DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF PD27

AND RA6657, EXEMPTION

DISTINGUISHED FROM
RETENTION
Category: Land Titles And Deeds

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF PD27 AND RA6657,

EXEMPTION DISTINGUISHED FROM RETENTION

> PD27 implemented the Operation Land Transfer Program—covers tenanted rice and corn lands

> The requisites for coverage under the Operation Land Transfer program are the following—
o The land must be devoted to rice or corn crops
o There must be a system of share-crop or lease-tenancy
obtaining therein

> If either is absent, the landowner may apply for exemption

> PD27 grants each tenant of covered lands a 5 hectare lot, or in case the lot is irrigated, 3 hectares
constituting the family size farm. However, said law allows a covered landowner to retain not more than 7
hectares of his land if his aggregate landholding doesn’t exceed 24 hectares

> Consequently, a landowner may keep his whole covered land if its aggregate size doesn’t exceed the
retention limit of 7 hectares

> An application for exemption is different from that of retention. They are distinct remedies and thus,
judgment in one doesn’t preclude the subsequent institution of the other
> The right to retention is a constitutionally guaranteed right which is subject to the qualifications by the
legislature

> Landowners who haven’t exercised their retention rights under PD27 may exercise their retention rights
under RA 6657

> The right to retention may be exercised over tenanted land despite the issuance of the certificate of land
transfer to farmerbeneficiaries. What must be protected, however, is the right of the tenants to opt to stay
on the land chosen to be retained by the landowner or be a beneficiary in another agricultural land with
similar or comparable features

> Land awards made pursuant to a government’s agrarian reform program are subject to the exercise of the
landowner who is qualified to the right of retention

> The issuance of emancipation patents or certificates of land transfers doesn’t absolutely bar the
landowner from retaining the area covered thereby

WAIVER OF RIGHT OF RETENTION

1. Executing an affidavit or any other document duly attested by the MARO, Provincial Agrarian Reform
Officer, or Regional Director, indicating that he is expressly waiving his right of retention

2. Signing of the landowner-tenant production agreement and farmer’s undertaking or application for
purchase and farmer’s undertaking, covering subject property

3. Entering into a voluntary land transfer/direct payment scheme agreement

4. Offering the subject landholding under VOS scheme and failure to indicate his retained area

5. Signing or submission of other documents indicating consent to have the entire property covered, such as
the form letter of the LBP on the disposition of the case and bond portions of a land transfer claim for
payment, and the Deed of Assignment, warranties and undertaking and undertaking executed in favor of the
LBP

6. Performing acts which constitute estoppel by laches

7. Doing such act or acts as would amount to a valid waiver in accordance with applicable laws and
jurisprudence

ONLY AGRICULTURAL LANDS ARE

SUBJECT TO THE AGRARIAN
REFORM COVERAGE
Category: Land Titles And Deeds

ONLY AGRICULTURAL LANDS ARE SUBJECT TO THE

AGRARIAN REFORM COVERAGE

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.

AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITY

> Means the cultivation of the soil, planting of crops, growing of fruit trees, 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 of juridical.

WHAT ARE EXCLUDED?

1. Lands converted to non-agricultural use before the effectivity of CARL are outside the coverage
2. Farms used for livestock, poultry and swine not covered
3. Agricultural lands reclassified by LGUs into residential, commercial, or industrial uses excluded
4. Lands used for academic or educational purposes exempted
5. Homesteads are excluded

JURISDICTION OF DAR
> Matters involving the administrative implementation of the transfer of the land, such as the giving out of
notices of coverage to the tenant-farmer under PD27 and amendatory and related decrees, rules and
regulations, shall be exclusively cognizable by the Secretary of Agrarian Reform, including the issuance,
recall, or cancellation of emancipation patents or certificates of land ownership award, save when such
certificates of land transfer have been registered with the RD, in which instance the recalling authority
would be the DARAB

DEEMED TO BE THE OWNER—AS DEFINED IN PD 27

> Grantee of a certificate of land transfer must be construed within the policy framework of PD 27 and
interpreted with other stipulations of the certificate issued pursuant to the Decree

> PD27 was anchored upon the fundamental objective of addressing valid and legitimate grievances of land
ownership giving rise to violent conflict and social tension in the countryside

SCOPE OF THE COMPREHENSIVE

AGRARIAN REFORM LAW OR
REPUBLIC ACT 6657
Category: Land Titles And Deeds

SCOPE OF THE COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM

LAW OR REPUBLIC ACT 6657
> Agrarian Reform means the redistribution of lands, regardless of crops or fruits produced, to farmers and
regular farm workers 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 stock, which will allow beneficiaries to receive a just share
of the fruits of the lands they work.

EXEMPTIONS AND EXCLUSIONS

1. Lands actually, directly and exclusively used for parks, wildlife, forest reserves, reforestation, fish
sunctuaries and breeding grounds, watersheds and mangroves shall be exempt from the coverage of this
Act.

2. Private lands actually, directly and exclusively used for prawn farms and fishponds shall be exempt from
the coverage of this Act: Provided, That said prawn farms and fishponds have not been distributed and
Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) issued to Agrarian Reform Program. In cases where the
fishponds or prawn farms have been subjected to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, by voluntary
offer to sell, or commercial farms deferment or notices of compulsory acquisition , a simple and absolute
majority of the actual regular workers or tenants must consent to the exemption within one (1) year from
the effectivity of this Act. When the workers or tenants do not agree to this exemption, the fishponds or
prawn farms shall be distributed collectively to the worker-beneficiaries or tenants who shall from
cooperative or association to manage the same.

In cases where the fishponds or prawn farms have not been subjected to the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Law, the consent of the farm workers shall no longer be necessary; however, the provision of
Section 32-A hereof on incentives shall apply.

3. Lands actually, directly and exclusively used and found to be necessary for 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 center, 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 and all lands with eighteen percent (18%) slope and over, except those
already developed, shall be exempt from the coverage of this Act. (As amended by R.A 7881)
Presidential Decree 27 LAID DOWN A SYSTEM FOR THE
PURCHASE BY SMALL FARMERS OF THE LANDS THEY
WERE TILLING

> Presidential Decree 27 was anchored upon the fundamental objective of addressing valid and legitimate
grievances of land ownership giving rise to violent conflict and social tension in the countryside

> Recognized the necessity to encourage a more productive agricultural base to the country’s economy

> The certificate of land transfer under Presidential Decree 27 provides that the tenant farmer is deemed to
be the owner of the agricultural land subject to the conditions that the cost of the portion transferred to him,
including the interest, shall be paid in 15 equal annual amortizations, and that he must be a member of a
barrio association upon organization of such association in his legality