G.R. No. 120363 -

Ruling

WHEREFORE, in the light of the foregoing, this Court hereby orders that the instant case be REMANDED to the DARAB for further adjudication and the decision of the Court a quo is hereby SET ASIDE x x x. [2] Petitioner moved for reconsideration but to no avail; hence, it appealed to respondent Court of Appeals. In its assailed decision [3] , respondent court [4] dismissed petitioners appeal. The entire ruling of respondent court in point states: We find this petition devoid of merit. There is a clear tenancy relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant, such that the defendant cannot be ejected from the premises like a common squatter. The tenancy relationship dated back to 1976 when the defendants father, Sotero Pascual, became the tenant of Jose A. Resurreccion, the President of the Cecilleville Realty and Service Corporation. This tenancy continued until 1991 when Sotero Pascual died and was succeeded by his wife Ann Pascual by operation of law. That Ana Pascual is entitled to the security of tenure was upheld by the DARAB in its Decision of November 8, 1993 which ordered the plaintiff to respect and maintain the peaceful possession and cultivation of the property by the defendant Ana Pascual and ordered the execution of a agricultural leasehold contract between the parties. The defendant Herminigildo Pascual is occupying and working on the landholding to help his mother, a bona-fide tenant. He is an immediate member of the family and is entitled to work on the land. As the lower court held: Under Republic Act No. 1199, as amended by RA 2263, entitled An Act to Govern the Relations Between Landholders and Tenants of Agricultural Lands (Leasehold and Share Tenancy), Section 5(a) defines the term tenant, to wit: Sec. 5. (a) A tenant shall mean a person who, himself and with the aid available from within his immediate farm household, cultivates the land belonging to, or possessed by, another, with the latters consent for purposes of production, sharing the produce with the landholder under the share tenancy system, or paying to the landholder a price certain or ascertainable in produce or in money or both, under the leasehold tenancy system. Similarly, the term immediate farm household is defined in the same section as follows: (o) Immediate farm household includes the members of the family of the tenant, and such other persons, whether related to the tenant or not, who are dependent upon him for support and who usually help him operate the farm enterprise. The defendant, although not the tenant himself, is afforded the protection provided by law as his mother is already old and infirm and is allowed to avail of the labor of her immediate household. He is entitled to the security of tenure accorded his mother. His having a house of his own on the property is merely incidental to the tenancy. WHEREFORE, the Decision appealed from is AFFIRMED with costs against the petitioner. [5] (Underscoring supplied.) Dissatisfied, petiti