But Are You a De Jure Tenant?

2020 January 22

Lutero Romero (Lutero) owned property by virtue of an approved homestead application in 1967. Although ownership of the said property was subject of a legal dispute involving Lutero and his siblings, the Supreme Court eventually declared Lutero the true and lawful owner of the property in De Romero v. Court of Appeals1G.R. No. 109307, November 25, 1999, 377 PHIL 189-202.

After the Court’s Decision in De Romero v. Court of Appeals became final and executory, the Heirs of Lutero filed a Motion for the Issuance of a Writ of Execution before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) on 10 March 2003. On 16 June 2003, the RTC issued a Writ of Execution. However, the implementation of the writ was held in abeyance because Crispina Sombrino (Sombrino) filed a Motion for Intervention, alleging that she was a tenant of the subject property. After due hearing and deliberation, the RTC ordered the implementation of the writ. Sombrino was consequently ousted from the subject property.

Sombrino then filed a Complaint against the Heirs of Lutero for Illegal Ejectment and Recovery of Possession before the Office of the Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicator. At the heart of Sombrino’s claim of tenancy was her allegation that the parents of Lutero installed her as tenant in 1952.

The consistent ruling of the Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicator, the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board, and the Court of Appeals on the said complaint was that an agricultural leasehold tenancy relation existed between Sombrino and the Heirs of Lutero because the supposed original landowners of the subject property, i.e., parents of Lutero, allegedly entered into a tenancy agreement with Sombrino in 1952. Said ruling viewed the following pieces of evidence as proof of the existence of said tenancy relation:

  • Affidavits of certain persons stating that Sombrino occupied the subject property; and
  • Acknowledgment Receipts pertaining to payment of irrigation and fees to a sister of Lutero.

According to said tribunals, Lutero and, subsequently, his heirs should also be bound by this leasehold relation and respect Sombrino’s tenancy rights.

Did an agricultural leasehold tenancy relationship exist between Sombrino and the Heirs of Lutero?

The Supreme Court ruled that no agricultural leasehold tenancy relationship existed between them.

According to the Court, an agricultural leasehold tenancy exists “when a person who, either personally or with the aid of labor available (from) members of his immediate farm household, undertakes to cultivate a piece of agricultural land susceptible of cultivation by a single person together with members of his immediate farm household, belonging to or legally possessed by, another in consideration of a fixed amount in money or in produce or in both.”2Section 4, Agricultural Tenancy Act of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 1199, as amended by Republic Act No. 2263

The Court also reiterated established jurisprudence:

The existence of a tenancy relation is not presumed, as the following indispensable elements must be proven in order for a tenancy agreement to arise:

  • the parties are the landowner and the tenant or agricultural lessee;
  • the subject matter of the relationship is an agricultural land;
  • there is consent between the parties to the relationship;
  • the purpose of the relationship is to bring about agricultural production;
  • there is personal cultivation on the part of the tenant or agricultural lessee; and
  • the harvest is shared between the landowner and the tenant or agricultural lessee.

The absence of any of the requisites does not make an occupant, cultivator, or a planter a de jure tenant which entitles him to security of tenure under existing tenancy laws.3Heirs of Cadeliña v. Cadiz, G.R. No. 194417, November 23, 2016, 800 PHIL 668-679

However, if all the aforesaid requisites are present and an agricultural leasehold relation is established, the same shall confer upon the agricultural lessee the right to continue working on the landholding until such leasehold relation is extinguished. The agricultural lessee shall be entitled to security of tenure on his landholding and cannot be ejected therefrom unless authorized by the Court for causes herein provided.4Section 7, Code of Agrarian Reforms In case of death or permanent incapacity of the agricultural lessor, the leasehold shall bind the legal heirs.

Since a tenancy relationship cannot be presumed, an assertion that one is a tenant does not automatically give rise to security of tenure. Nor does the sheer fact of working on another’s landholding raise a presumption of the existence of agricultural tenancy. One who claims to be a tenant has the onus to prove the affirmative allegation of tenancy.5Soliman v. Pampanga Sugar Development Co., G.R. No. 169589, June 16, 2009, 607 PHIL 209-227 Hence, substantial evidence is needed to establish that the landowner and tenant came to an agreement in entering into a tenancy relationship.

In the present case, the Court found that Sombrino failed to provide sufficient evidence that there was, in the first place, an agricultural leasehold tenancy agreement entered into by herself and the parents of Lutero.

According to the Court, the joint affidavit of Sarillo Bacalso and Neil Ocopio revealed that Sombrino allegedly hired them in several occasions as planters, mud boat operators and thresher operators and that Sombrino occupied and cultivated the subject property at some point in time. The Court stressed that such document in no way confirmed that Sombrino’s presence on the land was based on a tenancy relationship as “[m]ere occupation or cultivation of an agricultural land does not automatically convert the tiller into an agricultural tenant recognized under agrarian laws.”6Heirs of Quilo v. Development Bank of the Philippines – Dagupan Branch, G.R. No. 184369, October 23, 2013, 720 PHIL 414-426 The Court thus said that self-serving statements regarding supposed tenancy relations are not enough to establish the existence of a tenancy agreement.7Soliman v. Pampanga Sugar Development Co., G.R. No. 169589, June 16, 2009, 607 PHIL 209-227

Furthermore, the Court found that the Affidavit of the Barangay Agrarian Reform Committee (BARC) Chairman deserved scant consideration since the said chairman was not the proper authority to make such determination. The Court emphasized that certifications issued by administrative agencies and/or officials concerning the presence or the absence of a tenancy relationship are merely preliminary or provisional and are not binding on the courts,8Soliman v. Pampanga Sugar Development Co., G.R. No. 169589, June 16, 2009, 607 PHIL 209-227 and have little evidentiary value without any corroborating evidence.9Reyes v. Heirs of Floro, G.R. No. 200713, December 11, 2013, 723 PHIL 755-775 The Court said that there should be independent evidence establishing the consent of the landowner to the relationship.10Caluzor v. Llanillo, G.R. No. 155580, July 1, 2015, 762 PHIL 353-370

With respect to acknowledgment receipts presented by Sombrino showing the payment of irrigation fees and rentals to Lutero’s sibling, the Court declared such pieces of documentary evidence insufficient for the said receipts merely established that, at most, Sombrino entered into an arrangement with Lutero’s sister and not with their parents.

The Court continued that assuming that it even existed, the supposed tenancy agreement was invalid as it was not entered into with the true and lawful landowner of the subject property.

According to the Court, tenancy relationship can only be created with the consent of the true and lawful landowner who is the owner, lessee, usufructuary or legal possessor of the land. It cannot be created by the act of a supposed landowner, who has no right to the land subject of the tenancy, much less by one who has been dispossessed of the same by final judgment.11Cunanan v. Aguilar, G.R. No. L-31963, August 31, 1978, 174 PHIL 299-314

In the present case, the Court doubted the existence of the alleged agricultural tenancy agreement because of the undisputed fact that Lutero’s father died sometime in 1948, and it was, thus, impossible for Lutero’s father to have instituted Sombrino as tenant of the subject property.

With the absence of the first essential requisite of an agricultural tenancy relationship, i.e., that the parties to the agreement are the true and lawful landholders and tenants, the Court ruled that Sombrino was not a de jure tenant entitled to security of tenure under existing tenancy laws.

In sum, the Court ruled that security of tenure may be invoked only by de jure tenants. Security of tenure may not be invoked by those who are not true and lawful tenants but became so only through the acts of a supposed landholder who had no right to the landholdings. Tenancy relation can only be created with the consent of the landholder who is either the owner, lessee, usufructuary or legal possessor of the land.

Further reading:

  • Romero v. Sombrino, G.R. No. 241353, January 22, 2020.

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