The Philippine Online Chronicles

The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld a ban imposed by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) preventing the conversion of farmlands to commercial areas.

The ban, under Memorandum No. 88 issued by former agrarian secretary Nasser Pangandaman on April 15, 2008, was put into place to regulate the country’s rice lands especially in the face of the global rice shortage.

It was challenged by the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Associations (CREBA), which claimed the DAR had put a halt to land conversion with no basis. CREBA is an association of 3,500 real estate groups.

According to the SC decision however, CREBA’s complaint “stands on hollow ground.”

“It bears emphasis that said Memorandum No. 88 was issued upon the instruction of the President (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) in order to address the unabated conversion of prime agricultural lands for real estate development because of the worsening rice shortage in the country at that time,” said the SC through Associate Justice Jose Perez.

Concurring with the decision were Chief Justice Renato Corona and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-De Castro and Mariano Del Castillo.

“Such measure was made in order to ensure that there are enough agricultural lands in which rice cultivation and production may be carried into. The issuance of said Memorandum No. 88 was made pursuant to the general welfare of the public, thus it cannot be argued that it was made without any basis,” Perez continued.

The SC has also affirmed that only the DAR has the authority to decide on the conversion of lands, or whether the use of a plot of land, which may be agrarian, residential, commercial or industrial can be changed.

“Having recognized the DAR’s conversion authority over lands reclassified after 15 June 1988, it can no longer be argued that the secretary of agrarian reform was wrongfully given the authority and power to include ‘lands not reclassified as residential, commercial, industrial or other non-agricultural uses before 15 June 1988’ in the definition of agricultural lands,” said the SC ruling.