June 14, 2007
DOJ DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR NO. 23-07
SUBJECT : Guidelines in the Preliminary
In the interest of the appropriate and expeditious administration of justice in agrarian reform cases, and in line with the creation of the National Task Force on Agrarian Cases (NTFAC) under Department Order No. 692 dated 05 September 2006, the following Rule on the handling of agrarian reform cases, to be known as the Guidelines in the Investigation of Criminal Cases Related to Agrarian Reform, is hereby adopted. aAEHCI
SECTION 1. Prefatory Statement. — It has been observed that there is an increasing number of criminal cases being filed by landowners/former landowners or their agents/representatives against actual or potential farmer-beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), and/or members of their immediate farm households and/or their farmworkers, as well as against personnel of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who are involved in, or are supporting, the implementation of CARP. It has likewise been observed that CARP farmer-beneficiaries have also resorted to filing criminal cases against former landowners for violating the CARP Law (R.A. 6657), particularly the provision (in paragraph d of Section 73 — Prohibited Acts and Omissions) that penalizes their "willful prevention or obstruction . . . of the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)". EcHIDT
Many of these cases actually arise from, or are rooted in, dispute over the implementation of the CARP and, therefore, belong to the jurisdiction of either the Special Agrarian Courts (SAC), or the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB), or the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) itself, rather than to the regular courts. ATcaID
The determination of whether there is probable cause that warrants the filing of a criminal case in court against the respondents, or whether the complaint should be dismissed because it is not a criminal case at all but is simply an agrarian dispute and, therefore, does not fall within the jurisdiction of the regular courts, rests with the Prosecutor handling the preliminary investigation of the complaint.
It is to assist the concerned Prosecutor in making this determination correctly that this Guidelines is being issued.
SECTION 2. Definition of Terms. — As used in this Guidelines, the following terms are defined as shown: ATHCDa
a. Agrarian Dispute — refers to 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 (R.A. 6657, Section 3-d). HTcDEa
As used in this Guidelines, the term also includes disputes over the interpretation of agrarian reform laws, rules and regulations, including those pertaining to the rights and obligations of agrarian reform beneficiaries and landowners/former landowners.
b. Agricultural Leasehold Contract — A formal tenurial arrangement reduced into writing between a lessor-landholder and lessee-farmer where the former consents to the latter's cultivation in consideration for fixed rental either in money or produce or both.
c. Agricultural Leasehold Relation — It is limited to the person who furnishes the landholding, either as owner, civil law lessee, usufructuary, or legal possessor, and the person who personally cultivates the same (R.A. No. 3844, Sec. 166 [2]).
d. Agricultural Lessee — A person who, by himself and with the aid available from within his immediate farm household, cultivates the land belonging to, or possessed by another, with the latter's consent for purposes of production, for a price certain in money or in produce or both. It is distinguished from civil lessee as understood in the Civil Code of the Philippines. (R.A. No. 3844, Sec. 166 [2]). TDESCa
e. Agricultural Lessor — A person, natural or juridical, who either as owner, civil law lessee, usufructuary, or legal possessor, lets or grant to another the cultivation and use of his land for a certain price. (R.A. No. 3844, Sec. 166 [3]).
f. Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries or Farmer-Beneficiaries — Actual agrarian reform or farmer-beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program are those which have been rewarded either Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) under the CARP (R.A. 6657) or Emancipation Patents (EPs) under Operation Land Transfer (P.D. 27), or have been confirmed as tenants or leaseholders by the DAR or the DARAB. Potential agrarian reform or farmer-beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program are those who are eligible to be awarded CLOAs or EPs, and recognized as such by the DAR, but are still awaiting their actual award; also those who are eligible to be tenants or leaseholders, and are so recognized by the DAR, but are still awaiting their confirmation as such by the DAR or the DARAB.
g. Farmworker — is a natural person who renders services for value as an employee or laborer in an agricultural enterprise of farm, regardless of whether his compensation is paid on a daily, weekly, monthly or "pakyaw" basis. The term includes an individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, a pending agrarian dispute and who has not obtained a substantially equivalent and regular farm employment (R.A. 6657, Section 3-g). SETaHC
As used in this Guidelines, the term also includes the following:
1) Regular Farmworker — a natural person who is employed on a permanent basis by an agricultural enterprise or farm (R.A. 6657, Section 3-h).
2) Seasonal Farmworker — a natural person who is employed on a recurrent, periodic or intermittent basis by an agricultural enterprise or farm, whether as a permanent or non-permanent laborer, such as "dumaan", "sacada", and the like (R.A. 6657, Section 3-i).
3) Other Farmworker — a farmworker who does not fall under any of the foregoing categories (R.A. 6657, Section 3-j).
h. Immediate Farm Household — includes the members of the family of the tenant, and such other person or persons, whether related to the tenant or not, who are dependent upon him for support and who usually help him operate the farm enterprise. (R.A. 1199, Section 5-o).
SECTION 3. Scope. — This Guidelines shall apply to criminal cases filed by landowners/former landowners and/or their agents/representatives against actual or potential agrarian reform beneficiaries, tenant-farmers, farmworkers, and/or members of their immediate farm households, as well as against personnel of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), provided that the latter are impleaded as co-respondents of either the agrarian reform beneficiaries or the DAR personnel, where the factual circumstances alleged to justify the criminal charge indicate that said circumstances are rooted in, or may be traced to, an agrarian dispute.
This Guidelines also covers criminal cases filed by CARP beneficiaries or DAR personnel or NGOs against landowners/former landowners, given the same condition as above regarding the relationship of the cases to an agrarian dispute.
SECTION 4. Operating Guidelines. — When a complaint for a felony or a criminal offense is filed before the Office of the City or Provincial Prosecutor, the Chief of Office or its duly authorized representative shall assign the case for inquest or preliminary investigation to the NTFAC member, if he has reason to believe that the complaint arises from an agrarian dispute or if any of the following elements are present:
1) The case involves a landowner/former landowner and actual or potential agrarian reform beneficiaries or tenant farmers and/or lessees or farmworkers and/or their immediate families, or DAR personnel, or NGO personnel who are involved in or supporting the implementation of CARP, whose names appear in a list provided by the Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer (PARO). Absent said list, the Prosecutor must request the PARO to certify whether or not the parties involved in the complaint (both the plaintiff and the respondents) belong to any of these categories. (The PARO, in turn, will ask the concerned MARO to provide the requested certification or, if the MARO is unable to provide it for any reason, will issue the certification himself, based on the investigation of the DAR Provincial Legal Officer).
2) The case involves an alleged crime that took place in or about an agricultural landholding.
3) The case filed is either estafa, theft, qualified theft, trespass, grave coercion, arson, grave threat, malicious mischief, robbery with force upon things or violence or intimidation of persons, or violations of Section 73 of the CARP Law (R.A. 6657).
4) Other pertinent records of DAR and other government offices that provide sufficient indicator that the complaint arises from an agrarian dispute.
a. If after considering the above-listed elements, the investigating prosecutor is still in doubt as to whether a complaint is rooted in, or arises out of, an agrarian dispute, he/she shall ask the DAR Provincial Office (DARPO) to comment on the complaint. The DARPO should submit its comments on the complaint within 15 days from the date the request was received from the investigating prosecutor. If the DARPO fails to do so, the investigating prosecutor will conclude his/her investigation on the basis of any information he/she may have on hand after the 15-day deadline expires.
b. If after the conduct of the preliminary investigation, the investigating prosecutor finds sufficient basis to believe that the offense charged is an agrarian dispute or arises out of an agrarian dispute based on the above enumerated elements and/or the comments of the DARPO, the investigating prosecutor shall immediately return the subject case to the Chief of Office with advise that the said case be re-assigned to the NTFAC member for appropriate action (that is, if the investigating prosecutor is not a NTFAC member himself/herself). If there is no such prosecutor designated as NTFAC member in the said prosecution office, the case shall be referred to the Office of the Regional State Prosecutor (RSP) which has jurisdiction over the Provincial/City Prosecution Office. The RSP shall have the authority to act on the case by himself/herself or designate any Prosecutor within the region who is a NTFAC member to conduct such investigation.
c. If the NTFAC member determines that the complaint is rooted or could be traced to a dispute over the implementation of the agrarian reform program, he/she shall immediately dismiss the complaint for lack of probable cause and/or lack of jurisdiction of the regular courts.
d. On the other hand, if the NTFAC member finds that the case is not rooted in agrarian dispute and/or finds probable cause of the offense charged, he/she will resolve the case with dispatch and immediately release his/her resolution to the parties concerned.
e. However, the corresponding Information shall be filed by the Prosecutor only after the lapse of the period to file a motion for reconsideration or re-investigation, to give the respondents reasonable time to file such motion.
SECTION 5. Re-investigation of Cases. — When a petition for re-investigation is filed on the basis that the case involves either actual or potential agrarian reform beneficiaries, tenant-farmers, farmworkers or their immediate farm household members, and landowners/former landowners or their agent/representatives, and that the complaint is rooted in or could be traced to a dispute over the implementation of the agrarian reform program, the trial prosecutor shall interpose no objection to a Motion for Re-investigation, and upon the grant of said Motion, should immediately refer it to the NTFAC-designated Prosecutor for disposition, as provided in the preceding section.
SECTION 6. Appeal from Resolution of NTFAC-Designated Prosecutors. — Resolutions of NTFAC-designated Prosecutors are appealable only to the Secretary of Justice. Appeals from such resolutions should be filed in accordance with the 2000 Rule of Appeal issued under DOJ Circular No. 69 dated 03 July 2000.
SECTION 7. Effectivity. — This Circular shall take effect immediately.
(SGD.) ERNESTO L. PINEDA
Undersecretary
Officer-in-Charge