570 Phil. 356
PUNO, CJ.:
Yupangco also alleged in its complaint that other acts were committed “with the purpose of land speculation, for business or industrial purpose, for immediate sale thereof for business profits and not for planting, care and tending of the coconut plantation, which would defeat the purposes and policies of the Agrarian Reform Laws and [breached] the conditions of the questioned award of the land, rendering the acquisition by or distribution to [BYARBAI] as the tenant-tillers of the land null and void, and thus reverting back the ownership and possession thereof to [Yupangco].” [21]
(a) [Yupangco] was the registered owner of certain parcels of land[13] primarily devoted to coconut plantation, under the administration and supervision of plaintiff corporation with several employees and other persons hired as laborers;[14](b) Sometime in 1993, the DAR placed the subject parcels of land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of the government pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act No. 6657, and four (4) Transfer Certificate Titles over the subject land were subsequently issued in favor of BYARBAI;[15](c) [Yupangco] vehemently objected to the coverage of the subject parcels of land by the DAR and the valuation made by LBP, by filing protest and objection with DAR and LBP;[16](d) DAR, through the DAR Regional Director, Zamboanga City, issued the four questioned Transfer Certificates of Title (or Certificates of Land Ownership Awards-- CLOAs) to BYARBAI pursuant to R.A. No. 6657, without LBP paying [Yupangco] the just compensation of the subject parcels of land which valuation was then being contested before the DAR Adjudication Board;[17](e) Majority of the members of BYARBAI are not employees nor hired workers of [Yupangco], hence, [Yupangco] alleged that they should not have been given preference nor be entitled as allocatees in the subject parcels of land;[18](f) Soon after the CLOAs were issued to BYARBAI, the latter took possession of the subject parcels of land to the prejudice and damage of [Yupangco];[19](g) BYARBAI’s real motive in having the land distributed to them (pending resolution of all protests with the DAR and the contested valuation made by the LBP) was to convert the land into rice production resulting in the destruction of coffee plantations and other crops, including the cutting of several hundreds of coconut trees. This conversion was illegal and in gross violation of Republic Act No. 6657 and Republic Act No. 3844, as amended, and other existing laws and Administrative Issuances.[20]
Irrefragably, the titles sought to be annulled by the SSS, namely, TCTs No. 1259 No. 1260 and No. 1261 originated from the CLOAs issued by the DAR in pursuance of, and in accordance with, the provisions of Rep. Act No. 6657, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.IN VIEW WHEREOF, the petition is GRANTED. The assailed Decision of the Court of Appeals, dated November 21, 2003, and the Resolution dated April 21, 2004, in C.A.-G.R. SP No. 69699, entitled Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) vs. Hon. Hakim S. Abdulwahid, as RTC Judge & Yupangco Cotton Mills, Inc., are REVERSED. Civil Case No. 5113, entitled Yupangco Cotton Mills, Inc. v. Buenavista Yupangco Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association, Inc. (BYARBAI), et al. is DISMISSED.
Specifically, the SSS in its Complaint implored the trial court "to restrain the DAR from implementing Rep. Act No. 6657 and the defendants, farmers-beneficiaries from occupying/tilling, cultivating/disposing the properties."
Section 1, Rule II, 2002 DARAB Rules of Procedure provides that:Section 1. Primary And Exclusive Original and Appellate Jurisdiction. — The board shall have primary and exclusive jurisdiction, both original and appellate, to determine and adjudicate all agrarian disputes involving the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) under Republic Act No. 6657, Executive Order Nos. 228, 229, and 129-A, Republic Act No. 3844 as amended by Republic Act No. 6389, Presidential Decree No. 27 and other agrarian laws and their implementing rules and regulations. Specifically, such jurisdiction shall include but not be limited to cases involving the following:Specifically, such jurisdiction shall extend over but not limited to the following:
a) The rights and obligations of persons, whether natural or juridical engaged in the management, cultivation and use of all agricultural lands covered by the CARP and other agrarian laws.xxx xxx xxxThus, taking its bearings from the above provision, Centeno v. Centeno explicitly and compellingly validated the jurisdiction of the DARAB over cases involving issuance of CLOAs, and went on further:xxx xxx xxx
f) Cases involving the issuance of Certificate of Land Transfer (CLT), Certificate of landownership Award (CLOA) and Emancipation Patent (EP) and the administrative correction thereof;xxx under Section 50 of R.A. No. 6657 (the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988), the DAR is vested with primary jurisdiction to determine and adjudicate agrarian reform matters and shall have the exclusive jurisdiction over all matters involving the implementation of the agrarian reform program. The rule is that the DARAB has jurisdiction to try and decide any agrarian dispute or any incident involving the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.Section 1, Rule II of the Revised Rules of Procedure of the DARAB provides:Section 1. Primary, Original and Appellate Jurisdiction. — The Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board shall have primary jurisdiction, both original and appellate, to determine and adjudicate all agrarian disputes, cases, controversies, and matters or incidents involving the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program under Republic Act No. 6657, Executive Orders Nos. 229, 228 and 129-A, Republic Act No. 3844 as amended by Republic Act No. 6389, Presidential Decree No. 27 and other agrarian laws and their implementing rules and regulations.In the relatively recent case of Rivera v. Del Rosario, this Court cited Section 1, Rule II, 2002 DARAB Rules of Procedure and reiterated that:The DARAB has exclusive original jurisdiction over cases involving the rights and obligations of persons engaged in the management, cultivation and use of all agricultural lands covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.Again in David v. Rivera, this Court pointed out that the jurisdiction over agrarian reform matters is now expressly vested in the DAR through the DARAB.Indeed, Section 50 of R.A. No. 6657 confers on the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) quasi-judicial powers to adjudicate agrarian reform matters. In the process of reorganizing the DAR, Executive Order No. 129-A created the DARAB to assume the powers and functions with respect to the adjudication of agrarian reform cases. Section 1, Rule II of the DARAB Rules of Procedure enumerates the cases falling within the primary and exclusive jurisdiction of the DARAB.In an earlier ruling rendered in the case of Vda. de Tangub v. Court of Appeals, reiterated in Morta, Sr. v. Occidental and Heirs of the late Herman Rey Santos v. Court of Appeals, this Court decreed:Section 1 of Executive Order No. 229 sets out the scope of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP); it states that the program —Section 17 thereof
"xxx shall cover, regardless of tenurial arrangement and commodity produce, all public and private agricultural land as provided in Proclamation No. 131 dated July 22, 1987, including whenever applicable in accordance with law, other lands of the public domain suitable to agriculture."1) vested the Department of Agrarian Reform with "quasi-judicial powers to determine and adjudicate agrarian reform matters," andIn Nuesa v. Court of Appeals the Court, in addition to re-echoing the jurisdiction of the DARAB, puts emphasis on the extent of the coverage of the term "agrarian dispute," thus:
2) granted it "jurisdiction over all matters involving implementation of agrarian reform, except those falling under the exclusive original jurisdiction of the DENR and the Department of Agriculture (DA), as well as 'powers to punish for contempt and to issue subpoena, subpoena duces tecum and writs to enforce its orders or decisions.'"As held by this Court in Centeno v. Centeno [343 SCRA 153], "the DAR is vested with the primary jurisdiction to determine and adjudicate agrarian reform matters and shall have the exclusive jurisdiction over all matters involving the implementation of the agrarian reform program." The DARAB has primary, original and appellate jurisdiction "to determine and adjudicate all agrarian disputes, cases, controversies, and matters or incidents involving the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program under R.A. No. 6657, E.O. Nos. 229, 228 and 129-A, R.A. No. 3844 as amended by R.A. No. 6389, P.D. No. 27 and other agrarian laws and their implementing rules and regulations."
Under Section 3(d) of R.A. No. 6657 (CARP Law), "agrarian dispute" is defined to include "(d) . . . any controversy relating to tenurial arrangements, whether leasehold, tenancy, stewardship or otherwise over lands devoted to agriculture, including disputes concerning farmworkers associations or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of such tenurial arrangements. It includes any controversy relating to compensation of lands acquired under this Act and other terms and conditions of transfer of ownership from landowners to farmworkers, tenants and other agrarian reform beneficiaries, whether the disputants stand in the proximate relation of farm operator and beneficiary, landowner and tenant, or lessor and lessee." (citations and underscoring omitted)[24]