Labor Code of the Philippines LR is the mechanism that processes the
Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended substance.
Preliminary Title Books under LS (PHCH)
Chapter I: General Provisions
1. Pre-employment
Art. 1. Name of Decree This Decree shall 2. Human Resources Development
be known as the Labor Code of the Program
Philippines 3. Conditions of Employment
4. Health, Safety and Social Welfare
Art. 2. Date of Effectivity This Code shall Benefits
take effect six (6) months after its
promulgation. Books under LR
I. Labor Legislation; Definitions 1. Labor Relations
2. Post Employment
Labor legislations - consists of statutes,
regulations and jurisprudence governing the Employment tenure and termination
relations between capital and labor, by fall under labor relations
providing certain employment standards and a
legal framework for negotiating, adjusting and Sameer Overseas Placement Agency, Inc.
administering those standards and other v. NLRC and P.Endozo. It is an elementary
incidents of employment.
rule in labor relations that even a probationary
employee is entitled to security of tenure.
Labor legislation can be divided into two:
Labor relations and industrial relations
1. Labor Standards that which sets
distinguished
out the least or basic terms, conditions
and benefits of employment that LabRel Industrial Relations
employers must provide or comply with
Refer to situations Refers to situations
and to which employees are entitled as
involving unionized involving non-
a matter of right.
companies unionized ones
Refer to matters Management-labor
Maternity Childrens Hospital v. Sec. of
internal to the labor interactions
Labor. Labor standards are the minimum
sector
requirements prescribed by existing laws, rules
and regulations relating to wages, hours of
Labor physical toil although it does not
work, cost-of-living allowance, and other necessarily exclude the application of skill, thus
monetary and welfare benefits, including
there is skilled and unskilled labor.
occupational, safety, and health standards.
Skill is the familiar knowledge of any art or
2. Labor relations that which defines science, united with readiness and dexterity in
that status, rights and duties, and the
execution or performance or in the application
institutional mechanisms that govern of the art or science to practical purposes.
the individual and collective interaction
of employers, employees or their
Work covers all forms of physical or mental
representatives. exertion, or both combined, for the attainment
of some object other than recreation or
LS as the material or the substance to be amusement per se.
processed.
Worker and Employee, distinguished
Worker Employee
Refer to self-employed a salaried person
people and those working for another
working in the service who controls or
and under the control supervises the means,
of another, regardless manner or method of
of rank, title, or nature doing work.
of work.
II. Labor Laws and Social
Legislation
Social legislation those laws that provide
particular kinds of protection or benefits to
society or segments thereof in furtherance of
social justice.
Labor laws are social legislations but
not all social legislations are labor laws.
Social legislation is broader while labor
law is narrower.
III. Social Justice as the aim
Justification of labor law: social
justice
Calalang v. Williams. Social justice is
neither communism, nor depotism, nor
atomism, nor anarchy, but the humanization of
laws and the equalization of social and
economic forces by the State so that justice in
its rational and objectively secular conception
may at least be approximated. Social justice
means the promotion of the welfare of all the
people, the adoption of the government of
measures calculated to insure economic
stability of all the component elements of
society through the maintenance of proper
economic and social equilibrium in the
interrelations of the members of the
community, constitutionally, through the
adoption of measures legally justifiable, or
extra-constitutionally, through the exercise of
powers underlying the existence of all
governments on the time-honored principle of
salus populi est suprema lex
 Salus populi est suprema lex the
health of the people should be the
supreme law
Art. II, Sec. 9. The State shall promote a just
and dynamic social order that will ensure the
prosperity and independence of the nation and
free the people from poverty through policies
that provide adequate social services, promote
full employment, a rising standard of living,
and an improved quality of life for all.
Art. II, Sec. 10. The State shall promote social
justice in all phases of national development.
Art. XIII, Sec. 1. The Congress shall give
highest priority to the enactment of measures
that protect and enhance the right of all the
people to human dignity, reduce social,
economic, and political inequalities, and
remove cultural inequities by equitably
diffusing wealth and political power for the
common good.
To this end, the State shall regulate the
acquisition, ownership, use, and disposition of
property and its increments.
Art. XIII, Sec. 2. The promotion of social
justice shall include the commitment to create
economic opportunities based on freedom of
initiative and self-reliance.
Art. XIII, Sec. 3. The State shall afford full
protection to labor, local and overseas,
organized and unorganized, and promote full
employment and equality of employment
opportunities for all.
IV. Constitutional Rights and
Mandates
If there should be conflict between
constitutional provisions of the Labor
Code, the Constitution shall prevail as
it is the highest law of the land.
Art. XIII, Sec. 3, par. 2. It shall guarantee the
rights of all workers to self-organization,
collective bargaining and negotiations, and
peaceful concerted activities, including the
right to strike in accordance with law. They
shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane
conditions of work, and a living wage. They
shall also participate in policy and decision-
making processes affecting their rights and
benefits as may be provided by law.
Art. III, Sec. 8. The right of the people,
including those employed in the public and
private sectors, to form unions, associations, or
societies for purposes not contrary to law shall
not be abridged.
Art. IX-B, Sec. 2, par. 3. No officer or
employee of the civil service shall be removed
or suspended except for cause provided by law.
Art. IX-B, Sec. 2, par. 5. The right to self-
organization shall not be denied to government
employees.
Art. IX-B, Sec. 2, par. 6. Temporary
employees of the Government shall be given
such protection as may be provided by law.
Art. XIII, Sec. 4. The State shall, by law,
undertake an agrarian reform program founded
on the right of farmers and regular
farmworkers who are landless, to own directly
or collectively the lands they till or, in the case
of other farmworkers, to receive a just share of
the fruits thereof. To this end, the State shall
encourage and undertake the just distribution
of all agricultural lands, subject to such
priorities and reasonable retention limits as the
Congress may prescribe, taking into account
ecological, developmental, or equity
considerations, and subject to the payment of
just compensation. In determining retention
limits, the State shall respect the right of small
landowners. The State shall further provide
incentives for voluntary land-sharing.
produced by the nation for the benefit of the
Art. XIII, Sec. 5. The State shall recognize the
right of farmers, farmworkers, and landowners,
as well as cooperatives, and other independent
farmers' organizations to participate in the
planning, organization, and management of the
program, and shall provide support to
agriculture through appropriate technology and
research, and adequate financial, production,
marketing, and other support services.
Art. XIII, Sec. 6. The State shall apply the
principles of agrarian reform or stewardship,
whenever applicable in accordance with law, in
the disposition or utilization of other natural
resources, including lands of the public domain
under lease or concession suitable to
agriculture, subject to prior rights, homestead
rights of small settlers, and the rights of
indigenous communities to their ancestral
lands. The State may resettle landless farmers
and farmworkers in its own agricultural estates
which shall be distributed to them in the
manner provided by law.
Art. XIII, Sec. 9. The State shall, by law, and
for the common good, undertake, in
cooperation with the private sector, a
continuing program of urban land reform and
housing which will make available at affordable
cost, decent housing and basic services to
under-privileged and homeless citizens in
urban centers and resettlement areas. It shall
also promote adequate employment
opportunities to such citizens. In the
implementation of such program the State
shall respect the rights of small property
owners.
Art. XIII, Sec. 14. The State shall protect
working women by providing safe and healthful
working conditions, taking into account their
maternal functions, and such facilities and
opportunities that will enhance their welfare
and enable them to realize their full potential in
the service of the nation.
Art. XII, Sec. 1. The goals of the national
economy are a more equitable distribution of
opportunities, income, and wealth; a sustained
increase in the amount of goods and services
people; and an expanding productivity as the
key to raising the quality of life for all,
especially the underprivileged.
The State shall promote industrialization and
full employment based on sound agricultural
development and agrarian reform, through
industries that make full of efficient use of
human and natural resources.
 enshrined in the Constitution that the rights of and involuntary
Art. XII, Sec. 15. The Congress shall create workers and the promotion of their welfare servitude)
an agency to promote the viability and growth shall be protected. However, the court cannot R.A. 1054 (Emergency medical
of cooperatives as instruments for social justice favour one party, be it labor or management, in treatment for
and economic development. arriving at a just solution to a controversy if the employees)
party concerned has no valid support to his C.A. No. 444 (Eight-hour Labor Law)
Art. XVIII, Sec. 18. At the earliest possible claim. C.A. 103 (Creating the Court of
time, the Government shall increase the salary Industrial Relations)
scales of the other officials and employees of V. Police Power as the Basis P.D. 21 National Labor
the National Government. Relations Commission
Police power is the basis of labor R.A. 875 Industrial Peace Act
Art. XVIII, Sec. 16. Career civil service laws. R.A. 946 Blue Sunday Law
employees separated from the service not for R.A. 1052 as amended Termination Pay Law
cause but as a result of the reorganization People v. Vera. Police power is the power to by R.A. 1787
pursuant to Proclamation No. 3 dated March enact laws within constitutional limits to
25, 1986 and the reorganization following the promote the order, safety, health, morals and IX. Significance of Foreign
ratification of this Constitution shall be entitled general welfare of society. Decisions
to appropriate separation pay and to
retirement and other benefits accruing to them VI. Birth of Labor Code The industrial Peace Act was modelled
under the laws of general application in force
after US laws is significant because the
at the time of their separation. In lieu thereof, Began in 1968 by Blas F. Ople (Minister decisions of the high courts in those
at the option of the employees, they may be of Labor) jurisdictions construing and
considered for employment in the Government Objectives: interpreting the Act should receive the
or in any of its subdivisions, instrumentalities,
careful attention of this court in the
or agencies, including government-owned or 1. Consolidation of existing pieces of application of our laws
controlled corporations and their subsidiaries. labor legislation
This provision also applies to career officers It follows that the court rulings
2. Reorient the labor laws to the needs of
whose resignation, tendered in line with the construing the pertinent Industrial
economic development and justice.
existing policy, had been accepted. Peace Act provisions are still applicable
to the Labor Code provisions, unless
Ratified by the National Tripartite there is substantial statutory
Balancing of Rights; the Constitutional Congress on April 28, 1973
Principle of Shared Responsibility departure.
Submitted to the President on May 1,
1973 X. Related Laws
Art. II, Sec. 20. The State recognizes the
Signed on May 1, 1974 as PD 442.
indispensable role of the private sector,
encourages private enterprise, and provides It took effect 6 months after it was Civil Code
incentives to needed investments. signed.
Amended by PD 570-A before Art. 1700. The relations between capital and
Art. XIII, Sec. 3, par. 3. The State shall effectivity. labor are not merely contractual. They are so
promote the principle of shared responsibility impressed with public interest that labor
between workers and employers and the VII. Principles Underlying the Code contracts must yield to the common good.
preferential use of voluntary modes in settling Therefore, such contracts are subject to the
disputes, including conciliation, and shall VIII. Labor laws before the passage special laws on labor unions, collective
enforce their mutual compliance therewith to of the Code bargaining, strikes and lockouts, closed shop,
foster industrial peace. wages, working conditions, hours of labor and
Law Content similar subjects.
P.I. Manufacturing, Inc. v. P.I. Act No. 1874 (Employers Liability
Manufacturing Supervisors and Foremen Act) Art. 1701. Neither capital nor labor shall act
Association and the National Labor Union. Act. No. 2549 (Prohibited payment oppressively against the other, or impair the
In the resolution of labor cases, this Court has of wages in non-cash) interest or convenience of the public.
always been guided by the State policy Act. 2071 (Prohibiting slavery
Art. 1703. No contract which practically
amounts to involuntary servitude, under any
guise whatsoever, shall be valid.
Art. 285. Termination of employee
a. An employee may terminate without
just cause the employee-employer
relationship by serving a written notice
on the employer at least one (1) month
in advance. The employer upon whom
no such notice was served may hold
the employee liable for damages.
b. An employee may put an end to the
relationship without serving any notice
on the employer for any of the
following just causes:
1. Serious insult by the employer or his
representative on the honor and person of the
employee;
2. Inhuman and unbearable treatment
accorded the employee by the employer or his
representative;
3. Commission of a crime or offense by the
employer or his representative against the
person of the employee or any of the
immediate members of his family; and
4. Other causes analogous to any of the
foregoing
RPC
Crimes against
o Public order
o Persons
o Property
o Honor
Art. 289. Formation, maintenance and
prohibition of combination of capital or
labor through violence or threats. - The
penalty of arresto mayor and a fine not
exceeding 300 pesos shall be imposed upon
any person who, for the purpose of organizing,
maintaining or preventing coalitions or capital
or labor, strike of laborers or lock-out of
employees, shall employ violence or threats in
such a degree as to compel or force the
laborers or employers in the free and legal
exercise of their industry or work, if the act
shall not constitute a more serious offense in
accordance with the provisions of this Code.
Special Law
1. SSS law
2. GSIS law
3. Agrarian Reform Law
4. 13th Month pay Law
5. Magna Carta for public Health Workers
XI. International Aspect
International Labour Organization is the
UN specialized agency which seeks the
promotion of social justice and internationally
recognized human and labour rights
Created in 1919
Advocated by Robert Owen of Wales
and Daniel Legrand of France.
First specialized agency in the UN in
1946
Essential characteristic: tripartism
composed of government
representatives, employers and
workers organizations.
March 19, 1948 Philippine Senate
passed Res. No. 44 acceptance of
obligations under the ILO Constitution
and by-laws.
Pres. Quirino signed Proclamation 67
on May 19, 1948
In the ILO Conference in San Francisco,
the Philippines signed as a member of
ILO in June 15, 1948.
ILO Core Conventions
1. Forced Labour Convention, 1930
2. Freedom of Association and Protection
of the Right to Organize Convention,
1948 (no. 87)
3. Right to Organize and Collective
Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98)
4. Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951
(No. 100)
5. Abolition of Forced Labour Convention,
1957 (No. 105)
6. Discrimination (Emloyment and
Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No.111)
7. Minimum Age Convention, (1973) No.
138
8. Worst Forms of Child Labour
Convention, 1999 (No. 182)
Art. 3. Declaration of Basic Policy - The
State shall afford protection to labor, promote
full employment, ensure equal work
opportunities regardless of sex, race or creed
and regulate the relations between workers
and employers. The State shall assure the
rights of workers to self-organization, collective
bargaining, security of tenure, and just and
humane conditions of work.
The value of labor laws is in their
contribution to national growth in the
context of social justice.
Study of labor law: study of socio-
economic problems affecting the
worker, his work life, and his co-players
in the work environment.
Art. 3 should be understood as shared
responsibility of employers and workers
and the right if enterprise to
reasonable returns on investments and
to expansion and growth.
Art. 4. Construction in favour of labor - All
doubts in the implementation and
interpretation of the provisions of this Code,
including its implementing rules and
regulations, shall be resolved in favor of labor.
1. Interpretation and Construction
1.1. Laborers Welfare; Liberal
Approach
In interpreting the Labor Code, the
working mans welfare should be of
paramount consideration.
Abella v. NLRC. Art. 4 is to extend the decrees
applicability to a greater number of employees
to enable them to avail of the benefits under
the law, in consonance with the States avowed
policy to give maximum aid and protection to
labor.
Euro-Linea, Phils., Inc. v. NLRC. The SC adopts
the liberal approach which favors the exercise
of labor rights.
1.2. Concern for Lowly Worker
Cebu Royal Plant v. Minister of Labor. The
SC reaffirms its concern for the lowly worker
who, often at his employers mercy,, must look
up to the law for his protection.
1.3. Reason for According
Greater Protection to Employees
1. There is greater supply than demand
for labor.
2. The need for employment by labor
comes from vital, and even desperate,
necessity.
Sanchez, et. al. v. Harry Lyons
Contruction Incorporated, et. al. It is safe
to presume that an employee or labourer who
waives in advance any benefit granted him by
law does so, certainly not in his interest or
through generosity but under the forceful
intimidation of urgent need, and hence, he
could not have so acted freely and voluntarily.
1.4. Justice, the intention of the
law
Art. 4 of the Labor Code do not
supersede Art. 10 of the Civil Code
which provides that in case of doubt in
the interpretation or application of
laws, it is presumed that the
lawmaking body intended right and
justice to prevail
Justice is the higher end of law
2. Management Rights
Sosito v. Aguinaldo Development Corp.
Such favouritism, however, has not blinded the
Court to the rule that justice is in every case
for the deserving, to be dispensed in the light
of the established facts and the applicable law
and doctrine.
The Sec. of Labot is in charge of the
protection of both worker and
management.
Colgate Palmolive Philippines, Inc. v.
Ople. The law, in protecting the right of the
labourer, authorizes neither oppression nor
self-destruction of the employer.
Mendoza v. Rural Bank of Lucban.
Management prerogatives, however are subject
to limitations provided by (1) law, (2) contract
or collective bargaining agreements and (3)
general principles of fair play and justice.
Management Rights
2.1. Right to Return of
investment
Gelmart Industries Phils. V. NLRC.
Consistent with the policy of the State to
bridge the gap between the underprivileged
workingman and the more affluent employers,
the balance in favour of the workingman
should be tilted without being blind to the
concomitant right of the employer to the
protection of his property.
2.2. Right to Prescribe Rules
Lagatic v. NLRC. Employers have the right to
make reasonable rules and regulations for the
government of their employees, and when
employees, with knowledge of an established
rule, enter the service, the rule becomes a part
of the contract of employment.
China Banking Corp. v. Borromeo.
Company policies and regulations are, unless
shown to be grossly oppressive or contrary to
law, generally binding and valid on the parties.
Manila Chauffeurs League v. Bachrach
Motor Co, Inc. The chauffeur of the
autocalesas, without the consent of the
company, allowed abother to drive the
autocalesa which was under his charge which
was strictly prohibited by respondent company.
Such act constituted a sufficient cause for his
summary dismissal as provided for in the
regulations of the respondent company.
Associated Watchmen and Security Union
v. Lanting. A bond requirement is an exercise
of managements right to protect its own
interest. The refusal of the respondent
company to employ guards affiliated with a
security or watchmen agency that does not
furnish a bond can not constitute an unfair
labor practice. Such refusal is merely the
exercise of respondents legitimate right to
protect its own interest.
2.3. Right to Select Employees
The employer has full freedom in
employing any person free to accept
employment from him, and this, except
as restricted by valid statute or valid
contract, at wage and under conditions
agreeable to them.
GR: The state has no right to interfere in a
private employment and stipulate the terms of
the services to be rendered; it cannot interfere
with the liberty of contract with respect to
labor.
XPN: The State exercises its police power.
Pampanga Bus Company, Inc. v. Pambusco
Employees Union, Inc. The general right to
make a contract in relation to ones business is
an essential part of the liberty of the citizens
protected by the due process clause of the
Constitution. The right of a labourer to sell his
labor to such person as he may choose is, in its
essence, the same as the right of the employer
to purchase labor from any person whom it
chooses.
Ruling might be different in a closed-
shop agreement.
2.4. Right to Transfer or
Discharge Employees
Gregorio Araneta Employees Union v.
Roldan. An employer has the right to transfer,
reduce or lay off personnel in order to minimize
expenses and to insure the stability of the
business and even to close the business, and
this right has been consistently upheld even in
the present era of multifarious reforms in the
relationship of capital and labor, provided the
transfer or dismissal is not abused but is done
in good faith and is due to causes beyond
control. To hold otherwise would be oppressive
and inhuman.
Art. 5. Rules and Regulations The DOLE
and other government agencies charged with
the administration and enforcement of this
Code or any of its parts shall promulgate the
necessary implementing rules and regulations.
Such rules and regulations shall become
effective fifteen (15) days after announcement
of their adoption in newspapers of general
circulation.
1. Rules and Regulations to
Implement the Code
Rizal Empire Insurance Group v. NLRC. It
has been ruled that administrative regulations
and policies enacted by administrative bodies
to interpret the law which they are entrusted to
enforce have the force of law, and are entitled
to great respect.
Philippine Association of Service
Exporters, Inc. v. Drilon. The Labor Code
itself in Art. 5 vest the DOLE with rule-making
powers in the enforcement thereof.
1.1. When invalid
When it is in excess of its rule-making
authority is void.
CBTC Employees Union v. Clave. The SC
held that entitlement of holiday pay to daily-
paid workers and excluding month-paid
employees is void. An administrative
interpretation which takes away a benefit
granted in the law is ultra vires, that is, beyond
ones power.
Art. 6. Applicability All rights and benefits
granted to workers under this Code shall,
except as may otherwise be provided herein,
apply like to all workers, whether agricultural or
non-agricultural.
1. Applicability to Government
Corporations
The LC applies to a government
corporation incorporated under the
Corporation Code
NHC v. Juco. Employees of GOCCs, whether
chartered by Congress or formed under the
general Corporation Law, were governed by the
Civil Service Law and not by the LC
(OBSOLETE DOCTRINE)
ACCEPTED DOCTRINE. 1987 Consti. The
Civil Service embraces all branches,
subdivisions, instrumentalities and agencies of
the Government, including government-owned
or controlled corporations with original
charters (chartered by Special Laws).
GOCCs under General incorporation Statute
Corporation Code.
National Service Corp. v. NLRC.
Government corporations created by special
charter from Congress are subject to Civil
Service Rules, while those incorporated under
the general Corporation Law are covered by
the LC.
1.1.PNOC-EDC, FTI, NHA
The following GOCCs are under the Corporation
Law, hence they are under the Labor Code:
1. Philippine National Oil Corporation
Energy Development Corp (PNOC-EDC)
2. Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) DOLE has
jurisdiction over disputes on
employment
3. National Housing Authority Act. 1459
Juco v. NLRC and NHC. The workers or
employees of the NHC (now NHA) have the
right to form unions or employees
organizations
2. Non-applicability to government
agencies
Luzon Development Bank v. Association
of Luzon Development Bank Employees,
et. al. Instrumentality, with respect to the
state, contemplates an authority to which the
state delegates government power for the
performance of a state function.
The National Parks Development
Committee is an agency of the
government, not a GOCC which means
that it is covered by the Civil Service
rules and regulations
Republic v. CA. In case of dispute between
the employees and the government, Sec. 15 of
EO 180 provides that the Public Sector Labor-
Management Council, not the DOLE, shall hear
the dispute.
SSS Employees Association v. CA.
Employees of the SSS are civil service
employees. When they went to strike, the RTC,
not the NLRC, had jurisdiction to hear the
petition to enjoin the strike. E.O 180 applies
and not the LC.
3. Applicability Without Employer-
Employee Relationship
It is not correct to say that employment
relationship is a pre-condition to the
applicability of the LC.
Examples of Applicability of LC without
employer-employee relationship
1. Indirect employers liability
2. Illegal recruitment
3. Misuse of POEA license
Chapter II: Emancipation of Tenants
Art. 7. Statement of objectives - Inasmuch
as the old concept of land ownership by a few
has spawned valid and legitimate grievances
that gave rise to violent conflict and social
tension and the redress of such legitimate
grievances being one of the fundamental
objectives of the New Society, it has become
imperative to start reformation with the
emancipation of the tiller of the soil from his
bondage.
Art. 8. Transfer of lands to tenant-workers
- Being a vital part of the labor force, tenant-
farmers on private agricultural lands primarily
devoted to rice and corn under a system of
share crop or lease tenancy whether classified
as landed estate or not shall be deemed owner
of a portion constituting a family-size farm of
five (5) hectares, if not irrigated and three (3)
hectares, if irrigated. In all cases, the land
owner may retain an area of not more than
seven (7) hectares if such landowner is
cultivating such area or will now cultivate it.
Art. 9. Determination of land value - For
the purpose of determining the cost of the land
to be transferred to the tenant-farmer, the
value of the land shall be equivalent to two and
one-half (2-1/2) times the average harvest of
three (3) normal crop years immediately
preceding the promulgation of Presidential
Decree No. 27 on October 21, 1972.
The total cost of the land, including interest at
the rate of six percent (6%) per annum, shall
be paid by the tenant in fifteen (15) years of
fifteen (15) equal annual amortizations.
In case of default, the amortization due shall
be paid by the farmers cooperative in which
the defaulting tenant-farmer is a member, with
the cooperative having a right of recourse
against him.
The government shall guarantee such
amortizations with shares of stock in
government-owned and government-controlled
corporations.
Art. 10. Conditions of ownership - No title
to the land acquired by the tenant-farmer
under Presidential Decree No. 27 shall be
actually issued to him unless and until he has
become a full-fledged member of a duly
recognized farmers cooperative.
Title to the land acquired pursuant to
Presidential Decree No. 27 or the Land Reform
Program of the Government shall not be
transferable except by hereditary succession or
to the Government in accordance with the
provisions of Presidential Decree No. 27, the
Code of Agrarian Reforms and other existing
laws and regulations.
Art. 11. Implementing agency. The
Department of Agrarian Reform shall
promulgate the necessary rules and
regulations to implement the provisions of this
Chapter.
1. Legislative History
The LC covers agrarian reform in 5
articles only. It is governed principally
by R.A. 6657 or the Agrarian Reform
Law of 1988
Art. XIII, Sec. 4. The State shall, by law,
undertake an agrarian reform program founded
on the right of farmers and regular
farmworkers who are landless, to own directly
or collectively the lands they till or, in the case
of other farmworkers, to receive a just share of
the fruits thereof. To this end, the State shall
encourage and undertake the just distribution
of all agricultural lands, subject to such
priorities and reasonable retention limits as the
Congress may prescribe, taking into account
ecological, developmental, or equity
considerations, and subject to the payment of
just compensation. In determining retention
limits, the State shall respect the right of small
landowners. The State shall further provide
incentives for voluntary land-sharing.
RA 3844 (Agricultural Land Reform
Code) enacted on Aug. 8, 1963
PD 27 superseded RA 3844 on Oct. 21,
1972 to provide for the compulsory
acquisition of private lands for
distribution among tenant-farmers and
to specify maximum retention limits.
EO 228 on July 17, 1987 declaring full
land ownership in favour of
beneficiaries of PD 27 and providing for
the valuation of still unvalued lands
covered by the decree as well as the
manner of their payment.
Presidential Proclamation 131-
instituting a comprehensive agrarian
reform program (CARP)
EO 229 providing mechanics for its
implementation.
The Congress enacted RA 6657 the
CARP Law of 1988
2. Share Tenacy abolished
RA 3844 abolished and outlawed share
tenacy and put it in its stead the
agricultiural leasehold system.
RA 6389 declared shared tenacy
system as contrary to public policy.
However RA 1199 and 3844 were not
entirely repealed by the Code of
Agrarian Reform RA 6389 even if the
same have been substantially modified
by the latter.
Guerrero v. CA. The landowner cannot use
the enactment of the Agrarian Reform Code as
the basis to set back or eliminate the tenurial
rights of the tenant.
Santiago v. CA. RA 3844 and RA 6389, being
social legislations, are designed to promote
economic and social stability and must be
interpreted liberally to give full force and effect
to their clear intent, not only in favour of the
tenant-farmers but also of landowners.
3. Constitutional Provisions
See Art. XIII, Sec. 4.
4. Compensation scheme
Association of Small Landowners of the
Phil. v. Sec. of Agrarian Reform. The
content and manner of just compensation
provided in Sec. 18 of the CARP Law does not
violate the Constitution. Landowners who were
unable to exercise their rights of retention livestock and poultry lands in the coverage of
under PD 27 shall enjoy the retention rights agrarian reform.
granted by RA 6657 under the conditions
therein prescribed. NOTES:

5. Retention Limit

Association of Small Landowners of the

Phil. v. Sec. of Agrarian Reform. The
argument that Proclamation No. 131 and EO
229 should be invalidated because they do not
provide for retention limits as required by Art.
XIII, Sec. 4 of the Constitution is no longer
tenable. R.A. 6657 now provides for such limits
in Sec. 6 of the Law.

6. Lands not covered

6.1. Lands Obtained Through

Homestead Patent

RA 6657 supports the inapplicability of

PD 27 to lands covered by homestead
patents like those of the property in
question

6.2. Residential Subdivisions

Gonzales v. CA. There is no merit in the

petitioners argument that inasmuch as
residential commercial lots may be considered
agricultural, an agricultural tenancy can be
established on land in a residential subdivision.

An agricultural leasehold cannot be established

on land which has ceased to be devoted to
cultivation or farming because of its conversion
into a residential subdivision.

6.3. Livestock, Poultry and

Swine Raising Lands

Luz Farms v. Sec. of DAR. Sec, 2 of RA 6657

which includes private agricultural lands
devoted to commercial livestock, poultry and
swine raising if the definition of commercial
farms is invalid, to the extent that the
aforecited agro-industrial activities are made to
be covered by the agrarian reform program of
the State. There is simply no reason to include