Roxas firm gets favorable ruling from high court

THE ROXAS group has won affirmation from the Supreme Court on the exemption of a 21-hectare property in Nasugbu, Batangas, from the agrarian reform coverage.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Friday, Roxas & Co. Inc.  said it received the high court decision dated Sept. 5 exempting the property from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL).

The exempt property consisted of 27 parcels of land located in Barangay Aga, Nasugbu, Batangas.

The court decision expands the landbank that the company can use for its businesses. Roxas & Co. has interests in real estate through Roxaco Land Corp. and sugar-manufacturing through Central Azucarera Don Pedro Inc. and Central Azucarera de la Carlota Inc., two subsidiaries of Roxas Holdings Inc.

It has yet to be announced whether the property will be used for the group’s residential development projects but it has been classified as part of a residential cluster area even prior to 1988, when CARL was legislated.

The Roxas group had argued against a group of petitioners that CARL covered only agricultural land. It cited Department of Justice Opinion No. 44 (1990) which provides that lands already classified by a valid zoning ordinance for commercial, industrial or residential use, which ordinance was approved prior to the effectivity of the CARL, no longer need conversion clearance from the Department of Agrarian Reform.