G.R. No. 127623 - DOMINADOR VERGEL DE DIOS, VS. THE HON. COURT OF APPEALS, SPECIAL THIRTEENTH DIVISION, VALENTIN SARMIENTO, AND REYNALDO (REGINO) VENTURINA.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

accordingly ordered respondent Venturina to vacate the landholding in question and to turn over its possession to petitioner. The Provincial Adjudicator gave credence to petitioners claim that Sarmiento had abandoned the landholding by selling his tenancy rights to Venturina based on petitioners evidence. On appeal, the DARAB reversed on the ground that petitioners evidence, on which the Provincial Adjudicator had relied for his decision, was, with respect to petitioners affidavit, self-serving, and, with regard to the affidavits of his witnesses (Ramon Santiago, Francisco Pullarca, and Diosdado Villanueva), too good to be true. The DARAB also disregarded as hearsay Manuel Villanuevas affidavit, stating among others that the sale of Sarmientos tenancy rights was known to the residents of the barangay. Neither the barangay captain nor the chairperson of the Barangay Agrarian Reform Committee (BARC) was presented to attest to this fact. The DARAB instead gave weight to the declaration of Pio Sarmiento that his father Valentin had tilled the land since 1972 but that because of old age had to relinquish its cultivation to him (Pio Sarmiento), not to Reynaldo Venturina, and that they had paid all the yearly rentals except for one (1) year when there was a devastating typhoon. With regard to Venturina, the DARAB found him to be the lawful tenant of the 3.75 hectare lot formerly cultivated by Jose Salonga on the basis of a DAR certification issued on April 27, 1993 which stated that Venturina had been in actual cultivation of the 3.75 hectare lot owned by petitioner since 1984; the testimony of Josefina Venturina Bravo, administrator of the Victorias Ricemill at Bongay, Calawitan, that the rentals consisting of 60 cavans per year had been deposited by Venturina with the ricemill since 1984 and that all the rentals up to 1988 had been withdrawn by petitioner; the declaration of Melencia Toledo, a palay trader of Barangay Calawitan, that from 1989 up to 1992, Venturina had been depositing lease rentals for petitioner which were all withdrawn by petitioner; and the receipts for 60 cavans of palay each for 1992 and 1993 signed by petitioner on December 9, 1993 and December 16, 1993, respectively. The DARAB held that while at the outset, petitioner may have been the unwilling lessor, his non-action, considering his own witnesses declaration that Venturinas cultivation of the subject landholding was well-known in the community, and his acceptance of the rentals constituted acquiescence on his part. The DARAB therefore dismissed the complaints for lack of evidence, ordered the Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer of San Ildefonso, Bulacan to place the property under formal leasehold in favor of Valentin Sarmientos son Pio by reason of Valentins advanced age and to prepare and execute a leasehold contract over the 3.75 hectares between petitioner and Venturina. Petitioner moved for a reconsideration, but his motion was denied by the board in a resoluti