Monday, June 30, 2008 [ philstar.com ]
Ruling that it no longer operates as a livestock farm, the Court of Appeals has reaffirmed its earlier decision ordering 162.7 hectares of a 316.04-hectare property owned by Milestone Farms Inc. in Baras, Rizal to be placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
In a 17-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Noel Tijam, the appellate court’s Special Former Seventeenth Division denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Milestone seeking a reversal of its 2006 decision declaring the 162.7 hectares as CARP land.
“In fine, since the evidence clearly showed that the 162.7-hectare portion is no longer used as a livestock farm, the reason for the exemption no longer exists. Accordingly, logic and the CARL (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Laws under Republic Act 6657) dictate that the land, now classified as agricultural, should be placed under CARP,” the CA said.
Records show that in 1993, Milestone applied for CARP exemption for its 316.04-hectare property in Pinugay, Baras town, arguing that the land was devoted to livestock, poultry and swine raising.
It revised its application for exemption to conform to the provisions of the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) Administrative Order No. 9, which prescribed rules for exemption or exclusion.
On June 27, 1994, DAR regional director Percival Dalugdug issued an order exempting the entire property from CARP.
However, acting on a motion for reconsideration filed by the Southern Pinugay Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, then DAR Secretary Ernesto Garilao modified Dalugdug’s exemption and declared that only 240.97 hectares should be excluded, with the remaining 75.06 hectares be placed under CARP.
On appeal, the Office of the President initially reinstated Dalugdug’s order on Feb. 4, 2000, but then later reversed itself and adopted Garilao’s Jan. 21, 1997 ruling as it granted the separate motions filed by the Samahang Anak-Pawis ng Lagundi, the Pinugay Farmers Association and the DAR’s Bureau of Agrarian Legal Assistance.
Milestone then filed an appeal with the CA, which in a decision on April 29, 2005, reinstated the 2000 ruling of the Office of the President “without prejudice to the outcome of the continuing review and verification proceedings which the DAR, through the proper Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer (MARO), may undertake.”
Several farmers’ groups then filed motions seeking a reconsideration of the CA decision, arguing that while Milestone wanted to exempt its 316.04-hectare property from CARP, it had developed a large portion into a leisure-residential-commercial estate known as the “Palo Alto Leisure and Sports Complex.”
The farmers’ groups added that the government had built irrigation systems and farm-to-market roads in the area.
Acting on the motions, the CA issued an amended decision on Oct. 4, 2006 based on the report submitted by DAR, through the MARO of Pinugay, Baras, Rizal, that “there is no existing livestock farm on the remaining 162.7 hectares and the said area had never been in possession nor control of Milestone Farms Inc.”
The CA noted that Milestone did not deny the DAR’s findings that the 162.7-hectare portion “is no longer devoted to livestock raising.”
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