CHAPTER IV

Registration

Section 14. Registration of Landowners

Upon the effectiveness of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, all persons covered
by the said law are given 180 days to submit a SWORN STATEMENT directly to the
assessor’s office

Who are the persons covered? These persons are the landowners in general, they are
classified by CARL into three:

1. Natural Persons – it is one who has its own legal personality, that is an individual
human being;
2. Juridical Persons - is a non-human legal entity, in other words any organization
that is not a single natural person but is authorized by law with duties and rights
and is recognized as a legal person and as having a distinct identity.
3. Government entities – any governmental body having jurisdiction over any matter
contemplated by the CARL.

EXCEPTION: Persons who have already registered pursuant to SECTION

4. Compulsory Registration of Executive Order No. 229 or the ORDER
PROVIDING THE MECHANISMS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM which was
promulgated a year before this act was promulgated

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In the SWORN STATEMENTS that are to be submitted by the persons covered, they are
required to indicate the following information:
1. The description and area of their subject property;
2. The average gross income of their property in a period of 3 years;
3. The names of all the tenants and farmworkers that work in their properties;
4. The classification of crops planted or sowed in their respective properties
and the area covered by each crop as of June 1, 1987;
5. The terms of mortgages, lease, and management contracts subsisting
within their properties as of June 1, 1987, and
6. Lastly, the latest declared market value of the subject lands as determined
by their respective city or provincial assessors.

NOTE: PURPOSE OF SWORN STATEMENT – It helps the Department of Agrarian

Reform (DAR) to properly identify the lands and their owners for the effective
implementation of agrarian reform program

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Section 15. Registration of Beneficiaries
 I.The process of registering the beneficiaries, under this section, the Department of Agrarian
Reform in coordination with the Barangay Agrarian Reform Committee of BARC as organized
by CARL, shall register the agricultural lessees who are qualified to become beneficiaries of the
program:

A. The potential beneficiaries are the tenants and farmworkers:

B. Together with the assistance of the BARC and the DAR, the beneficiaries
shall provide and submit to them the following data:
1. All the names and members of their immediate farm household;
2. The owners or administrators of the lands they work on and the
length of their tenurial relationship;
3. The specific location and area of the land they work on;
4. The kinds of crops planted in their agricultural workplaces; and
5. Lastly, their share in the harvest or amount of rental paid or wages
received.

II. This procedure requires that the copy of the registry or list of all potential CARP
beneficiaries in the barangay shall be posted in the following places:
1. In Barangay halls;
2. Schools; or
3. Other public buildings in the barangay – which must be open to inspection
by the general public at all reasonable hours.

NOTE: The PURPOSE OF REGISTRATION OF AGRICULTURAL LESSEES, TENANTS

AND FARM WORKERS – is intended to the development of a databank of potential and
qualified beneficiaries for effective implementation of the agrarian reform program.

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CHAPTER V
Land Acquisition
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Section 16. Procedure for Acquisition and Distribution of Private Lands (as amended by Section
6, R.A. 9700)
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Under this amended section, we will answer the following questions:

I.How does the compulsory acquisition of agricultural lands process works?

First, the DAR identifies the subject land, landowner and beneficiary, the department will then
notify the landowner about compulsory acquisition and price offer through: 1). personal notice
or by registered mail; and 2) by posting the said notice in a conspicuous place in barangay hall
and municipal hall where land is located so that the notice will be easily seen by the landowner
as well as the beneficiaries.
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Now we go to the possible scenarios in regard to either the landowner accepts or rejects the
offered price by the Department of Agrarian Reform:

a. If the landowner accepts the offer, the Land Bank will then pay the
landowner within 30 days from execution and the delivery of Deed of
Transfer;
b. If the landowner rejects the offer – the DAR will then commence a
summary proceeding with the landowner to determine the proper and
adjusted just compensation offer –

In the case of (Mateo vs DAR, G.R. No. 186339) this is when the petitioners
rejected the offer made by the Land Bank of the Philippines and DAR but
before the institution of the summary proceedings in determining the
adjusted compensation, the petitioners filed a civil action against the LBP
and the department for the proper payment of just compensation. The action
was raffled to a Special Agrarian Court or SAC that fixed the amount of the
just compensation of the petitioners and ordering the LBP to pay the said
fee. However, the CA reversed the decision made by SAC as it was
supposed to be the DAR Adjudication Board (DARAB) who must have
heard the case in determining the right compensation since it has the quasi-
judicial authority to make a preliminary determination of just compensation
of lands acquired under R.A. No. 6657. The CA further averred that the filing
of the petitioners of the civil action was premature, thus failing to exhaust
the prescribed administrative remedy and, in the process, preventing the
DARAB from complying with [the] said administrative process which is
mandatory.

When the case reached the SC, the Court held that the CA erred in ordering
the dismissal of the Mateos' complaint before the SAC. The doctrine of
exhaustion of administrative remedies finds no application in the instant
case where the DAR took no initiative and inordinately delayed the conduct
of summary administrative proceedings, and where during the pendency of
the case before the SAC, the DARAB rendered decisions affirming the
LBP's prior valuations of the subject property. Thus, it resulted to the civil
action made by the petitioners. Hence, the Court remanded the case back
to the trial court for the final determination of the just compensation.

c. Next, what if the landowner disagrees with DAR’s decision in the

summary proceedings, that is the time that the regular courts of justice for
final determination of just compensation.
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Moving forward, the taking of immediate possession of land by the DAR can only be concluded
if, 1) the landowner receives corresponding payment or 2) when the landowner does not respond
to notice of acquisition.

Next, to this process, a request will be sent by DAR to Register of Deeds to issue Transfer
Certificate of Title to Republic of Philippines.

And lastly, there will be a distribution of land to qualified beneficiaries.

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II. What are the kinds of notices required for validity of implementation addressed to the
landowner:

A. Notice of Coverage is based on the following:

1. Pursuant to DAR Administrative Order No. 12 of 1989 – the Municipal
Agrarian Reform Officer with the assistance of BARC shall send a notice of
coverage and a letter of invitation to a conference or a meeting to the
landowner covered by the Compulsory Acquisition Case Folder which will
be sent to the following to discuss the inputs to the valuation of the property:
1. Prospective farmer-beneficiaries
2. BARC representatives
3. The LBP representatives
4. And other interested parties
2. Also, in compliance with administrative due process of DAR

B. Notice of Acquisition
 Again, pursuant to this section which laid out the notice of acquisition.

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III. How to construe the procedure of land acquisition?

A. What is the reason for construing the provisions of this act? The land acquisition under
agrarian reform law is an extraordinary method of expropriation. It should be strictly construed
against the department and all of its agencies and liberally construed in favor of property owners.

B. Failure of DAR or any of its agencies to comply with proper procedure for expropriation
is a violation of constitutional due process and in effect arbitrary, capricious, whimsical and
tainted with grave abuse of discretion, such as no notice of coverage issued. Section 1 of the
Bill of Rights under Article 3 of the Constitution proscribes that, “No person shall be deprived of
life, liberty, or property without due process of law…” the deprivation of such is again, a
constitutional violation
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IV. Lastly in discussing this section, when does the title or ownership of the land be
transferred to the State, a question of the government’s power of eminent domain?
1. It is only when there is full payment of just compensation by DAR to the
landowners;

If there is yet no final determination of just compensation and full payment to the land owner, the
title and ownership remains to the latter.

A deposited offered price by DAR does not automatically warrant the cancellation of the
landowner’s title.

NOTE: The OPENING OF TRUST ACCOUNT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE PAYMENT –

Our law requires that just compensation to be paid in cash and Land Bank bonds, trust
accounts is not considered to form part of the said compensation.

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