Law Summary
Parties: Landlord and Tenant Defined
- Landlord includes owners, lessees, usufructuaries, or legitimate possessors of agricultural land.
- Tenant is a farmer or laborer who cultivates the land or furnishes labor.
Form and Registration of Contracts
- Contracts must be in triplicate, in a language understood by parties, signed/thumb-marked before two witnesses (one chosen by each party).
- Illiterate parties may have the contract read to them by a witness.
- Copies are retained by the landlord, tenant, and municipal treasurer.
- Registration requires annotation by the municipal treasurer and is exempt from fees and documentary stamp tax.
Duration and Renewal of Contracts
- Contracts last as stipulated; if unstipulated, for one agricultural year (sowing to harvest).
- Renewal must be in writing, registered within 30 days after expiration, or contract is extinguished.
- Annotation by the treasurer suffices for renewal without changes.
Contractual Freedom and Evidence
- Parties may agree freely provided terms are lawful, moral, and not against public policy.
- A registered contract is conclusive evidence if not challenged within 30 days of registration.
Share Basis and Crop Division
- Without contrary agreement, when tenant provides implements and animals, expenses are equally borne, the crop is equally divided.
- Division occurs where threshing was done; parties transport their shares.
- Gratuitous provision of work animals by landlord imposes obligation on tenant to transport landlord’s share locally.
Profits from Auxiliary Industries
- In absence of contrary agreement, profits from common auxiliary industries are equally shared after deducting expenses.
- Auxiliary industries exclude garden, poultry, or similar tenant residence industries.
Loans and Advances
- Advances for cultivation expenses bear interest not exceeding 10% per agricultural year, evidenced by written contracts.
- Non-money loans (grains, produce) have a maximum 10% markup; excess is usurious.
- Loan limits capped at 50% of average yearly tenant’s share over last 3 years; determined by agreement if land is newly cultivated.
- Written memorandum of advances required, signed by both parties, else unenforceable.
Final Accounting and Debt Settlement
- Final accounting to be completed within 15 days post-threshing.
- Must be in writing, signed by parties and two witnesses, provides conclusive evidence except in fraud.
- Tenant pays debts from share except 15% exempted from landlord’s lien.
- Outstanding debts converted to money bear interest not exceeding 12% per annum; once converted to money, debts cannot revert to kind.
- Official government measures used in transactions.
Landlord’s Managerial Role and Liens
- Landlord manages the farm directly or through a representative.
- Landlord has special preferential lien over tenant’s share, enforceable only to 85% of the share if debts exist.
Tax Obligations
- Landlord responsible for land taxes; tenant cannot be made to bear any tax portion directly or indirectly.
Grounds for Landlord’s Dismissal of Tenant
- Dismissal allowed only for just causes such as gross misconduct, negligence, breach of obligations, fraud, unauthorized leasing, or commission of crime against landlord or family.
- Wrongful dismissal entails liability for damages to tenant’s share in the product.
Tenant’s Rights During Intervals and upon Dismissal
- Tenant may work elsewhere during farm off-seasons.
- Tenant must be reimbursed for advances before dispossession upon dismissal, even if dismissal is lawful.
Tenant’s Rights to Dwelling and Minor Industries
- Tenant entitled to build dwelling on cultivated land and receive fixed residential lot not exceeding 10% of area cultivated or 500 square meters.
- Lot may be used for garden, poultry, and minor industries.
- Tenant has 45 days to remove dwelling upon contract cancellation.
- Failure to use lot for specified purposes for 6 months causes reversion to cultivation.
Tenant’s Obligations
- Tenant to cultivate farm diligently as head of household.
- Responsible for clearing shrubs, repairing dikes, and caring for work animals.
- Liable for animal death or damage caused by negligence.
- Must report trespass by third parties promptly.
Tenant’s Obligation Regarding Leaving Contract
- Tenant cannot leave without just cause; wrongful abandonment incurs liability for 85% of share’s value.
- Just causes include cruel treatment, landlord’s breach, forced non-agricultural work, or landlord’s criminal acts.
Termination of Tenancy Contract
- Contract ends at agricultural year’s end unless agreed otherwise.
- Can end by mutual agreement, tenant’s death/incapacity (heirs get proportional share), land sale (buyer assumes obligations), non-agricultural fitness, or merger of landlord and tenant roles.
Penal Provisions
- Violations involving fraud or deceit are punishable under Article 318 of the Revised Penal Code.
- Falsification or alteration of documents punished under Article 172 of the same Code.
Repealing Clauses and Applicability
- Conflicting laws repealed.
- Law applies only to rice tenancy relations.
- Effective only in provinces where municipal councils petition and Governor-General proclaims applicability.
- Law to be translated into local dialects and copies distributed free by municipal treasurers.