AGRARIAN LAW AND SOCIAL LEGISLATION

Course Overview and Description

This course is designed to provide law students with insight into the core concepts of social justice and
social legislation and how they are implemented in agrarian reform law as designed and implemented
under RA 6657 (as amended) as well as other social legislations. The focus of the course will be on agrarian
reform with discussions on the historical background and the key ideas underpinning this social justice
legislation.

The student will also be given a detailed analysis of the dispute resolution mechanism within the DAR and
the DAR Adjudication Board.

The course finally aims to provide the students not only with a working and practical knowledge of
agrarian reform law to equip them in their future practice as well as to assist prospective clients, but also
to develop their respective perspectives on how the social justice thrust of the 1987 Constitution should
be interpreted and made relevant and a reality under the Philippine legal system.

COURSE OUTLINE:

1. Brief History of Agrarian Reform Law in the Philippines

a. THE DEVELOPMENT OF POST WAR PHILIPPINE LAND REFORM: POLITICAL AND
SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS by DAVID WURFEL
b. Agrarian Reform History (https://www.dar.gov.ph/about-us/agrarian-reform-
history/#prespanish )
2. Constitutional and Legal Framework of Agrarian Law
a. Art. II, Section 21, 1987 Philippine Constitution
b. Art XIII, Sections 1 – 2, 4 – 7
c. RA 3844 as amended by RA 6389 (Agricultural Land Reform Code) August 8, 1963
d. PD 27 (Emancipation of Tenants from the Bondage of the Soil) Oct. 21, 1972.
e. Executive Order 228 (Declaring Full Land Ownership to Qualified Beneficiaries covered
by PD 27) 17 July 1987
f. Executive Order 129-A (Modifying EO 129 Reorganizing and Strengthening DAR) 26 July
1987
g. Proclamation 131 (Instituting a Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program) 22 July 1987
h. RA 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program) June 10, 1988
i. RA 7881 (Amending the CARP) February 20, 1995
j. RA 9700 (Strengthening the CARP) August 7, 2009
k. Sec. 2 RA 6657 (as amended by RA 9700) – Declaration of Principles and Policies
3. Institutional Framework for Agrarian Law
a. The Department of Agrarian Reform
b. The DAR Adjudication Boards
c. Landbank of the Philippines
d. Special Agrarian Courts (SAC)
4. Basic Concepts and Principles and Modes and Procedure for Acquisition, Distribution
and Cancellation
 a. Association of Small Landowners in the Philippines et. al., versus Secretary of
Agrarian Reform, GR. No. 79310, July 14, 1989 (175 SCRA 343)
b. Roxas vs. Court of Appeals (GR No. 127876, Dec. 17, 1999)
c. EUDOSIA DAEZ vs. CA, G.R. No. 133507, February 17, 2000
d. THE TENANTS OF THE ESTATE OF DR. JOSE SISON, vs. CA, G.R. No. 93045, June 29, 1992
e. RODRIGUEZ VS. SALVADOR, G.R. No. 171972, June 08, 2011
f. BUKLOD NANG MAGBUBUKID SA LUPAING RAMOS, INC., VS. E. M. RAMOS AND
SONS, INC., G.R. No. 131481, March 16, 2011
g. Luz Farms vs SAR, GR No. 86889, December 4, 1990
h. De guzman vs CA, GR. No. 156965, October 12, 2006
i. DAR vs DECS, 426 SCRA 217
j. Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association vs Loreto Nicolas, GR. No. 168394,
October 6, 2008
5. Just Compensation and the Valuation and Payment Process
a. HEIRS OF DR. JOSE DELESTE, vs. LAND BANK OF THE PHILIPPINES (LBP), G.R. No.
169913, June 8, 2011
b. Hacienda Luisita vs PARC, GR. No. 171101, November 20, 2006
c. Landbank vs Villegas, 616 SCRA 626
6. Judicial Review
7. Penal Provisions
8. Social Legislations (to be identified)