SC: Land for gov’t housing exempt from agra laws
By Benjamin B. Pulta 06/05/2010 The Supreme Court (SC) has decided that land taken over by the government for its resettlement and housing efforts are beyond the scope of agrarian laws. In its decision, the high tribunal’s Second Division, through Associate Justice Roberto Abad, reversed and set aside a ruling of the Court of Appeals (CA) and dismissed the suit filed by the family of a tenant-farmer for possession of a three-hectare portion of lot. Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Arturo Brion, Mariano Del Castillo and Jose Perez concurred with the ruling, which upheld the National Housing Authority (NHA)’s position in the controversy claiming that the lot is exempt from the coverage of the agrarian reform laws, having been acquired by NHA for its housing program. Sometime in 1960, the administrator of the estate of the late C.N. Hodges asked Mateo Villaruz, Sr. to work as tenant of the estate’s seven-hectare rice field in Barangay Alijis, Bacolod City, designated as Lot 916. The estate wanted to prevent the land from falling into the hands of squatters. It had a house constructed on the lot for Villaruz and engaged his daughter and son-in-law to serve as co-tenants. In 1976, however, squatters settled into Lot 916, occupying four of its seven hectares. Villaruz was thus left with only three hectares for planting rice and corn. Source: The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20100605nat6.html |
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