DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF PD27 AND RA6657,

EXEMPTION DISTINGUISHED FROM RETENTION

> PD27 implemented the Operation Land Transfer
Programcovers tenanted rice and corn lands
> The requisites for coverage under the Operation Land
Transfer program are the following
o The land must be devoted to rice or corn crops
o There must be a system of share-crop or lease-tenancy
obtaining therein
> If either is absent, the landowner may apply for
exemption
> PD27 grants each tenant of covered lands a 5 hectare
lot, or in case the lot is irrigated, 3 hectares constituting
the family size farm. However, said law allows a covered
landowner to retain not more than 7 hectares of his land if
his aggregate landholding doesnt exceed 24 hectares
> Consequently, a landowner may keep his whole covered
land if its aggregate size doesnt exceed the retention limit
of 7 hectares
> An application for exemption is different from that of
retention. They are distinct remedies and thus, judgment
in one doesnt preclude the subsequent institution of the
other
> The right to retention is a constitutionally guaranteed
right which is subject to the qualifications by the legislature
> Landowners who havent exercised their retention rights
under PD27 may exercise their retention rights under RA
6657
> The right to retention may be exercised over tenanted
land despite the issuance of the certificate of land transfer
to farmerbeneficiaries. What must be protected, however,
is the right of the tenants to opt to stay on the land chosen
to be retained by the landowner or be a beneficiary in
another agricultural land with similar or comparable
features
> Land awards made pursuant to a governments agrarian
reform program are subject to the exercise of the
landowner who is qualified to the right of retention
> The issuance of emancipation patents or certificates of
land transfers doesnt absolutely bar the landowner from
retaining the area covered thereby
WAIVER OF RIGHT OF RETENTION
1. Executing an affidavit or any other document duly
attested by the MARO, Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer,
or Regional Director, indicating that he is expressly
waiving his right of retention
2. Signing of the landowner-tenant production agreement
and farmers undertaking or application for purchase and
farmers undertaking, covering subject property
3. Entering into a voluntary land transfer/direct payment
scheme agreement
4. Offering the subject landholding under VOS scheme
and failure to indicate his retained area
5. Signing or submission of other documents indicating
consent to have the entire property covered, such as the
form letter of the LBP on the disposition of the case and
bond portions of a land transfer claim for payment, and the
Deed of Assignment, warranties and undertaking and
undertaking executed in favor of the LBP

6. Performing acts which constitute estoppel by laches

7. Doing such act or acts as would amount to a valid
waiver in accordance with applicable laws and
jurisprudence
ONLY AGRICULTURAL LANDS ARE SUBJECT TO THE
AGRARIAN REFORM COVERAGE
AGRICULTURAL LAND
> Refers to land devoted to agricultural activity as defined
in this Act and not classified as mineral, forest, residential,
commercial or industrial land.
AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITY
> Means the cultivation of the soil, planting of crops,
growing of fruit trees, including the harvesting of such farm
products, and other farm activities and practices
performed by a farmer in conjunction with such farming
operations done by persons whether natural of juridical.
WHAT ARE EXCLUDED?
1. Lands converted to non-agricultural use before the
effectivity of CARL are outside the coverage
2. Farms used for livestock, poultry and swine not covered
3. Agricultural lands reclassified by LGUs into residential,
commercial, or industrial uses excluded
4. Lands used for academic or educational purposes
exempted
5. Homesteads are excluded
JURISDICTION OF DAR
> Matters involving the administrative implementation of
the transfer of the land, such as the giving out of notices of
coverage to the tenant-farmer under PD27 and
amendatory and related decrees, rules and regulations,
shall be exclusively cognizable by the Secretary of
Agrarian Reform, including the issuance, recall, or
cancellation of emancipation patents or certificates of land
ownership award, save when such certificates of land
transfer have been registered with the RD, in which
instance the recalling authority would be the DARAB
DEEMED TO BE THE OWNERAS DEFINED IN PD 27
> Grantee of a certificate of land transfer must be
construed within the policy framework of PD 27 and
interpreted with other stipulations of the certificate issued
pursuant to the Decree

PD27 was anchored upon the fundamental

objective of addressing valid and legitimate
grievances of land ownership giving rise to violent
conflict and social tension in the countryside

SCOPE OF THE COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN

REFORM LAW OR REPUBLIC ACT 6657
> Agrarian Reform means the redistribution of lands,
regardless of crops or fruits produced, to farmers and
regular farm workers who are landless, irrespective of
tenurial arrangement, to include the totality of factors and
support services designed to lift the economic status of
the beneficiaries and all other arrangements alternative to
the physical redistribution of lands, such as production or
profit-sharing, labor administration, and the distribution of
shares of stock, which will allow beneficiaries to receive a
just share of the fruits of the lands they work.
EXEMPTIONS AND EXCLUSIONS
1. Lands actually, directly and exclusively used for parks,
wildlife, forest reserves, reforestation, fish sunctuaries and
breeding grounds, watersheds and mangroves shall be
exempt from the coverage of this Act.

2. Private lands actually, directly and exclusively used for

prawn farms and fishponds shall be exempt from the
coverage of this Act: Provided, That said prawn farms and
fishponds have not been distributed and Certificate of
Land Ownership Award (CLOA) issued to Agrarian Reform
Program. In cases where the fishponds or prawn farms
have been subjected to the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Law, by voluntary offer to sell, or commercial
farms deferment or notices of compulsory acquisition , a
simple and absolute majority of the actual regular workers
or tenants must consent to the exemption within one (1)
year from the effectivity of this Act. When the workers or
tenants do not agree to this exemption, the fishponds or
prawn farms shall be distributed collectively to the workerbeneficiaries or tenants who shall from cooperative or
association to manage the same.
In cases where the fishponds or prawn farms have not
been subjected to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Law, the consent of the farm workers shall no longer be
necessary; however, the provision of Section 32-A hereof
on incentives shall apply.
3. Lands actually, directly and exclusively used and found
to be necessary for national defense, school sites and
campuses, including experimental farm stations operated
by public or private schools for educational purposes,
seeds and seedlings research and pilot production center,
church sites and convents
appurtenant thereto, mosque sites and Islamic centers
appurtenant thereto, communal burial grounds and
cemeteries, penal colonies and penal farms actually
worked by the inmates, government and private research
and quarantine centers and all lands with eighteen percent
(18%) slope and over, except those already developed,
shall be exempt from the coverage of this Act. (As
amended by R.A 7881)

The State shall respect the right of small

landowners, and shall provide for voluntary landsharing

EFFECT OF VOID CONVEYANCE

> Where the parties to a sale of a portion of the public
domain covered by homestead patent have been
proven to be guilty of having effected the transaction
with knowledge of the cause of its invalidity, the sale is
null and void and shall cause the reversion of the
property to the State
RULE OF PARI DELICTO NOT APPLICABLE
> The principle of in pari delicto is not applicable to
cases when its application would run counter to the an
avowed public fundamental policy or to public interest
> Whether as a result of the void sale the land
reverted to the State is a point between the State and
the grantee of the homestead and his heirs. In any
event, the plaintiffs right to the possession and use of
the property can hardly be disputed while the
government doesnt take steps to assert its title to the
homestead.
Reversion isnt automatic. As long as the
government has not chosen to act, the rights of
the patentee stand and must be recognized in the
courts of law.
REPURCHASE OF LAND BY APPLICANT OR HIS
HEIRS
> Sanctioned by Section 119 of the Public Land Act
> The right to repurchase attaches to every alienation and
encumbrance, and that right can be exercised even in the
absence of any stipulation in the deed of sale

PRESIDENTIAL DECREE 27 LAID DOWN A SYSTEM

FOR THE PURCHASE BY SMALL FARMERS OF THE
LANDS THEY WERE TILLING

> To give the homesteader or patentee every chance to

preserve for himself and his family the land that the state
had gratuitously given to him as a reward for his labor in
cleaning and cultivating it

> Presidential Decree 27 was anchored upon the

fundamental objective of addressing valid and legitimate
grievances of land ownership giving rise to violent conflict
and social tension in the countryside
> Recognized the necessity to encourage a more
productive agricultural base to the countrys economy

> The five-year period starts from the date of execution of

the deed of sale, and not from the date of registration in
the office of the Register of Deeds. This is true even if the
full payment of the purchase price is not made on the date
of conveyance unless there is stipulation to the contrary.

The certificate of land transfer under Presidential

Decree 27 provides that the tenant farmer is
deemed to be the owner of the agricultural land
subject to the conditions that the cost of the
portion transferred to him, including the interest,
shall be paid in 15 equal annual amortizations,
and that he must be a member of a barrio
association upon organization of such association
in his legality

RA 6657 OR COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM

LAW OF 1988
> Agrarian reform program is founded on the right of
farmers and regular farm workers, who are landless, to
own directly or collectively the lands they till, or in case of
other farm workers, to receive a just share on the fruits
thereof
> To this end, the State shall encourage and undertake the
just distribution of all agricultural lands, subject to the
priorities and retention limits set forth in the law, taking into
account
ecological,
developmental,
and
equity
considerations and subject to the payment of just
compensation

A HOMESTEAD IS EXEMPT FROM CARP COVERAGE

RULE WHEN HOMESTEAD IS SUBJECT OF
MORTGAGE
> The five-year period begins from the date when the
deed of absolute sale is executed and the property is
formally transferred to the purchaser
PROHIBITION AGAINST ALIENATION OF LANDS
ACQUIRED UNDER THE HOMESTEAD AND FREE
PATENT PROVISIONS
> Section 116. Except in favor of the Government or any
of its branches, units or institutions, or legally constituted
banking corporations, lands acquired under the free patent
or homestead provisions shall not be subject to
encumbrance or alienation from the date of the approval
of the application and for a term of five years from and
after the date of issuance of the patent or grant, nor shall
they become liable to the satisfaction of any debt
contracted prior to the expiration of said period; but the
improvements or crops on the land may be mortgaged or
pledged to qualified persons, associations, or
corporations. (As amended by section 23 of Act No. 3517).
> Section 119. Except with the consent of the grantee and
the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural
Resources, and solely for commercial, industrial,

educational, religious or charitable purposes or for a right

of way, no corporation, association, or partnership, may
acquire or have any right, title,
interest, or property right whatsoever to any land granted
under the free patent, homestead or individual sale
provisions of this Act or to any permanent improvement on
such land. (As amended by section 24 of Act. No. 3517).
> Section 120. No land originally acquired in any manner
under the provisions of this Act, nor any permanent
improvement on such land, shall be encumbered,
alienated, or transferred, except to persons, corporations,
associations, or partnerships who may acquire lands of
the public domain under this Act; to corporations
organized in the Philippine Islands authorized therefor by
their charters, and upon express authorization by the
Philippine Legislature, to citizens of countries the laws of
which grant to citizens of the Philippine Islands the same
right to acquire, hold, lease, encumber, dispose of, or
alienate land, or permanent improvements thereon, or any
interest therein, as to their own citizens, only in the
manner and to the extent specified in such laws, and while
the same are in force, but not thereafter.
> Section 122. Any acquisition, conveyance, alienation,
transfer, or other contract made or executed in violation of
any of the provisions of sections one hundred and sixteen,
one hundred and eighteen, one hundred nineteen, one
hundred and twenty, and one hundred and twenty-one of
this act shall be unlawful and null and void from its
execution and shall produce the effect of annulling and
canceling the grant, title, patent, or permit originally
issued,
recognized,
or
confirmed,
actually
or
presumptively, and cause the reversion of the property
and its improvements to the Government.

Section 122(A). The provisions of sections twenty

three, twenty four, thirty four, fifty seven, one
hundred and twenty, and one hundred and twentyone of this Act, and any other provisions or
provisions restricting or tending to restrict the right
of persons, corporations, or associations to
acquire, hold, lease, encumber, dispose of, or
alienate land in the Philippines, or permanent
improvements thereon, or any interest therein,
shall not be applied in cases in which the right to
acquire, hold or dispose of such land, permanent
improvements thereon or interests therein in the
Philippine Islands is recognized by existing
treaties in favor of citizens or subjects of foreign
nations and corporations or associations
organized and constituted by the same, which
right in so far as it exists under such treatise, shall
continue and subsist in the manner and to the
extent stipulated in said treaties, and only while
these are in force, but not thereafter.