G.R. No.

78517 February 27, 1989

GABINO ALITA, JESUS JULIAN, JR., JESUS JULIAN, SR., PEDRO RICALDE,
VICENTE RICALDE and ROLANDO SALAMAR, petitioners,
vs.
THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS, ENRIQUE M. REYES, PAZ M. REYES and
FE M. REYES, respondents
The Reyeses acquired two parcels of land in Zamboanga del Sur through their
predecessors-in-interest who were originally granted homestead patents. They desired
to cultivate these lands personally, but Alita et.al. refused to vacate, relying on the
provisions of the agrarian reform law back then, PD 27. Thus, the Reyeses filed a
complaint against the Minister of Agrarian Reform, the MAR Regional Director, and Alita
et. al. for the declaration of PD 27 and appurtenant regulations as inapplicable to
homestead lands.
The CA declared that PD 27 is inapplicable to homestead; that the Reyeses will
cultivate their farmholding as owners thereof; and ejectment of the so-called tenants
Alita et. al.
ISSUE: Should agrarian reform under PD 27 be applicable to homestead lands?
HELD: No. The contention that PD 27 decreeing the emancipation of tenants from the
bondage of the soil and transferring to them ownership of the land they till is a sweeping
social legislation CANNOT BE INVOKED to defeat the very purpose of the Public Land
Act (CA 141).
The Homestead Act has been enacted for the welfare and protection of the poor. The
law gives a needy citizen a piece of land where he may build a modest house for
himself and family and plant what is necessary for subsistence and for the satisfaction
of life's other needs. The right of the citizens to their homes and to the things necessary
for their subsistence is as vital as the right to life itself. They have a right to live with a
certain degree of comfort as become human beings, and the State which looks after the
welfare of the people's happiness is under a duty to safeguard the satisfaction of this
vital right.

Section 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 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.
Nota Bene, Sec. 6 of CARL provides 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.

Homestead Patent is one issued to: any citizen of this country; over the
age of 18 years or the head of a family; who is not the owner of more than
twenty-four (24) hectares of land in the Philippines or has not had the benefit
of any gratuitous allotment of more than twenty- four (24) hectares of land
since the occupation of the Philippines by the United States. The applicant
must show that he has complied with the residence and cultivation
requirements of the law; must have resided continuously for at least one
year in the municipality where the land is situated; and must have cultivated
at least one-fifth of the land applied for.