Presidential Decree No. 816 (PD 816) — Providing That Tenant-Farmers/Agricultural Lessees Shall Pay the Leasehold Rentals When They Fall Due and Providing Penalties Therefor.
WHEREAS, under Proclamation No. 2, dated September 26, 1972,
the whole country has been declared a land reform area;
WHEREAS, the said proclamation covers only tenanted rice and
corn landholdings;
WHEREAS, while the implementing rules and regulations of
Presidential Decree No. 27 have not yet been issued completely, the status
quo shall be maintained between the parties, that is, the landowner
shall continue to pay the land taxes thereon if the said landholding is
not yet covered by a Certificate of Land Transfer, while on the other
hand the tenant-farmer who is now called agricultural lessee shall
continue to pay the rental to the landowner whether or not his
landholding planted to rice and corn is already covered by a Certificate
of Land Transfer;
WHEREAS, such payment of rental shall continue until and
after the valuation of the property shall have been determined or agreed
upon between the landowner and the Department of Agrarian Reform which,
in turn, will become the basis for computing the amortization payment
to be made by the agricultural lessee in 15 years with 6% interest per
annum under Presidential Decree No. 27;
WHEREAS, it is known that despite the presidential
pronouncements that they shall continue to pay the rentals to the
landowners/agricultural lessors, some agricultural lessees have stopped
and refused to pay their leasehold rentals to their
landowners/agricultural lessors on the assumption that, once the
Certificates of Land Transfer are issued in their favor, they are no
longer obliged to pay the said leasehold rentals;
WHEREAS, this practice is detrimental to the expeditious
implementation of land reform because, as I pointed out on May 7, 1975,
it indicates resistance to the government's land reform program and its
goals;
WHEREAS, it has always been the policy of the government to
equalize the rights and obligations of the landowners/agricultural
lessors and the agricultural lessees;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the
Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution,
do hereby decree and order:
SECTION. 1. That the continuing and deliberate refusal of
the agricultural lessees to pay their leasehold rentals to the
landowners/agricultural lessors cannot be countenanced and shall not
remain unchecked or unpunished;
SEC. 2. That any agricultural lessee of a rice or corn land
under Presidential Decree No. 27 who deliberately refuses and/or
continues to refuse to pay the rentals or amortization payments when
they fall due for a period of two (2) years shall, upon hearing and
final judgment, forfeit the Certificate of Land Transfer issued in his
favor, if his farmholding is already covered by such Certificate of Land
Transfer, and his farmholding;
SEC. 3. That any agricultural lessee whose landholding is
not yet covered by a Certificate of Land Transfer and who shall continue
not to pay his lease rentals or amortization payments when they fall
due for a period of two (2) years to the landowner/agricultural lessor
shall, upon proper hearing and judgment, lose his right to be issued a
Certificate of Land Transfer under Presidential Decree No. 27 and his
farmholding;
SEC. 4. That landholdings subject of forfeiture under the
preceding Section shall be turned over to the Samahang Nayon with which
the agricultural lessee is affiliated for assignment to a qualified
member or members of the association whose landholding/s is/are of
uneconomic size in accordance with the policies laid down by the
Department of Agrarian Reform;
SEC. 5. That any action for violation of the provisions of
the preceding Section 2 and 3 shall be cognizable by the Court of
Agrarian Relations which is hereby vested with original and exclusive
jurisdiction to try and decide the same;
SEC. 6. All provisions of existing laws, orders, decrees,
and rules and regulations which are inconsistent herewith are hereby
repealed or modified accordingly.
SEC. 7. This Decree shall take effect immediately upon its
approval.
Done in the City of Manila, this 21st day of October, in the year
of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-five.
(Sgd.)
FERDINAND E. MARCOS
President
Republic of the Philippines
By the President:
(Sgd.)
ALEJANDRO MELCHOR
Executive Secretary
Source: Supreme Court E-Library, Republic of the Philippines. Philippine laws are public documents (works of the government).
