The Supreme Court (SC) ordered the creation of a task force that would gather the documents needed to determine Hacienda Luisita Incorporated’s (HLI) just compensation for distributing its 4,915-hectare agricultural land to more than 6,000 farm worker beneficiaries (FWBs).
The SC en banc, in a 20-page resolution released on Monday, April 26, asked the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), and the Register of Deeds to create the task force “for purposes of completing and collating the documentation required to validate the home lot awards.”
The SC also directed the HLI to provide the documents needed to complete DAR’s validation process.
“Significantly, the completion of the DAR’s validation procedures is a pre-condition to the payment of just compensation. Thus, it is in HLI’s best interest to fully cooperate with the DAR which includes providing the necessary documents to the best of their ability. It is difficult to believe that HLI no longer possesses the originals/certified true copies of these documents,” the High Court said.
Just compensation refers to the “full and fair equivalent of the property taken from its owner by the expropriator.”
“In determining just compensation, the price or value of the property at the time it was taken from the owner and appropriated by the government shall be the basis,” said the April 24, 2012 Supreme Court decision ordering the distribution of Hacienda Luisita to FWBs.
The directive to create a task force comes after HLI claimed it does not have the original copies of the transfer documents that were either submitted to the Register of Deeds or given to the beneficiaries.
But according to the PARC and DAR, to complete the validation process, they need the certified true copies of the transfer documents that prove the awarding of the home lots to the beneficiaries.
The Court noted that this request involves voluminous documents, some of which may already be unavailable or difficult to locate due to passage of time.
Recognizing that it would be difficult for a single party or entity to produce the needed documents, the SC urged the creation of the task force so the agencies concerned can agree on their responsibilities and retrieve the records immediately.
The SC ordered the DAR to determine just compensation for HLI after it completes the validation process. It also directed the Land Bank of the Philippines to release the payment for the just compensation, which should be sourced from DAR’s Agrarian Reform Fund.
The High Court also denied with finality a motion for reconsideration of its April 24, 2018 resolution filed by Noel Mallari of the Alyansa ng mga Mangagawang Bukid ng Hacienda Luisita and Winsor Andaya of the HLI Supervisory Group.
The SC had turned down their motion to execute the July 5, 2011 main decision and the November 22, 2011 resolution which directed that “any unspent or unused balance and any disallowed expenditures as determined by the audit shall be distributed to the 6,296 original FWBs.”
According to the SC, the order is considered “fully complied with.”
Regarding the just compensation for HLI, the SC noted that previous decisions had already settled this issue with finality.
“The Court cannot allow the parties to prolong these proceedings by filing motion after motion, only to perpetually deflect/delay [a legal] obligation,” the High Court said. – Rappler.com
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