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| Meeting of the Cagayan DAR-DOJ Provincial Task Force on Illegal Conversion |
TUGUEGARAO CITY
– The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR )
Provincial Office of Cagayan-Batanes and the Department of Justice (DOJ),
specifically, the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor, during the meeting of
the Provincial Task Force on Illegal Conversion sometime in October 2013 disclosed
that the DARPO Cagayan-Batanes has already submitted a case folder to the
Office of the Provincial Prosecutor involving a big housing developer in
Tuguegarao City for undertaking a housing project over agricultural lands without
filing an Application for Land Use Conversion before the DAR as required by
law.
The case involved
parcels of agricultural lands, some of which are covered under PD No. 27 (with
Emancipation Patent) which were prematurely converted into
non-agricultural/residential use. Land use conversion is the act or process of changing
the current physical use of a piece of agricultural land into some other use,
as approved by DAR.
According
to Virgilio M. Acasili, Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II (PARPO-II) of Cagayan-Batanes, the Joint
Provincial Task Force on Illegal Conversion of Cagayan province composed of DAR
and DOJ officials have intensified the campaign against illegal conversion of
agricultural lands into non-agricultural uses. Other cases of this nature will be
likewise transmitted to the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor immediately
after the requisite investigation and case build-up are completed.
Agriculture
could be carried out only in certain types of land. Thus agricultural lands
should be rightfully considered a finite natural resource, further depletion of
which would threaten national food security. In contrast, housing and industrialization
for example, require land merely for space and may therefore be implemented in lands
marginal for agriculture.
Section 65 of RA
6657 empowers the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to authorize under
certain conditions, the reclassification or conversion and the disposition of
lands awarded to the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs).
According to the
Department of Justice (DOJ) Opinion No. 44, the authority of DAR to allow land
use conversion of agricultural lands into non-agricultural uses is not limited
only to lands awarded under Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (RA No. 6657), as
amended by RA No. 9700 (CARPER). Any
conversion of private agricultural land to non-agricultural use should be
cleared beforehand by DAR.
An exception to
this is when the land is already classified as commercial, industrial or
residential before 15 June 1988, there is no longer a need for any conversion
clearance. However, the authority of DAR to approve conversion may be exercised
from the date of effectivity of the RA 6657, that is, June 15, 1988.
Illegal land use
conversion is punishable under Paragraph (b), Article 73 of Republic Act No.
6657, as amended by Republic Act No. 9700 and carries a penalty of imprisonment
of three (3) years and one (1) day to six (6) years or a fine of not less than
Fifty thousand pesos (P50,000.00) and not more than One hundred fifty thousand pesos
(P150,000.00), or both, at the discretion of the court. If the offender is a
corporation or association, the officer responsible therefore shall be
criminally liable. by:christiandsales
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