This case has been cited 1 times or more.
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2007-10-19 |
CHICO-NAZARIO, J. |
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| It bears emphasis that the status of the petitioner as a tenant in the subject fishpond and his right to security of tenure were already previously settled in the Decision dated 20 July 1987 of the RTC of Lucena City in Agrarian Case No. 86-8, which was affirmed by the Court of Appeals in its Decision dated 11 September 1989. Having been declared as a tenant with the right to security of tenure as provided in Section 35[22] of Republic Act No. 3844 in relation to Section 7 of Republic Act No. 1199, the law enforced at the time of the filing of the Complaint before the RTC of Lucena City, the petitioner has acquired a vested right over the subject fishpond, which right or interest has become fixed and established and is no longer open to doubt or controversy.[23] Therefore, even if fishponds, like the subject matter of this case, were later excluded/exempted from the coverage of the CARL as expressly provided in Section 10 of Republic Act No. 6657, as amended by Republic Act No. 7881, and despite the fact that no CLOA has been issued to the petitioner, the same cannot defeat the aforesaid vested right already granted and acquired by the petitioner long before the passage of Republic Act No. 7881. And being in the nature of a substantive law, the amendments introduced by Republic Act No. 7881 to Republic Act No. 6657 in the year 1995 cannot be given a retroactive application as to deprive the petitioner of his rights under the previous agrarian legislation.[24] | |||||