AGRA PRACTICE QUESTIONS

1. What is agrarian reform? How is it different from land reform?

a. Agrarian Reform means redistribution of lands, regardless of crops or fruits
produced, to farmers and regular farmworkers 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 stocks, which will
allow beneficiaries to receive a just share of the fruits of the lands they work.
b. Land reform is limited to the distribution of land, Agrarian Reform includes support
services. Agrarian reform is therefore a wider concept:

Agrarian Reform = (Land Tenure Improvement + Support Services Delivery) x Social

Infrastructure Building and Strengthening

2. What is social justice?

a. Social justice is "neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy,"
but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by
the State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at
least be approximated. (Calalang v Williams)
3. What is the concept of the regalian doctrine?
a. Under Article XII Sec 2 of the Philippine Constitution, all lands of the public domain
and other natural resources are owned by the State
4. What are lands owned by the state according to the constitution?
a. Lands of the public domain are classified into agricultural, forest or timber, mineral
lands, and national parks.
b. Agricultural lands of the public domain may be further classified by law according to
the uses which they may be devoted.
c. Alienable lands of the public domain shall be limited to agricultural lands.
d. Private corporations or associations may not hold such alienable lands of the public
domain except by lease, for a period not exceeding twenty-five years, renewable for
not more than twenty-five years, and not to exceed one thousand hectares in area.
Citizens of the Philippines may lease not more than five hundred hectares, or
acquire not more than twelve hectares thereof by purchase, homestead, or grant.
5. What are the classifications of public lands as to its legal nature?
a. Agricultural - alienable and disposable. According to the constitution, this may be
further classified according to its use
i. According to Sec 9 Commonwealth Act 141 (Public Land Act) For the
purpose of their administration and disposition, the lands of the public
domain alienable or open to disposition shall be classified, according to the
use or purposes to which such lands are destined, as follows:
 (a) Agricultural
(b) Residential commercial industrial or for similar productive purposes
(c) Educational, charitable, or other similar purposes
(d) Reservations for town sites and for public and quasi-public uses.
b. Forest or Timber lands
c. Mineral Lands
d. National Parks
6. Who may own alienable and disposable lands of the public domain?
a. Private persons - Only Filipinos may own, not to exceed 12 hectares. He may also
lease until 500 hectares. Foreigners may not own
b. Corporation – Cannot own public lands but may lease: (1) no more than 1000
hectares, (2) lease not to exceed 25 years but may be renewed for 25 more years
7. What is agricultural tenancy? What is the difference between share tenancy and leasehold
tenancy? (RA 1199: An Act to Govern the Relations between the Landholders and Tenants of
Agricultural Lands (Leasehold and Share Tenancy))
a. Agricultural Tenancy Defined. - Agricultural tenancy is the physical possession by a
person of land devoted to agriculture belonging to, or legally possessed by, another
for the purpose of production through the labor of the former and of the members
of his immediate farm household, in consideration of which the former agrees to
share the harvest with the latter, or to pay a price certain or ascertainable, either in
produce or in money, or in both.
i. Share tenancy exists whenever two persons agree on a joint undertaking for
agricultural production wherein one party furnishes the land and the other
his labor, with either or both contributing any one or several of the items of
production, the tenant cultivating the land personally with the aid of labor
available from members of his immediate farm household, and the produce
thereof to be divided between the landholder and the tenant in proportion
to their respective contributions.
ii. Leasehold tenancy exists when a person who, either personally or with the
aid of labor available from members of his immediate farm household,
undertakes to cultivate a piece of agricultural land susceptible of cultivation
by a single person together with members of his immediate farm
household, belonging to or legally possessed by, another in consideration of
a price certain or ascertainable to be paid by the person cultivating the land
either in percentage of the production or in a fixed amount in money, or in
both.

Share Tenancy Leasehold Tenancy

Payment to Share (Percentage)- changes Fixed Rental – doesn’t change except
Landowner according to produce according to law
Management Both decided (it’s a joint venture) Tenant – not a joint production.
Incentive to Any increase in production they All additional benefits go to tenant. Rent
Production divide equally to landowner doesn’t change. Tenant
has more freedom to decide
According to law Prohibited, against public policy Tenurial agreements are now under
leasehold. DAR sets fixed rental to the
tenanted

8. What are the purposes of RA 3844 (AN ACT TO ORDAIN THE AGRICULTURAL LAND REFORM
CODE AND TO INSTITUTE LAND REFORMS IN THE PHILIPPINES)?
a. In lands for cultivating corn and rice, Share Tenancy was abolished and was replaced
with Leasehold System.
b. Lands other than for rice or corn, Share tenancy remained although they have the
option to choose Leasehold system. Sec 35 states that the following cannot be
forcibly turned into leasehold system: fishponds, saltbeds, and lands principally
planted to citrus, coconuts, cacao, coffee, durian, and other similar permanent trees
c. Propagating leasehold tenancy through incentivizing it, identifying farmworkers’
rights
9. What are the purposes of RA 6389 (An Act Amending RA 3844)?
a. Due to non-compliance with RA 3844 regarding compulsory Leasehold System for
rice and corn lands, RA 6389 was enacted for the automatic conversion to leasehold
of said lands still under share tenancy
b. Share tenancy was still allowed under lands not for rice or corn
c. DAR was created
10. What are the purposes of PD 27 (Decreeing the Emancipation of Tenants from the
Bondage of the Soil)?
a. Distributing the land to the tenants for rice and corn lands
b. Important guidelines:
i. Retention limit – 7 hectares
ii. Land Grant – 3 hectares/ irrigated, 5 hectares/non-irrigated
11. What are the main characteristics of RA 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law)?
a. Covers all lands, regardless of crops or fruits produced, irrespective of tenurial
arrangement
b. 10 years implementation
c. Retention limit: Maximum – 5 hectares however every chikd 15 years or older tilling
the soil may earn 3 hectares more
d. Lands already under land reform (7 hectares) not covered anymore
e. Lands given by the government through grant not covered anymore
f. Beneficiaries are all landless farmers who can farm and live in a municipality or
barangay where land covered by CARP is being distributed
12. How is PD 27 and CARP different?
PD 27 CARP Land Transfer Scheme
Concept Land distribution Land distribution + Support System
Scope Rice and Corn, with tenants All agricultural lands, private or
 public, regardless of tenurial
agreements
Beneficiaries Tenant farmers All who till the land
Scope of Land Irrigated – 3 hectares All lands – 3 hectares
Distributed Non-irrigated – 5 hectares
Transfer of Emancipation Patent Certificate of Land Ownership Award
ownership (CLOA)
13. What are lands covered by CARP?
a. All alienable and disposable lands of the public domain suitable for agriculture
b. All lands of the public domain in excess of the specific limits as determined by
Congress
c. All other lands owned by the Government suitable for agriculture
d. All private lands suitable for agriculture regardless of fruits or crops
14. What are lands not covered by CARP (Exclusions and Exemptions)?
a. Exclusions
i. all lands with eighteen percent (18%) slope and over, except those already
developed
ii. Lands that used to be agricultural but changed classification and approved
before June 15 1988 (DOJ Opinion No. 44, series of 1990 and Natalia Realty
v Secretary of DAR)
iii. Ancestral lands
iv. Residential Lands
v. Private Agricultural lands less than 5 hectares
vi. Prawn/Fish Farms
vii. Lands used for livestock, swine, and poultry raising before or starting June
15 1988(Luz Farms v Honorable Secretary of Agrarian Reform)
viii. Lands included in the retention of the owner with the following
measurement:
1. 7 hectares – PD 27
2. 5 hectares – RA 6657
a. 24 hectares – lands given through Homestead Patent where
the beneficiary or his predecessor in interest possesses and
tills it
b. Exemptions
i. Lands not classified as mineral lands, forest land, residential, commercial or
industrial
ii. Exempted lands according to Sec 10 - Lands actually, directly and exclusively
used and found to be necessary for:
1. parks, wildlife, forest reserves, reforestation, fish sanctuaries and
breeding grounds, watersheds, and mangroves, 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 centers, 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
15. Who are landless?
a. A landless beneficiary is one who owns less than three (3) hectares of agricultural
land.
16. How do you define agricultural lands?
a. 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.
17. What are alienable and disposable lands?
a. refers to those lands of the public domain which have been the subject of the
present system of classification and declared as not needed for forest purposes
18. What is the difference between reclassification and conversion?
a. Conversion is different from reclassification. Conversion is the act of changing the
current use of a piece of agricultural land into some other use as approved by the
Department of Agrarian Reform.
b. Reclassification, on the other hand, is the act of specifying how agricultural lands
shall be utilized for non-agricultural uses such as residential, industrial, commercial,
as embodied in the land use plan, subject to the requirements and procedure for
land use conversion.
c. Accordingly, a mere reclassification of agricultural land does not automatically allow
a landowner to change its use and thus cause the ejectment of the tenants. He has
to undergo the process of conversion before he is permitted to use the agricultural
land for other purposes.
19. What are the modes of acquisition?
a. Voluntary Offer to Sell (VOS)
b. Compulsory Acquisition (CA)
c. Voluntary Land Transfer (VLT)
20. Why can’t we alienate/dispose timber, mineral, national parks?
a. The Constitution provides. Art 12 Sec 3
21. Can we purchase land more than 12 hectares? How come there are those who own more?
22. How can corporations own lands?
a. Heirs of Malabanan – CA 141, Civil Code
23. What are the priorities under RA 6657?
a. All private lands in excess of 50 ha
b. Lands by government institutions
c. All idle or abandoned lands
d. All private lands voluntarily offered
24. What is the process for acquisition of private lands?
a. Section 16 RA 6577
 25. What are the responsibilities of DAR?
a. Land Tenure Improvement
b. Support Services
c. Agrarian Justice Delivery (AJD)
26. Cases on Exemptions:
a. Alita – Homestead patent not included
b. Natalia – Residential not included
c. Luz Farms – Livestock and poultry not included
d. Sutton – Livestock – cattle-raising not included
e. CMU – educational not included
f. DAR v DECS – CMU cannot be applied, not being used for educ anymore, being
leased by a corporation
g. Camarines Sur v CA – Filed for expropriation case (eminent domain) – if converting
land, does the LGU need the approval of the DAR?
i. *retention rights. Covered by yung 5 hectares?
ii. Covered baa ng LGU ng retention limits? NO.
iii. What are the modalities for the government to acquire that land? – VOS,
CA, VLT – pwede pa ba yung VLT? Di na. By June 30 shall be allowed. By
August 1 wala na.
27. What is a farmer? A farmworker?
a. Section 3. Definitions. (f) Farmer refers to a natural person whose primary
livelihood is cultivation of land or the production of agricultural crops, either by
himself, or primarily with the assistance of his immediate farm household, whether
the land is owned by him, or by another person under a leasehold or share tenancy
agreement or arrangement with the owner thereof.
b. Section 3. Definitions. (g) Farmworker is a natural person who renders service for
value as an employee or laborer in an agricultural enterprise or farm regardless of
whether his compensation is paid on a daily, weekly, monthly or "pakyaw" basis
(matter of payment, not an arrangement)
28. What is the Hacienda Luisita case all about?

Issues: PARC has authority to recall?

1. Legal standing?
2. PARC authority?
a. No authority to recall or revoke? Nowhere is it stated
b. Under the doctrine of necessary implication – if no authority, it will be a toothless
agency can’t do shit
3. Consti – Sec 31/ 6657
a. Discusses the different modalities
b. Corporations given chance to avail sec 3 citing sec 4 of art 13
c. SC: they slept on their rights. Bakit ngayon pa lang kayo nagtatanong
 d. Lis mota – di siya lis mota – application of provision to SDP, by virtue of RA 9700 this is
already moot and academic. RA 9700 – 2 modalities for agrarian reform
e. Direct and indirect ownership – pwede ba yung corporation to own agricultural land? Ok
lang ba yung dist of shares instead of physical dist? SC: under sec 4 art 13 – provides for
collective ownership – di lang physical dist kaya madiin ang tingin natin sa sec 3 defining
AF. Pwede ang SDO by definition. 6657 allows it
4. Is the revocation proper?
a. 1st arg- SDO didn’t improve our lives! SC: It’s not an assurance, it only provides you an
opportunity
b. 2nd arg – conversion of land – proper. Sumunod sa lahat ng rules (after 5 years, may
approval ect)
c. Bakit kailangan irevoke? Ano yung naging violation? Ano yung mandate?
i. Make sure there’s no dilution of shares. 6296 beneficiaries should be entitiled to
18K shares – HLI naghakot ng more farmers, plus di ibibigay if you don’t work
for this number of days.
ii. Kailan dapat maibigay lahat ng shares – within 3 months – provision of SDP – 30
years. Purpose nga is maibigay mo agad
iii. Based on these violations it was revoked
5. Nullity of SDOA/SOC

What were the options given to farmers?

If they want to remain as stockholders. Pwede na

Come Nov 2011 they modified the ruling – NO, wala nang option. Revoke lahat dapat may physical
distribution of land

SC: SDO is viable basta the control is in the farmers. But under this 33% lang makukuha nila which means
they will never truly be owners (even tho they will agree they will never be the majority, they will never
have control over those lands. That’s not the control being mentioned under the law.

We have 14 Corps with SDOs. Pwede pa rin kaya yun? Yes, RA 9700 – by this date, wala nang SDO. For
the existing, okay lang.