April 24, 2000
DAR OPINION NO. 10-00
Ms. Dynah E. Mines
33 Don Pio St., Don Enrique Hts.
Quezon City
Dear Ms. Mines:
This refers to your request for opinion on the following queries, to wit:
1. Whether or not you have the right to stop your tenant from cultivating the land in issue and then get a temporary tenant to do the tilling?
2. Whether or not you can sell the land and give the tenant his share considering that she is now tilling the entire one (1) hectare without increasing the agreed rental of seven (7) cavans?
Anent your first query, the answer is in the negative. A tenant enjoys security of tenure on his/her landholding. Section 7 of R.A. No. 3844, as amended, provides that "the agricultural leasehold relation once established shall confer upon the agricultural lessee the right to continue working on the landholding until such leasehold relation is extinguished. The agricultural lessee shall be entitled to security of tenure on his landholding and cannot be ejected therefrom unless authorized by the Court for causes herein provided." Security of tenure is a legal concession to agricultural lessees which they value as life itself and deprivation of their landholding is tantamount to being deprived of their only means of livelihood.
As regards your second query, leasehold is not extinguished with the transfer of legal ownership of the land from one landowner to another. Section 10 of R.A. 3844, as amended, provides that the purchaser or transferee shall be subrogated to the rights and substituted to the obligations of the agricultural lessor. Likewise, Sections 11 and 12 thereof provide that in case the agricultural lessor decides to sell the landholding, the agricultural lessee shall have the preferential right to buy the same, and, in case the landholding is said to a third person without the knowledge of the agricultural lessee, the latter shall have the right to redeem the same at a reasonable price and consideration.
Thank you for communicating with us and we hope to have enlightened you on the matter.
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) FEDERICO A. POBLETE
Undersecretary for Legal Affairs, and Policy and Planning
Copy furnished:
OSEC Doc. No. 00020799