843 Phil. 423
PERALTA, J.:
Apparently, petitioner refused to receive the foregoing letter, as well as the notice of coverage[11] attached thereto.TRANSMITTAL OF NOC TO THE LANDOWNER-TRANSFEREE/S
December 5, 2013
(Date)
ROBUSTOM (sic) AGRICULTURAL CORPORATION
(Name of Registered Landowner-Transferee/s)
Silay City, Negros Occidental
(Address)
Dear Sir/Madam:
We are furnishing you a copy of the notice of Coverege (sic) for the landholdings with the following description:
Name of Original Landowner :PUYAS AGRO INCORPORATED OCT or TCT No./s :T-7703 Tax Declaration No./s :680-B-6-B Approved Survey No. :_____________________ Area per Title/Td :30.0000 (has.) Location of Property/ies :Brgy. E. Lopez, Silay City
Validation [c]onducted by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) revealed that the said landholding or portion thereof was transferred/conveyed and subsequently registered under your name without the required DAR Clearance under DAR Administration (sic) Order No. 1, Series of 1989, on June 17, 1999 per Transfer [Certificate] of Title No. T-15256 covering an area of 5.0000 hectares under Lot No. 680-B-6-B-1.
As a subsequent transferee, we shall include you as "alternative land owner and payee" in the documentation of the claimfolder (sic), the issuance of memorand[u]m of [v]aluation and the payment of compensation proceeds for the abovementioned land under CARP. The Land Bank of the Philippines shall release the proceeds of just compensation covering the landholding or portion thereof to the qualified payee or entity who is the registered landowner by virtue of the deed of conveyance which shall be considered as the Deed of Assignment of the proceeds thereof.
Further, you may exercise the privilege to submit your duly attested list of lessees, tenant, and/or regular [f]arm workers subject to the prescriptive period provided in the NOC. You are not allowed to exercise the right of retention in your own right, but may avail of the Five (5) hectare retained area of the former owner and avail his right to nominate preferred beneficiaries, if any provided no actual tenants/lessees/shall be displaced.
TERESITA R. MABUNAY (original signed)
Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer II
SECTION 50. Quasi-Judicial Powers of the DAR. - The DAR is hereby vested with the primary jurisdiction to determine and adjudicate agrarian reform matters and shall have exclusive original jurisdiction over all matters involving the implementation of agrarian reform except those falling under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).The RTC sided with the DAR and the LBP. On June 11, 2015, the RTC issued an Order dismissing the petition on the ground of lack of jurisdiction.[22] Petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration, but the RTC remained steadfast.[23]
SECTION 30. Resolution of Cases. - Any case and/or proceeding involving the implementation of the provisions of Republic Act No. 6657, as amended, which may remain pending on June 30, 2014 shall be allowed to proceed to its finality and be executed even beyond such date.Petitioner postulates that Section 30 of RA No. 9700 limited the jurisdiction of the DAR over agrarian law implementation cases. As worded, the provision only allows the DAR to exercise its jurisdiction over such cases that are already pending as of June 30, 2014.[24] This, according to petitioner, means that the DAR no longer has any authority, much less exclusive jurisdiction, to take cognizance of agrarian law implementation cases that have been filed after the statutory cut-off date of June 30, 2014.[25] It also means, petitioner adds, that jurisdiction over these cases are now, as they should be, deemed vested with the regular courts.
SECTION 5. Section 7 of Republic Act No. 6657, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows:Though it is couched in mandatory language, however, the directive in the above provision requiring the completion, and thus the termination, of all land acquisition and distribution activities by June 30, 2014 is not absolute. Such directive, it must be considered, is qualified by another provision in RA No. 9700. That provision is Section 30 of RA No. 9700:SEC. 7. Priorities. - The DAR, in coordination with the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) shall plan and program the final acquisition and distribution of all remaining unacquired and undistributed agricultural lands from the effectivity of this Act until June 30, 2014. Lands shall be acquired and distributed as follows:In any case, the PARC or the PARC Executive Committee (PARC EXCOM), upon recommendation by the Provincial Agrarian Reform Coordinating Committee (PARCCOM), may declare certain provinces as priority land reform areas, in which case the acquisition and distribution of private agricultural lands therein under advanced phases may be implemented ahead of the above schedules on the condition that prior phases in these provinces have been completed: Provided, That notwithstanding the above schedules, phase three (b) shall not be implemented in a particular province until at least ninety percent (90%) of the provincial balance of that particular province as of January 1, 2009 under Phase One, Phase Two (a), Phase Two (b), and Phase Three (a), excluding lands under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), have been successfully completed. (Emphasis supplied.)x x x x
x x x Land acquisition and distribution shall be completed by June 30, 2014 on a province-by-province basis.
SECTION 30. Resolution of Cases. - Any case and/or proceeding involving the implementation of the provisions of Republic Act No. 6657, as amended, which may remain pending on June 30, 2014 shall be allowed to proceed to its finality and be executed even beyond such date.Under Section 30 of RA No. 9700, "[a]ny case [or] proceeding involving the implementation of the [agrarian reform law]" is allowed to "proceed to its finality and be executed" even beyond June 30, 2014, so long as such case or proceeding is already pending as of that date. To our mind, the phrase "proceeding involving the implementation of the [agrarian reform law]" is broad enough to include the entire process of land acquisition and distribution under the agrarian reform program. The plain text of the provision allows us to believe as much.
SECTION 16. Procedure for Acquisition [and Distribution] of Private Lands. - For purposes of acquisition of private lands, the following procedures shall be followed:Per the provision, a proceeding for compulsory land acquisition and distribution starts with the identification of the land sought to be placed under the coverage of the agrarian reform program, as well as of the land's owner and of the prospective beneficiaries. It is notable, however, that neither RA No. 6657 nor any other law, for that matter, makes any mention as to how this identification phase is to be carried out.[31] To till in this gap, the DAR formulated regulations that introduced the issuance of notices of coverage.[32] In Roxas & Co., Inc. v. Court of Appeals,[33] we detailed the genesis of these regulations:
(a) After having identified the land, the landowners and the beneficiaries, the DAR shall send its notice to acquire the land to the owners thereof, by personal delivery or registered mail, and post the same in a conspicuous place in the municipal building and barangay hall of the place where the property is located. Said notice shall contain the offer of the DAR to pay a corresponding value in accordance with the valuation set forth in Sections 17, 18, and other pertinent provisions hereof. (b) Within thirty (30) days from the date of receipt of written notice by personal delivery or registered mail, the landowner, his administrator or representative shall inform the DAR of his acceptance or rejection of the offer. (c) If the landowner accepts the offer of the DAR, the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) shall pay the landowner the purchase price of the land within thirty (30) days after he executes and delivers a deed of transfer in favor of the government and surrenders the Certificate of Title and other muniments of title. (d) In case of rejection or failure to reply, the DAR shall conduct summary administrative proceedings to determine the compensation for the land requiring the landowner, the LBP and other interested parties to submit evidence as to the just compensation for the land, within fifteen (15) days from the receipt of the notice. After the expiration of the above period, the matter is deemed submitted for decision. The DAR shall decide the case within thirty (30) days after it is submitted for decision. (e) Upon receipt by the landowner of the corresponding payment or, in case of rejection or no response from the landowner, upon the deposit with an accessible bank designated by the DAR of the compensation in cash or in LBP bonds in accordance with this Act, the DAR shall take immediate possession of the land and shall request the proper Register of Deeds to issue a Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) in the name of the Republic of the Philippines. The DAR shall thereafter proceed with the redistribution of the land to the qualified beneficiaries. (f) Any party who disagrees with the decision may bring the matter to the court of proper jurisdiction for final determination of just compensation. (Emphasis supplied.)
x x x Under Section 16 of the CARL, the first step in compulsory acquisition is the identification of the land, the landowners and the beneficiaries. However, the law is silent on how the identification process must be made. To fill in this gap, the DAR issued on July 26, 1989 Administrative Order No. 12, Series of 1989, which set the operating procedure in the identification of such lands. x x xThough more streamlined, the current iteration of these regulations - DAR AO No. 07-11 or the 2011 Revised Rules and Procedure Governing the Acquisition and Distribution of Private Agricultural Lands Under RA No. 6657, as Amended - maintains the gist of its predecessors:x x x x
Administrative Order No. 12, Series of 1989 requires that the Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer (MARO) keep an updated master list of all agricultural lands under the CARP in his area of responsibility containing all the required information. The MARO prepares a Compulsory Acquisition Case Folder (CACF) for each title covered by CARP. The MARO then sends the landowner a "Notice of Coverage" and a "letter of invitation" to a "conference/meeting" over the land covered by the CACF. x x xx x x x
DAR A.O. No. 12, Series of 1989, from whence the Notice of Coverage first sprung, was amended in 1990 by DAR A.O. No. 9, Series of 1990 and in 1993 by DAR A.O. No. 1, Series of 1993. The Notice of Coverage and letter of invitation to the conference meeting expanded and amplified in said amendments.x x x x
DAR A.O. No. 9, Series of 1990 lays down the rules on both Voluntary Offer to Sell (VOS) and Compulsory Acquisition (CA) transactions involving lands enumerated under Section 7 of the CARL. In both VOS and CA transactions, the MARO prepares the Voluntary Offer to Sell Case Folder (VOCF) and the Compulsory Acquisition Case Folder (CACF), as the case may be, over a particular landholding. The MARO notifies the landowner as well as representatives of the LBP, BARC and prospective beneficiaries of the date of the ocular inspection of the property at least one week before the scheduled date and invites them to attend the same. The MARO, LBP or BARC conducts the ocular inspection and investigation by identifying the land and landowner, determining the suitability of the land for agriculture and productivity, interviewing and screening prospective farmer beneficiaries. Based on its investigation, the MARO, LBP or BARC prepares the Field Investigation Report which shall be signed by all parties concerned. In addition to the field investigation, a boundary or subdivision survey of the land may also be conducted by a Survey Party of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to be assisted by the MARO. This survey shall delineate the areas covered by Operation Land Transfer (OLT), areas retained by the landowner, areas with infrastructure, and the areas subject to VOS and CA. After the survey and field investigation, the MARO sends a "Notice of Coverage" to the landowner or his duly authorized representative inviting him to a conference or public hearing with the farmer beneficiaries, representatives of the BARC, LBP, DENR, Department of Agriculture (DA), non-government organizations, farmer's organizations and other interested parties. x x xx x x x
DAR A.O. No. 1, Series of 1993, modified the identification process and increased the number of government agencies involved in the identification and delineation of the land subject to acquisition. This time, the Notice of Coverage is sent to the landowner before the conduct of the field investigation and the sending must comply with specific requirements. (Emphasis supplied; citations omitted.)
SECTION 3. LAD CARP Extension with Reform (CARPER) Balance Database and List of Lands with NOCs. Upon the effectivity of these Rules, the DAR Provincial Office (DARPO) shall provide the DAR Municipal Office (DARMO) with a copy of the relevant portion of the LAD CARP Extension with Reform (CARPER) balance database, which lists down the LAD balances under the DARMO's area of jurisdiction, and the schedule of coverage of each landholding therein. The generated list of landholdings must be grouped according to the prioritized phasing under Section 7 of R.A. No. 6657, as amended, and Section 5 of this A.O.As can be observed from the above regulations, the identification phase is actually preceded by a preliminary identification and determination by the DAR of the land or lands covered by the agrarian reform program. The exact manner by which the DAR performs this preliminary step had, in turn, varied over the years. Since 2009, however, the DAR primarily bases its preliminary identification from the Land Acquisition and Distribution database which includes a "balance" list or a list of all agricultural landholdings that are supposedly covered by the agrarian reform program, but have not undergone land acquisition and distribution proceedings or been made the subject of a voluntary offer.[34]x x x x
Landholdings not listed in the LAD CARPER Balance Database may be included in the said database upon issuance of the Provincial Agrarian Reform Otlicer's (PARO) Certification of Coverage and the Provincial Agrarian Reform Coordinating Committee (PARCCOM) Resolution, duly approved by the LAD Balance Technical Review Committee pursuant to Memorandum Circular (M.C.) No. 8, Series of 2010.x x x x
SECTION 15. Issuance of Notice of Coverage. The [notice of coverage] shall be issued to the registered landowner (RLO) of the landholding, as stated in the Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) or Original Certificate of Title (OCT), or, in case of untitled private agricultural lands, the Tax Declaration, preferably not later than one hundred and eighty (180) days prior to the first day of the scheduled date of acquisition and distribution as provided for in Section 5 of this Rule.
In case the RLO stated in the TCT or OCT is different from that stated in the Tax Declaration, the NOC shall be served to the RLO stated in the TCT or OCT.
The significance thus given to a notice of coverage in compulsory land acquisition and distribution is easy to understand. In a proceeding for compulsory land acquisition and distribution, as opposed to a voluntary one, the initiative to place a landholding within the coverage of agrarian reform comes from the DAR. And a notice of coverage, as is evident from the regulations enacted by the DAR, is really the first document that manifests the categorical intent of the DAR to pursue a land as being subject to the agrarian reform program. The issuance of such notice cements and formalizes this intent.PREFATORY STATEMENT
The Notice of Coverage (NOC) commences the compulsory acquisition of private agricultural lands coverable under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). x x xPROCEDURE
1. Commencement
1.1. Commencement by the Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer (MARO) - After determining that a landholding is coverable under the CARP, and upon accomplishment of the Pre-Ocular Inspection Report, the MARO shall prepare the NOC (CARP Form No. 5-A).
No statute can be enacted that can provide all the details involved in its application. There is always an omission that may not meet a particular situation. What is thought, at the time of enactment, to be an all embracing legislation may be inadequate to provide for the unfolding events of the future. So-called gaps in the law develop as the law is enforced. One of the rules of statutory construction used to fill in the gap is the doctrine of necessary implication. The doctrine states that what is implied in a statute is as much a part thereof as that which is expressed. Every statute is understood, by implication, to contain all such provisions as may be necessary to effectuate its object and purpose, or to make effective rights, powers, privileges or jurisdiction which it grants, including all such collateral and subsidiary consequences as may be fairly and logically inferred from its terms. Ex necessitate legis. And every statutory grant of power, right or privilege is deemed to include all incidental power, right or privilege. This is so because the greater includes the lesser, expressed in the maxim, in eo plus sit, simper inest et minus. (Emphasis supplied; citations omitted.)Accordingly, the authority of the DAR to bring to completion a proceeding for land acquisition and distribution initiated prior to June 30, 2014 must be deemed inclusive of a coordinate authority to continue exercising its quasi-judicial powers under Section 50 of RA No. 6657 with respect to agrarian reform controversies that may arise from such proceeding. It may be recalled that Section 50 of RA No. 6657 had previously vested the DAR with broad quasi-judicial powers over agrarian reform issues; being given "primary jurisdiction to determine and adjudicate agrarian reform matters" as well as "exclusive original jurisdiction over all matters involving the implementation of agrarian reform [otherwise not solely cognizable by] the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources," to wit:
SECTION 50. Quasi-Judicial Powers of the DAR. The DAR is hereby vested with the primary jurisdiction to determine and adjudicate agrarian reform matters and shall have exclusive original jurisdiction over all matters involving the implementation of agrarian reform except those falling under the exclusive jurisdiction or the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department or Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). (Emphasis supplied.)A look at the petitioner's petition for quieting of title and declaratory relief,[42] on the other hand, reveals that the sole issue raised therein pertains merely to the efficacy of the notice of coverage dated June 11, 2014 which was published by the DAR. This kind of issue, however, is undoubtedly a matter "involving the implementation of agrarian reform."[43] The case of Department of Agrarian Reform v. Cuenca[44] was certain of this.
A careful perusal of respondent's Complaint shows that the principal averments and reliefs prayed for refer - not to the "pure question of law" spawned by the alleged unconstitutionality of EO 405 - but to the annulment of the DAR's Notice of Coverage. Clearly, the main thrust of the allegations is the propriety of the Notice of Coverage, as may be gleaned from the following averments, among others:Pertinently, the exclusive original jurisdiction of the DAR over cases involving implementation of the agrarian reform law is currently operationalized in DAR AO No. 03-17 or the 2017 Rules for Agrarian Law Implementation (ALI) Cases. And one of the agrarian law implementation cases that the DAR may take cognizance of under the said regulation is a "petition to lift notice of coverage." Per Section 12.2 of DAR AO No. 03-17, a petition to lift notice of coverage may be filed before a DAR Municipal Office within sixty (60) calendar days from receipt of the notice of coverage:x x x x
To be sure, the issuance of the Notice of Coverage constitutes the first necessary step towards the acquisition of private land under the CARP. Plainly then, the propriety of the Notice relates to the implementation of the CARP, which is under the quasi-judicial jurisdiction of the DAR. Thus, the DAR could not be ousted from its authority by the simple expediency of appending an allegedly constitutional or legal dimension to an issue that is clearly agrarian.[46] (Emphasis supplied; citations omitted.)
Section 12. Commencement of an Action.A petition to lift the notice of coverage under the cited regulation is clearly the proper remedial forum whereby an aggrieved landowner can raise issues contesting the validity or efficacy of a notice of coverage. This, for all intents and purposes, is the remedy that petitioner should have availed of.x x x x
12.2 After issuance of notice of coverage - Commencement shall be at the DAR Municipal Office (DARMO). When the applicant/petitioner commences the case at any other DAR office, the receiving office shall transmit the case folder to the DARMO or proper DAR office in accordance with the pertinent order and/or circular governing the subject matter. Only the real-party-in interest may file a protest/opposition or petition to lift CARP coverage and may only do so within sixty (60) calendar days from receipt of the notice of coverage; a protesting party who receives the notice of coverage by newspaper publication shall file his protest/opposition/petition within sixty (60) calendar days from publication date; failure to file the same within the period shall merit outright dismissal of the case.