This case has been cited 2 times or more.
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2011-09-05 |
DEL CASTILLO, J. |
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| We note at the outset that this case is intimately related to Roxas & Company, Inc. v. Court of Appeals [36] and Roxas & Company, Inc. v. DAMBA-NFSW,[37] earlier resolved by this Court on December 17, 1999 and December 4, 2009, respectively. In fact, the present case is similar to one[38] of the seven consolidated petitions in Roxas & Company, Inc. v. DAMBA-NFSW, except that the parcels of land involved therein are located in Hacienda Palico, while here, they are situated in Hacienda Caylaway.[39] | |||||
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2010-06-18 |
PEREZ, J. |
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| It is of no moment whether the reclassification of agricultural lands to residential, commercial, industrial or other non-agricultural uses was done by the LGUs or by way of Presidential Proclamations because either way they must still undergo conversion process. It bears stressing that the act of reclassifying agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses simply specifies how agricultural lands shall be utilized for non-agricultural uses and does not automatically convert agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses or for other purposes. As explained in DAR Memorandum Circular No. 7, Series of 1994, cited in the 2009 case of Roxas & Company, Inc. v. DAMBA-NFSW and the Department of Agrarian Reform,[47] reclassification of lands denotes their allocation into some specific use and providing for the manner of their utilization and disposition or the act of specifying how agricultural lands shall be utilized for non-agricultural uses such as residential, industrial, or commercial, as embodied in the land use plan. For reclassified agricultural lands, therefore, to be used for the purpose to which they are intended there is still a need to change the current use thereof through the process of conversion. The authority to do so is vested in the DAR, which is mandated to preserve and maintain agricultural lands with increased productivity. Thus, notwithstanding the reclassification of agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses, they must still undergo conversion before they can be used for other purposes. | |||||