RA 6657, as amended: THE COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM LAW

“COMPREHENSIVE”

(1) Not anymore limited to private lands primarily devoted to rice and corn
(2) Farmers are not left on their own after the process of land transfer. They will be aided and
trained how to fully and efficiently use human and natural resources.
(3) Farming and use of agriculture will not anymore be purely manual agricultural activities.
Industrialization will be highly encouraged.
(4) As a legislation in the modern society, it expressly recognizes the inherent and independent
right of women to own and control lands.
(5) The law now recognizes environmental and ecological demands and effects of agrarian reform.

RA 6657 took effect on JUNE 10, 1988

PRELIMINARIES

Government Offices concerned with Agrarian Reform

Department of Agrarian Reform:

 Two-Pronged Jurisdiction
(1) Implementation (Executive and Quasi-legislative)
(2) Dispute Resolution (Quasi-judicial)

Organizational Structure:

President

Office of Secretary

Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (Exec and Quasi-legislative)

Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (Quasi-judicial)

Legal – Finance – Support – Public Assistance – Operations (Ancillary Offices)

PRESIDENTIAL AGRARIAN REFORM COUNCIL (Executive and Quasi-Legislative)

 Larger Deliberative Body

 Chaired by the President of the Philippines. Vice-Chair is the Secretary of DAR
 Has jurisdiction on the implementation and the promulgation of rules and regulations on
agrarian reform

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
  Smaller Deliberative Body
 Headed by the Secretary of DAR
 May meet and decide on any and all matters when the Committee is not in session. But
must always communicate decision to the Committee upon the start of the session.

PROVINCIAL AGRARIAN REFORM COORDINATING COMMITTEE

 To encourage participation in the provincial level

 Created for the purpose of coordinating and monitoring. As part of monitoring, it is involved
in information-gathering
 Creation recognizes the peculiarities of agrarian conditions per province

*coordinate and monitor; task or charged with gathering info, intelligence gathering, inspect,
ocular inspection

BARANGAY AGRARIAN REFORM COMMITTEE

 Provide support to implementation in the barangay level

 To mediate, conciliate or arbitrate agrarian conflicts

*roots, help implement and maintain compliance with the law)

*resorted to for their mediation, arbitration, conciliation function in the barangay level

Where does the government source the funds for agrarian reform?

-(SEC. 63 of RA 6657) Agrarian Reform Fund

“SECTION 63. Funding Source. — The initial amount needed to implement this Act for the period of
ten (10) years upon approval hereof shall be funded from the Agrarian Reform Fund created under
Sections 20 and 21 of Executive Order No. 229.

Additional amounts are hereby authorized to be appropriated as and when needed to augment the
Agrarian Reform Fund in order to fully implement the provisions of this Act.”

“Sources of funding or appropriations shall include the following: a) Proceeds of the sales of the
Assets Privatization Trust; b) All receipts from assets recovered and from sales of ill-gotten wealth
recovered through the Presidential Commission on Good Government; c) Proceeds of the
disposition of the properties of the Government in foreign countries; d) Portion of amounts accruing
to the Philippines from all sources of official foreign aid grants and concessional 􀀿nancing from all
countries, to be used for the speci􀀿c purposes of 􀀿nancing production credits, infrastructures, and
other support services required by this Act; e) Other government funds not otherwise appropriated.

All funds appropriated to implement the provisions of this Act shall be considered continuing
appropriations during the period of its implementation.

Laurel vs. Garcia

“Sec. 63 (c) of RA 6657 which provides as one of the sources of funds for its implementation . . . . . “
Who holds these funds?

Land Bank of the Philippines

 Created by Ra 6657 to serve as the primary financial support provider in all phases of
agrarian reform
 It is the official financial intermediary for the implementation of CARP
 Indispensable role in acquisition proceedings for agrarian reform

Davao Fruits Corp v. LBP

The LBP being the financial intermediary for the implement of the CARP has personality to file a case
with the courts for the final determination of just compensation

Once an expropriation proceeding for the acquisition of private agricultural lands is commenced by the
DAR, the indispensable role of LBP begins, because it is the one ordered to pay the landowner. It can
agree or disagree with the valuation of Dar, and in case the latter, it can invoke the judicial power of
determination of just compensation.

Who are affected by the provisions of the CARL?

 Natural persons holding lands exceeding 5 hectares

 Public Corporations, regardless of areas held (Trustees of Public and Patrimonial Land)

How about private corporations?

Private Corps are affected depending . . .

 If the land is already converted into private land, private corporations will be affected as owners.
 If the land is still an alienable and disposable land of public domain (Patrimonial land), the
private corporation will be affected only as a lessee. (a thousand hectares)

Chaves v. PEA

- Private Corps are prohibited from owning alienable and disposable lands of public domain. They
are only allowed to lease up to 1,000 hectares thereof. The reason is to encourage economic
family-size farms and allowing private corporations to A&D lands of public domain would
prevent that.
- In the implementation of RA 6657, the rules and principles under RA 3844 (Sec 36 repealed) and
PD 27will still have application, albeit only suppletory.

DEFN: “AGRICULTURE/AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITY”

Sec 3 (b) RA 6657

 (b) Agriculture, Agricultural Enterprise or Agricultural Activity means the cultivation of the soil,
planting of crops, growing of fruit trees, raising of livestock, poultry or fish, 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 or juridical.

Luz Farms v. Honorable Secretary of DAR

Is the inclusion of “raising livestock, poultry or fish” unconstitutional?

(1) The intention was to exclude agro-farming activities as the Committee adopt
(2) Deliberations expressly show that the term agricultural was adopted to mean excluding piggery,
poultry, and livestock. This was despite the suggestion of the more specific “arable”

Note: Subsequent law amending RA 6657 already omitted the phrase, in reaction to and in
recognition of the ruling of the Supreme Court in Luz Farms.

DAR v. Sutton

What is the result of the exclusion of the phrase “raising livestock, poultry, swine”?

DAR being an administrative body, must act within its limits as provided for by law. If the law
does not include lands used for “raising livestock, poultry”, DAR must also exclude them from its
jurisdiction. It cannot, therefor, have authority to regulate them.

Any rule or regulation issued to regulate lands excluded by the law would

How will the government determine if the land is agricultural?

Republic v. SNLABC

The recognized procedure for determining if the land is agricultural is on-site inspection and actual
investigation. Tax Declarations alone will not be the sole basis of the classification of the land.

Moreover, the court may base it findings on the confluence and totality of factual circumstances.

What should the inspection yield in order for the land to deemed not agricultural?

(1) The land must have been used for raising livestock, poultry or swine before the effectivity of
CARL, or on June 10, 1988.
(2) There should not have been any change of business since then.

Consequently, if livestock raising, poultry, or swine was only resorted to after effectivity of CARL, then
the land is still covered by the law. (see Milestone Farm v. OP)
Does the fact that the owner deliberately planted plants and shrubs in the land automatically make the
land devoted to agricultural lands?

Heirs of Arce, Sr. v. DAR

No. Onsite investigation must still confirm what use of the plant is. Tis is because landowners engaged in
livestock raising are entitled to resort to “feedlot operation”, wherein animals are not freely grazing in
open field but are being fed with plants planted in an area.

What is the reason why the requirement of agricultural and agricultural activity is important?

DAR v. SUTTON

“The spirit of agrarian reform laws is not to distribute lands per se, but to enable the landless to own
land for cultivation . . . .” (see case)

What is the significance of the meaning of agriculture and agricultural activity?

They are significant because, in order for the land to be covered, two requisites must concur:

1. That the land must be DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITY and SUITABLE TO

AGRICULTURE;
2. The lad must not be CLASSIFIED as mineral, forest, residential, commercial or industrial land,

COVERAGE: INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION