DAR wants CA to reconsider excluding Aboitiz land from CARP

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang on Thursday said the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) will request for the reversal of a Court of Appeals (CA) decision exempting a 59-hectare property owned by the Aboitiz family from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

“The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) will ask the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) today to ask the Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision exempting a 59-hectare portion of the land of Aboitiz in Tugbok, Davao City,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said, quoting Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes.

He said the Office of the President had already affirmed the decision of DAR in 2012 and 2013 that the property was covered because it was a banana plantation.

“The CA in its recent decision however said that it is devoted to cattle-raising and thus exempted from CARP coverage,” Coloma added.

The appeals court’s special 11th division earlier said the Aboitiz clan led by Jaime Jose Aboitiz had “sufficiently shown” that the land was “devoted to livestock raising even before the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.”

It said the banana trees in the property did not necessarily mean that the land was used for agricultural purposes.

The 14-page decision said Aboitiz’s petition had merit, resulting in the reversal of the Office of the President’s 2012 ruling.

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