Agricultural lands reclassified
by the LGUs into non-agricultural purposes before the effectivity date of R.A.No. 6657 (CARP), that is, June 15, 1988 are not subject to Land Use Conversion
Proceedings as made clear by Department of Justice (DOJ) Opinion No. 44, Series
of 1990.
Thus, all lands that are ALREADY
CLASSIFIED as commercial, industrial or residential BEFORE 15 June 1988 NO
LONGER NEED any land conversion. Moreover, Republic Act No. 6657 or
the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), Section 3, Paragraph (c) defines
"agricultural land" as referring to "land devoted to
agricultural activity as defined in this Act and not classified as mineral,
forest, residential, commercial or industrial land."
If the land is reclassified
before the effectivity of RA 6657 on June 15, 1988, it no longer requires land
conversion process but an exemption clearance from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) instead. However, if the
reclassification is done after the said date, the conversion process should be
undertaken.
Department of Justice (DOJ) Opinion No. 44, Series of
1990 and the case of Natalia Realty vs. Department of Agrarian Reform (12
August 1993/225 SCRA 278) pronounces that with respect to the conversion of
agricultural lands covered by RA No. 6657 to non-agricultural uses, the authority
of the Department of Agrarian Reform to approve such conversion maybe exercised
from the date of its effectivity on 15 June 1988.
Land Use Reclassification of
agricultural lands refer to identifying the utilization of agricultural lands (whether
agricultural use, residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) as expressed in the
land use plan, which is subject to the requirements and procedures imposed by
law for land use conversion, to be undertaken by a Local Government Unit (LGU) pursuant
to Section 20 of Republic Act (R.A.) 7160 and Joint Memorandum Circular
(MC-54-1995) executed by and between the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR),
Department of Agriculture (DA), Department
of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Housing and Land Use
Regulatory Board (HLURB). It also includes the reversion of non-agricultural
lands to agricultural 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 Department of Agrarian Reform.
According to the Department of
Justice (DOJ) Opinion No. 44, the authority of DAR to allow conversion is not
limited only to lands awarded under CARL. It is believed to be the intention of
the Agrarian Reform (AR) Law that any conversion of private agricultural land
to non-agricultural uses should be cleared beforehand by DAR. DOJ also
expressed the view that conversions of agricultural lands covered by RA 6657 to
non-agricultural uses, the authority of DAR to approve such conversion may be
exercised from the date of the effectivity of the law.
