Prohibits Ejectment of Tet-Tillers

Section 2 requires that no ejectment case or any other case designed to harass or remove a tenant involving agricultural lands primarily devoted to rice and corn shall be taken cognizance of by the judge or tribunal listed in Section 2 unless certified by the Secretary of Agrarian Reform as a proper case for trial or hearing.
Section 2 covers judges and tribunals including the Judge of the Court of Agrarian Relations, Court of First Instance, municipal or city court, and any other tribunal.
Section 2 covers fiscal action by providing that no fiscal or equivalent official of comparable authority shall take cognizance of such cases without the required certification.
Section 2 directs that if such cases are filed, they must first be referred to the Secretary of Agrarian Reform or his authorized representative in the locality for a preliminary determination of the relationship between the contending parties.
Section 2 provides that when the Secretary of Agrarian Reform finds the case a proper case for court or judge or other hearing officer to hear, the Secretary shall certify it, and the court, judge, or other hearing officer may assume jurisdiction over the dispute.

Section 3 requires that all government officials exert efforts to maintain the status quo in the relationship between tenant-farmers and landowners.
Section 3 ties maintenance of the status quo to relations as already embodied in Presidential instructions.
Section 3 operates as an continuing directive during the period when rights are still being determined under Presidential Decree No. 27 and its implementing rules.

The issuance is Presidential Decree No. 316, titled “Prohibiting the Ejectment of Tenant-Tillers from Their Farmholdings Pending the Promulgation of the Rules and Regulations Implementing Presidential Decree No. 27.”
The decree is dated October 22, 1973.
Section 5 provides that the decree takes effect immediately.
The decree is signed by FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, with ROBERTO V. REYES as Assistant Executive Secretary.

The decree establishes that landowners ejecting or threatening to eject tenants, and related court and criminal actions against tenant-tillers, have produced strained rural relations threatening peace and order.
The decree states that ejectment suits and harassment intended to remove tenants cannot be sanctioned or condoned by the Government.
The decree frames the action as consistent with efforts toward a New Society and social justice principles.
The decree specifically targets ejectment and harassment actions that arise from the possession and cultivation of covered farmholdings and other agrarian causes.

Section 4 repeals or modifies accordingly all provisions of existing laws, orders, rules and regulations, or parts thereof, that are in conflict or inconsistent with the decree.
Section 4 makes the repeal/modification responsive to inconsistency with the decree’s tenant-protection and jurisdiction-restraint rules.

The decree is issued by the President by virtue of powers vested as Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The decree is issued pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1, dated September 22, 1972, as amended.
The decree operates within the agrarian law framework by tying the determination of tenant-farmer and landowner rights to the rules and regulations implementing Presidential Decree No. 27.