The essential elements of an agricultural tenancy

relationship are: (1) the parties are the landowner and the
tenant or agricultural lessee; (2) the subject matter of the
relationship is agricultural land; (3) there is consent between
the parties to the relationship; (4) the purpose of the
relationship is to bring about agricultural production; (5)
there is personal cultivation on the part of the tenant or
agricultural lessee; and (6) the harvest is shared between
the landowner and the tenant or agricultural lessee. Granada v.
Bormaheco, Inc., G.R. No. 154481, July 27, 2007, 528 SCRA 259, 268.

The relationship cannot be presumed.63 VHJ Construction and Development Corporation v.

CA, 480 Phil. 28 (2004) All the requisite conditions for its existence must be proven, to wit:
(1) The parties are the landowner and the tenant.
(2) The subject is agricultural land.
(3) There is consent by the landowner.
(4) The purpose is agricultural production.
(5) There is personal cultivation.
(6) There is a sharing of harvests.

The burden rests on the shoulders of petitioners to prove their affirmative allegation
of tenancy, which burden they failed to discharge with substantial evidence. Such a
juridical tie must be aptly shown. Simply put, he who alleges the affirmative of the
issue has the burden of proof, and from the plaintiff in a civil case, the burden of
proof never parts. Asian Construction and Development Corporation v. Tulabut,
G.R. No. 161904, 26 April 2005, 457 SCRA 317, 326, citing Manongsong v.
Estimo, 452 Phil. 862, 877 (2003). Indeed, it is elementary that one who alleges the
affirmative of the issue has the burden of proof. Adriano v. Tanco, G.R. No. 168164,
July 5, 2010, 623 SCRA 218, 230.

Ownership is the independent and general power of a person over a

thing for purposes recognized by law and within the limits established
thereby. Commentaries and Jurisprudence on the Civil Code of the Philippines, Volume II,
Tolentino, p. 45. According to Art. 428 of the Civil Code, this means that:
The owner has the right to enjoy and dispose of a thing, without other
limitations than those established by law.
xxx xxx xxx
Aside from the jus utendi and the jus abutendi (Jus utendi is the right to receive from the
thing what it produces. Jus abutendi is the right to consume the thing by its use.) inherent
in the right to enjoy the thing, the right to dispose, or the jus disponendi, is the

power of the owner to alienate, encumber, transform and even destroy the thing
owned. Commentaries and Jurisprudence on the Civil Code of the Philippines, Volume II,
Tolentino p. 45-46.