarian reform beneficiaries pursuant to Republic Act Numbered Sixty-six hundred fifty-
seven (R.A. No. 6657). otherwise known as “The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law”, shall not be
affected by the said reclassification and the conversion of such lands into other purposes shall be
governed by Section 65 of said Act.
(b) The President may, when public interest so requires and upon recommendation of the National
Economic and Development Authority, authorize a city or municipality to reclassify lands in excess of the
limits set in the next preceding paragraph.
(c) The local government units shall, in conformity with existing laws, continue to prepare their respective
comprehensive land use plans enacted through zoning ordinances which shall be the primary and
dominant bases for the future use of land resources: Provided. That the requirements for food production,
human settlements, and industrial expansion shall be taken into consideration in the preparation of such
plans.
(d) Where approval by a national agency is required for reclassification, such approval shall not be
unreasonably withheld. Failure to act on a proper and complete application for reclassification within
three (3) months from receipt of the same shall be deemed as approval thereof.
(e) Nothing in this Section shall be construed as repealing, amending, or modifying in any manner the
provisions of R.A. No. 6657.

Calalang v Williams
- Social Justice is neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy, but the
humanization of laws and the equalization of social and equalization of social and economic
forces by the State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at
least be approximated
- Social Justice means the promotion of the welfare of all the people, the adoption by the
government of measures calculated to insure economic stability of all the competent
elements of society, through the maintenance of a proper economic and social equilibrium in
the interrelations of the members of the community, constitutionally, through the exercise of
powers underlying the existence of all governments on the time-honored principle of salus
populi est suprema lex.
- “the greatest good to the greatest number.”

2. HISTORY

a. Film Viewing: Lupang Hinirang, Lupang Hinarang

-1521: Spanish “titulo”
-ownership of the crown
-those with money were given titles
-land=money=power
-1988: CARP- land distribution
-CARPer (extension and reform)
-Take away: farmers need to die before government takes action
-lack of international and domestic appreciation
-Sumilao- conversion- agricultural land to agri-industrial
-case of circumvention of conversion

b. Social and Constitutional Context of Agrarian Reform (Monsod) and Salient Features of
Agrarian Reform (Reyes)
-1987 constitution- social justice is the heart of the new constitution
-Social Justice articles
-Art XIII
-Art XII, Sec 1 or National economy
-Art XII, Sec 6, distributive justice
-Art XIV, Sec 1, quality education
-LGU
-Art II, Sec 26, equal access
-Historical timeline
1. Spanish- distribution of haciendas to Spanish military and clergy or encomiendas;
Regalian doctrine; Spanish Crown
2. US established a new class- land titling; Torrens system
 -Friar Land Act- Distribution to farmer-tillers, but it failed because of high selling
price.
3. 1935 Const- foreign access to land- corp ownership
-Rice Share Tenancy Act of 1993- regulating the “sharing,” not improvement of
farmer land acquisition
-CA 608- Security of tenure of tenants
4. Magsaysay and Macapagal tacked land reform but no significant results
-Magsaysay: Established (1) Share Tenancy and (2) Leasehold
-Established National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration
(NARRA) for free distribution of agri lands and gov’t resettlement program
5. Marcos-PD 27: Operation Land Transfer Program (OLT Program)
-Covered tenanted privately-owned rice and corn lands and alienable and
disposable public lands; retention area is 7 hectares; Award ceiling per farmer-beneficiary of
three hectares irrigated rice or corn lands or five heactares of unirrigated rice or corn lands
6. Cory-
-EO 228- full land ownership to qualified farmer-beneficiaries of PD 27
-Proclamation No. 131- Instituting Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
-RA 6657 CARL: Social Justice- welfare of landless farmers and farmworkers
-DARAB- exclusive original jurisdiction on Agrarian Reform disputes arising from
CARP implementation
-problem: rural poverty and difficulty of implementation in democratic setting (just
compensation)
-Difference between equality and equity
-Inequality- condition that can exist without necessarily any connotation of a moral
wrong. By itself is not evil, unless it is gross.
-Equity- normative or ethical concept and what is inequitable is “wrong” or “evil” or
“unjust”
-Objective of agrarian reform is not efficiency or productivity or even faster economic
growth, but equity.
-Strong link between industrial and economic progress, and agricultural development and
agrarian reform

c. Offering Guideposts for Reform Efforts (Delos Reyes)

-2 laws covering current agrarian reform program (1) PD 27 and (2) CARL
-Responsible Agencies (1) DAR- emancipation patents or certificate of Land Ownership Award
and (2) DENR- free patents and homestead
-problem: inconsistent and independent data between the two agencies
-colonial legacy: unequal distribution of land
- 4 types of agrarian land: (1) private land subject to tenancy (2) private and public lands used
as plantations for corporate plantations (3) haciendas in private land (4) occupied
government-owned lands
-major flaw in design of PH agrarian law
(1) lack of accurate date on private agricultural lands
(2) demographic data not considered- increase in rural population with no increase in
agricultural land
(3) linking budgeting and planning
(4) bureaucracy took time to adjust
-Ways forward:
 (1) immediate and short-term: data collection
(2) long-term (a) agriculture and rural development (b) land administration

d. Land: The Triumph of Gardening (Studwell)

Country Agrarian/Land Reform
US -well-managed vegetable gardens
-high-output gardening
Japan -Daimyo- quasi-feudal lords operating vast
estates farmed by smallholders who were
serf tenants
-Meiji administration pensioned off daimyo
and awarded to farmers
-farmers were incentivized to invest in their
land
-Central government hired American
specialists to introduce new farming
techniques and training services
- “If you wish for industrialization, prepare to
develop agriculture.”
- “terms of trade” between agriculture and
manufacturing
-There is a great difference between the
productivity of owner-farmer land and that
of tenanted land.
-cultural aversion to high-rise building
China -Cruelest suffering for centuries
-a lot died of hunger; Spring hunger; slavery;
landlord violence; domestic violence; usury;
endemic mafia-style
-Communist Party of China began “land to
tiller” policy; double reduction; and bottom-
up demand for land redistribution
-Mao’s dictum that revolution is not a dinner
party; land expropriation was violent; land
reform was critical to communist victory
-CPC village- attack against landlords and
middle peasants
-progressive tax system
-problem: (1) Marxist dogma (2) obsession
with large scale
 Korea -most unequal land ownership
-American Military Government instituted
rent controls and requirements for written
leases on previously Japanese-controlled
land
-land reform retention of five hectares was
introduced in North Korea. Little violence
and grass roots support
-SKor: resentment against heavy-handed
government by AMG
-AMG’s redistribution of lands of formerly
controlled by Japanese interests
-less farmer participation
-government forcibly procured rice at less
than the cost of production; Korea became
dependent on US food aid
-state provided household agriculture and
relied on foreign borrowing for finance;
import-dependent

Taiwan -most interesting agricultural story (1) island

produced the most remarkable development
results (2) subtropical climate.
-Chiang Kai Shek in Taiwan (1) state
investment and rural infrastructure; (2)
irrigation; (3) land reclamation; (4)
promotion of fertilizer
-Kuomintang Rent Control + Joint
Commission on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR)
-written tenancy agreements for a minimum
of 6 yrs + protection of landlords
- Participation of all sectors (1) tenants (2)
landlords (3) owner-farmers
-Greater equality from land reform and a
more incentivizing market structure on
output
-Benefits of agricultural output maximization
(1) lead to increased surplus, more savings for financing industrial investment
(2) big yield gains also mean big rural consumption
(3) perspective of foreign trade- instead of spending more on imported foreign food,
invest on technology essential for development and learning
(4) household farms play a vital and much under-remarked, welfare role
-capital and technical support
-farming incentives
-URBAN BIAS- tendency of the urban elites that run poor countries to undervalue farmers
-Deininger’s two big conclusions:
 (1) land inequality= low long-term growth
(2) low growth= low income for poor but not for the rich
-Fundamentals of Third World agriculture: landlords are ascendant; most faming is conducted
by landless peasants; famers who have been granted plots through poorly conceived land
reform initiatives have mostly leased them back to landlords or lost control of them through
indebtedness
-PH dilemma: land reform plans coupled with ruling elite
-PH broke the cardinal rule (don’t let the farm owner deal with the farmers directly) of land
reform because ownership was only in paper and highly-controlled by elites
-lacks state support

DOJ Opinion 44
- The authority of the DAR to approve or disapprove conversions of agricultural lands to non-
agricultural uses applies only to conversions made on or after June 15, 1988, the date of
effectivity of R.A. No. 6657, solely on the basis of our interpretation of DAR's mandate and
the comprehensive coverage of the land reform program.
- Being vested with exclusive original jurisdiction over all matters involving the implementation
of agrarian reform, it is believed to be the agrarian reform law's intention that any conversion
of a private agricultural land to non- agricultural uses should be cleared beforehand by the
DAR.
- Hence, it should logically follow from the said department's express duty and function to
execute and enforce the said statute that any reclassification of a private land as a residential,
commercial or industrial property should first be cleared by the DAR.
- It is conceded that under the laws in force prior to the enactment and effective date of R.A.
No. 6657, the DAR had likewise the authority, to authorize conversions of agricultural lands
to other uses, but always in coordination with other concerned agencies.
DOJ Opinion 181
- Applicability of CARP upon estate of Doronila
- Dismissal of the expropriation case against Doronila properties did not adversely affect the
continuing enforceability of Proclamation Nos 1283 and 1637 and LOI No. 625. Hence. The
status of subject properties as being embraced within a town site reservation is still valid and
subsisting
- -Neither Proclamation No. 1283 nor Proc No. 1673 has been expressly repealed by RA 6657