President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday night slammed landlords who buy parcels of land from agrarian reform beneficiaries, saying he will not honor such contracts.
“I will tell you, during my time, I will not honor that sale,” he said in a televised speech in Capiz.
“If you’ll tell me that you bought it back, you have to consider that the person is poor and maybe it’s the first time that he got hold of so much money. And yet when it is gone, dissipated either intentionally or either for expenses, they have nothing,” he said.
Buying lands covered by the land reform program are prohibited under the law.
“I will not honor that contract. Do not give me that sh*t,” he said.
The President previously warned former landowners to return land to farmers-beneficiaries because they will be “forced to surrender.”
President Duterte also urged Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones to complete the land reform process before his term expires in 2022.
“I’m telling the secretary to complete land reform and give government’s land to the people. If the government land has no purpose, give it to the people,” he said.
Meanwhile, Castriciones on Friday welcomed a Court of Appeals decision upholding the department’s quasi-judicial powers.
“This is a legal victory to DAR,” Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Luis Meinrado Pañgulayan said.
The resolution has nullified the 20-year injunction order against the agency on the process of land acquisition and distribution, and issuance of certificates of land ownership awards.
“This brings to an end the injunction issued against DAR and the beneficiaries of the [Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program] processes and the agrarian reform titles,” Pañgulayan said.
In July 2000, the Roxas City Regional Trial Court, acting as a special agrarian court, granted the petition of Nemesio Tan to issue a preliminary prohibitory injunction against DAR and the Land Bank of the Philippines.
Tan was a landowner whose agricultural lots in Roxas City and Pilar, Capiz had been placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
Certificates of Land Ownership Award had also been issued to agrarian reform beneficiaries for the disputed lots before Tan filed his complaints.
In an Aug. 29 decision, the appellate court granted DAR’s petition for certiorari to review the orders of the lower court.
“The RTC-SAC was devoid of any authority to issue a writ of preliminary injunction against the DAR in relation to any case, dispute or controversy, arising from, necessary to, or in connection with the latter’s application, implementation, enforcement or interpretation of the CARL,” the decision read.
“Hence, the writ must perforce be stricken down as nullity,” the court added.