G.R. No. 128534 - VHJ CONSTRUCTION and DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, represented by its President, VICENTE D. HERCE, JR., vs. COURT OF APPEALS, DEPARTMENT OF AGRARIAN REFORM ADJUDICATION BOARD, GELACIO BATARIO, and MARTIN BATARIO.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, it is most respectfully prayed that judgment be rendered: Declaring plaintiffs as Agricultural Tenants on the above-described agricultural lands; Enjoining and restraining defendants from disposing, ejecting plaintiff as share tenant therefrom, or from otherwise preventing plaintiffs from working and tilling the subject lands after the forthcoming December 1991 harvests of the presently standing crops therein; Plaintiffs hereby further pray for such other reliefs and remedies which this Honorable Board may deem to be just, proper and equitable under the premises. [14] The petitioner filed its answer with counterclaim, alleging that Entredicho was a civil lessee of the two (2) parcels of land, and that the private respondents were mere farm laborers on the property. It denied that the private respondents were agricultural tenants on the property. [15] The petitioner submitted an affidavit executed by Entredicho, where the latter alleged that he employed the private respondents as tenants in the landholding without the petitioners knowledge. On May 16, 1994, the Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicator (PARAD) dismissed the complaint for lack of merit, holding that the private respondents were mere farm workers on the property. The dispositive portion reads: WHEREFORE, in view therefrom, judgment is hereby rendered: a) DECLARING the plaintiffs NOT the agricultural tenants of the subject landholding BUT farm workers; b) DECLARING the subject landholding not covered by the CARP Law; and c) DISMISSING the instant case for lack of merit. SO ORDERED.