Question & AnswerQ&A (PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 27)
The primary purpose of Presidential Decree No. 27 is to emancipate tenant farmers from the bondage of the soil, transferring ownership of the land they till to them, and providing the instruments and mechanisms for this transfer.
This decree applies to all tenant farmers of private agricultural lands primarily devoted to rice and corn under a system of share-crop or lease-tenancy, whether the land is classified as a landed estate or not.
Tenant farmers shall be deemed owners of a portion constituting a family-size farm of five (5) hectares if the land is not irrigated, and three (3) hectares if the land is irrigated.
Landowners may retain an area of not more than seven (7) hectares, provided that the landowner is cultivating or will now cultivate such area.
The value of the land shall be equivalent to two and one-half (2 1/2) times the average harvest of the three normal crop years immediately preceding the promulgation of this decree.
The total cost of the land, including interest at the rate of six (6) percent per annum, shall be paid by the tenant in fifteen (15) years through fifteen (15) equal amortizations.
If there is default, the amortizations due shall be paid by the farmer's cooperative, which will have a right of recourse against the defaulting tenant-farmer.
The government guarantees such amortizations with shares of stock in government-owned and government-controlled corporations.
Titles to land acquired under this decree or the Land Reform Program are not transferable except by hereditary succession or to the Government in accordance with the provisions of this decree and other laws.
The Department of Agrarian Reform, through its Secretary, is empowered to promulgate rules and regulations for implementation.
All laws, executive orders, decrees, and rules or regulations, or parts thereof, inconsistent with this decree are repealed and/or modified accordingly.