The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has no business to interfere in the case involving the compromise agreement entered into by the Hijo Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative-1 (HEARBCO-1) and Lapanday Foods Corporation (LFC), as “the instant case does not present an agrarian dispute and is therefore not within the DAR’s jurisdiction.”
Davao City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 14 Judge Jill Rose S. Jaugan-Lo in her latest Order dated April 18, 2017 denied the DAR’s Motion to Quash Alias Writ and for the immediate referral to it of the case.
The ruling also denied the individual petitions filed by Mely Yu, Linda Dayanan, Antonio Tuyak, Salvador Barcebal, and Antonio Sang-an, offciers
HEARBCO-1 and LFC has an existing and valid contract. They entered into a compromise agreement on September 9, 2011 which the court approved on September 30, 2011. This compromise agreement had become final and executory.
The Court said that its order “approving a compromise agreement right then and there writes finish to the controversy. In fact, “the judgment does not have to be entered as it is not appealable, and becomes final and executory upon approval of the court and is deemed for immediate implementation by the parties on the very day it was rendered.”
Judge Jaugan-Lo ruled that a compromise agreement upon its perfection becomes binding upon the parties. The moment the parties affixed their corresponding signatures on the Compromise Agreement, the same became res judicata among them.
Res judicata lays the rule that an existing final judgment or decree rendered on the merits, without fraud or collusion, by a court of competent jurisdiction, upon any matter within its jurisdiction, is conclusive and binds the parties.
The Court also took the DAR to task citing that “it cannot just automatically include itself in the controversy, which has already been concluded in a compromise agreement, without filing first a motion to intervene as required.”
The Order also underscored that “this is already the second writ of execution issued by the court.” The failure of the DAR and the individual members of MARBAI led by Mely Yu, who joined the DAR in this latest petition, “in not promptly filing a motion to annul the prior writ of execution issued by the court is fatal to their cause.”
Judge Jaugan-Lo emphasized that, “at this stage, the appearance of the DAR is obviously late and beyond the period prescribed by the rules. DAR has no legal interest in the matter in litigation. She also cited the Court of Appeals in its ruling in CA-G.R. SP No. 03851-Min, that “the issue in the instant case does not present an agrarian dispute. Therefore, it is not within the DAR’s jurisdiction.
Last April 10, 2017, DAR Secretary Rafael Mariano issued a Writ of Installation in favor of the members of MARBAI to portions of HEARBCO-1 owned farm lands in the Sanid area in Madaum, Tagum City. An attempt to implement it last April 18, 2017 was postponed as the Tagum City PNP raised the matter of the DAR’s order conflicting with the order of RTC Branch 14.
This latest Order by the Court that ruled there is no DAR jurisdiction since the case does not involve an agrarian dispute serves as sufficient notice to law enforcement agencies, including the PNP, that they are bound to respect and comply with the decision of the court.
