ASSOCIATION OF SMALL LANDOWNERS IN THE PHILLIPPHINES VS HONORABLE SECRETARY OF AGRARIAN

REFORM GR 78742 JULY 14, 1989

History
The consolidated case here tell of the elemental forces of life and death, of men and
women who need the sustaining strength of the precious earth to stay alive.
“Land for the Landless” is a slogan that underscores the acute imbalance in the
distribution of this precious resource among our people. It has became a battle-cry
dramatizing the increasingly urgent demand of the dispossessed among us for a plot of
earth as their place in the sun
1935 Constitution recognizes this need, and mandated the policy of social justice to
“Insure the well-being and economic security of all the people” especially the less
privileged.
In 1973, the new Constitution affirmed this goal adding that the “The State shall
regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, enjoyment and disposition of private property
and equitably diffuse property ownership and profits” with the injunction “to formulate
and implement an agrarian reform program aimed at emancipating the tenant form
the bondage of the soil”
The 19787 Constitution adopted Article XIII on Social Justice and Human Rights
provisions for the uplift of the common people.
Sec 4. The State shall, by law, undertake an agrarian reform program founded on the
right of farmers and regular farmworkers, who are landless, to own directly or
collectively the lands they till or, in the case of other farmworkers, to receive a just
share of the fruits thereof. To this end, the State shall encourage and undertake the
just distribution of all agricultural lands, subject to such priorities and reasonable
retention limits as the Congress may prescribe, taking into account ecological,
developmental, or equity considerations and subject to the payment of just
compensation. In determining retention limits, the State shall respect the right of
small landowners. The State shall further provide incentives for voluntary land-
sharing.

In August 8, 1963 - R.A. No. 3844, otherwise known as the Agricultural Land Reform
Code, had already been enacted by the Congress of the Philippines in line with the
above-stated principles
October 21, 1972 - superseded P.D. No. 27 to provide for the compulsory acquisition
of private lands for distribution among tenant-farmers and to specify maximum
retention limits for landowners.
July 17, 1987 - President Corazon C. Aquino issued E.O. No. 228, declaring full land
ownership in favor of the beneficiaries of P.D. No. 27 and providing for the valuation of
still unvalued lands covered by the decree as well as the manner of their payment
July 22, 1987 - Presidential Proclamation No. 131, instituting a comprehensive
agrarian reform program (CARP) E.O. No. 229, providing the mechanics for its
implementation.
June 10, 1988 - enactment of R.A. No. 6657, otherwise known as the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Law of 1988
This law, while considerably changing the earlier mentioned enactments, nevertheless
gives them suppletory effect insofar as they are not inconsistent with its provisions.