DAR CLEARANCE: AGRICULTURAL LAND OWNERSHIP CEILING OR RETENTION LIMIT

DAR Clearance; Agricultural Land Ownership Ceiling in Philippines; Retention Limit for Agricultural Land in the Philippines; Buying an agricultural land in Philippines; Donation of Agricultural Land in Philippines; Sale of Agricultural Land in Philippines; RA 6657; Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law; Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program; RA 9700; Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms; CARPER Law; Comprehensive Land Use Plan CLUP; Zoning Ordinance; Land Use Conversion; DAR Conversion; Land Use Classification; Land Use Reclassification; Transfer of Title of Agricultural Land; Transfer of Land Ownership; Tax Declaration; Department of Agrarian Reform DAR; 5 hectares retention limit; 5 hectares ownership ceiling; PD 27 Presidential Decree No. 27; Farm lot; Luz Farms vs. Secretary of DAR; DAR Conversion Order; Exemption from CARP; Livestock, Swine & Poultry; Residential, Commercial and Industrial Land; Agrarian Reform Law; Land Reform Philippines; Buying Land in the Philippines; Buying a Farm Land in the Philippines

RA 657
Section 6. Retention Limits. — Except as otherwise provided in this Act, no person may own or retain, directly or indirectly, any public or private agricultural land, the size of which shall vary according to factors governing a viable family-size farm, such as commodity produced, terrain, infrastructure, and soil fertility as determined by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) created hereunder, but in no case shall retention by the landowner exceed five (5) hectares. Three (3) hectares may be awarded to each child of the landowner, subject to the following qualifications: (1) that he is at least fifteen (15) years of age; and (2) that he is actually tilling the land or directly managing the farm: provided, that landowners whose lands have been covered by Presidential Decree No. 27 shall be allowed to keep the areas originally retained by them thereunder: provided, further, that original homestead grantees or their direct compulsory heirs who still own the original homestead at the time of the approval of this Act shall retain the same areas as long as they continue to cultivate said homestead.

The right to choose the area to be retained, which shall be compact or contiguous, shall pertain to the landowner: provided, however, that in case the area selected for retention by the landowner is tenanted, the tenant shall have the option to choose whether to remain therein or be a beneficiary in the same or another agricultural land with similar or comparable features.n case the tenant chooses to remain in the retained area, he shall be considered a leaseholder and shall lose his right to be a beneficiary under this Act.n case the tenant chooses to be a beneficiary in another agricultural land, he loses his right as a leaseholder to the land retained by the landowner. The tenant must exercise this option within a period of one (1) year from the time the landowner manifests his choice of the area for retention.

In all cases, the security of tenure of the farmers or farmworkers on the land prior to the approval of this Act shall be respected.

Upon the effectivity of this Act, any sale, disposition, lease, management, contract or transfer of possession of private lands executed by the original landowner in violation of the Act shall be null and void: provided, however, that those executed prior to this Act shall be valid only when registered with the Register of Deeds within a period of three (3) months after the effectivity of this Act. Thereafter, all Registers of Deeds shall inform the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) within thirty (30) days of any transaction involving agricultural lands in excess of five (5) hectares.