JESUS PASCO et al. v.

PISON-ARCEO AGRICULTURAL AND

DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

485 SCRA 514 (2006)

Under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, ownership of the land is transferred only after the
award of the same to the beneficiary by the Department of Agrarian Reform.

Pison-Arceo Agricultural and Development Corporation, is the registered owner of a parcel of land in
Negros Occidental. Constructed on the said land are houses occupied by the corporation‘s workers.
Jesus Pasco et al. are former workers of the corporation. When their employment contracts were
terminated, they were asked to vacate the house but they refused to do so. The corporation thereafter
filed a complaint for unlawful detainer before the Metropolitan Trial Court in Cities in Bacolod City. The
trial court rendered judgment in favor of Pasco et al. On appeal, the Regional Trial Court affirmed the
decision. Pasco et al. appealed the decision contending that the court has no jurisdiction over the case
on the ground of a pending agrarian reform dispute between them and the corporation.

The Court of Appeals rendered a decision which affirmed the RTC‘s decision.

ISSUE:

Whether or not one who has been identified by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as potential
agrarian reform beneficiary may be ejected from the land where he is identified as such, by the
landowner, who has already been notified by the DAR of the coverage of his land by the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Program of the government

HELD:
The issuance during the pendency of the case of a Notice of Coverage to Pison-Arceo Agricultural and
Developmevnt Corporation does not, however, automatically make the ejectment case an agrarian
dispute over which the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB) has jurisdiction.
The issuance of a Notice of Coverage is merely a preliminary step for the State‘s acquisition of the land
for agrarian reform purposes and it does not automatically vest title or transfer the ownership of the
land to the government.

Since during a field investigation the DAR and Land Bank of the Philippines would make a determination
as to whether, among other things, “the land will be placed under agrarian reform, the land‘s suitability
to agriculture,” a Notice of Coverage does not ipso facto render the land subject thereof a land reform
area. The owner retains its right to eject unlawful possessors of his land, as what respondent Pison-
Arceo Agricultural and Development Corporation did in the present case.

Nothing in the records of the case shows that the DAR has made an award in favor of Spouses Pasco et
al. Hence, no rights over the land they occupy can be considered to have vested in their favor in
accordance with Section 24 of the CARL which provides that the rights and responsibilities of the
beneficiary shall commence from the time the DAR makes an award of the land to him, which award
shall be completed within one hundred eighty (180) days from the time the DAR takes actual possession
of the land.