Association of Small Landowners in the Philippines,
Inc. v. Secretary of Agrarian Reform
G.R. No. 78742
July 14, 1989
Cruz, J.
Held:
The State in the
exercise of its police power may regulate ownership of private property in accordance
with the Constitution. To carry out such regulation, it becomes necessary to deprive
such owners of whatever lands they may own in excess of the maximum area allowed,
there is definitely a taking under the power of eminent domain for which payment
of just compensation is imperative. The taking contemplated is not a mere limitation
of the use of the land. What is required is the surrender of the title to and the
physical possession of the said excess and all beneficial rights accruing to the
owner in favor of the farmer-beneficiary. This is definitely an exercise not of
the police power but of the power of eminent domain.
Eminent domain is an inherent power of the State that enables it to
forcibly acquire private lands intended for public use upon payment of just compensation
to the owner. Obviously, there is no need to expropriate where the owner is willing
to sell under terms also acceptable to the purchaser, in which case an ordinary
deed of sale may be agreed upon by the parties. 35 It is only where the owner is
unwilling to sell, or cannot accept the price or other conditions offered by the
vendee, that the power of eminent domain will come into play to assert the paramount
authority of the State over the interests of the property owner. Private rights
must then yield to the irresistible demands of the public interest on the time-honored
justification, as in the case of the police power, that the welfare of the people
is the supreme law.
But for all its
primacy and urgency, the power of expropriation is by no means absolute (as indeed
no power is absolute). The limitation is found in the constitutional injunction
that “private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation”
and in the abundant jurisprudence that has evolved from the interpretation of this
principle. Basically, the requirements for a proper exercise of the power are: (1)
public use and (2) just compensation.
Just compensation is defined as the full and fair equivalent of the property
taken from its owner by the expropriator. The measure is not the taker’s gain but
the owner’s loss. The word “just” is used to intensify the meaning of the word
“compensation” to convey the idea that the equivalent to be rendered for the property
to be taken shall be real, substantial, full, ample. Just compensation for property taken by condemnation means a fair equivalent
in money, which must be paid at least within a reasonable time after the taking,
and it is not within the power of the Legislature to substitute for such payment
future obligations, bonds, or other valuable advantage.
As held in Republic
of the Philippines v. Castellvi, there
is compensable taking when the following conditions concur: (1) the expropriator must enter a private property;
(2) the entry must be for more than a momentary
period; (3) the entry must be under warrant
or color of legal authority; (4) the
property must be devoted to public use or otherwise informally appropriated or injuriously
affected; and (5) the utilization of
the property for public use must be in such a way as to oust the owner and deprive
him of beneficial enjoyment of the property.
Where the State
itself is the expropriator, it is not necessary for it to make a deposit upon its
taking possession of the condemned property, as “the compensation is a public charge,
the good faith of the public is pledged for its payment, and all the resources of
taxation may be employed in raising the amount.” Nevertheless, Section 16(e) of
the CARP Law provides that:
Upon receipt by the landowner of the corresponding payment
or, in case of rejection or no response from the landowner, upon the deposit with
an accessible bank designated by the DAR of the compensation in cash or in LBP bonds
in accordance with this Act, the DAR shall take immediate possession of the land
and shall request the proper Register of Deeds to issue a Transfer Certificate of
Title (TCT) in the name of the Republic of the Philippines. The DAR shall thereafter
proceed with the redistribution of the land to the qualified beneficiaries.
Title
to the property expropriated shall pass from the owner to the expropriator only
upon full payment of the just compensation.
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