[ manilastandardtoday.com ] October 1, 2010
LAND Bank of the Philippines’ appraisals of the value of the pieces of property covered by the Agrarian Reform Program are not final and may be challenged in court, the Supreme Court said Thursday.
“The [bank’s] authority is preliminary, and the landowner who disagrees with the valuation may bring the matter to court for a judicial determination of just compensation,” said Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo of the Court’s First Division.
The regional trial courts organized as special agrarian courts were the final adjudicators of just compensation, he said.
In its ruling on the case against Land Bank brought by Enrique Livioco, the high court said both the Court of Appeals and the regional trial court of Angeles City had erred in their decisions on how the land in question was appraised. The high court also rejected Land Bank’s assertion that its valuation carried more weight.
Livioco had offered 30.63 hectares of sugar land in Mabalacat, Pampanga, to the government for its Agrarian Reform Program in 1988, and asked for P30 a square meter, or a total of P9.189 million, in compensation.
TheAgrarian Reform Department then referred his offer to Land Bank for valuation, and the bank set a price of P3.21 a square meter, or a total of P827,943.48, for 26 hectares, and issued a certification to the Register of Deeds of Pampanga in 1991, saying it had earmarked that amount as compensation.
Two years later, Livioco was turned down when he requested a re-evaluation of the compensation on grounds the land’s value had appreciated from the time it was first offered for sale.
The government then proceeded to take possession of Livioco’s property, and in 1994 awarded certificates of land ownership covering Livioco’s property to 26 farmers.
Livioco tried but failed to have the certificates canceled, so he took Land Bank to court. Rey E. Requejo
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