Nasugbu ARBs mull filing disbarment case vs ex-lawyer

The 50,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries facing ejection from the lands they are tilling in Nasugbu, Batangas are contemplating filing a disbarment case against their former lawyer.

According to the ARBs’ new counsel, lawyer Mario Cerro, the affected farmers felt that their previous lawyer had neglected her duty by not informing them of a Department of Agrarian Reform Consolidated Order that went against them and favored publicly listed Roxas and Company Inc.

The Roxas family had petitioned the DAR to be allowed to repossess Hacienda Palico, Hacienda Banilad and Hacienda Caylaway for reasons that swayed the department and led to the order signed by Secretary Conrado Estrella III on 29 December 2023.

“What happened here was that the former counsel, Atty. Nenita Mahinay, never informed the residents of the actual receipt of the order. The barangay captain of Aga came to know of the order only on 17 January 2024 when Attorney Mahinay appeared at their barangay meeting and gave him a copy of the order,” Cerro told DAILY TRIBUNE.

Likewise, the ARBs, who hold Certificates of Land Ownership Award, or CLOAs, said that Mahinay urged them to give up the fight against Roxas and Company, instead of exhausting all legal remedies to prevent their eviction.

The ARBs said they were told they would be relocated to a bare mountainous patch of land without potable water and electricity.

Cerro said that interviews with the residents showed they were never informed by Mahinay that she had withdrawn the cases against the Roxas company, or of the withdrawal’s ramifications.

“She also did not explain the order’s contents. It should be emphasized that most of the residents are farmers and lack knowledge pertaining to legal jargon. Thus, in dismay, they expressed their sentiments in a manifesto and terminated the services of Attorney Mahinay,” Cerro said.

Cerro took over as the ARBs’ counsel barely a week before the end of the 15-day period given them to file a motion for reconsideration against the DAR consolidated order. The new lawyer has belied the pronouncement of the Roxas firm that the DAR decision was already final and executory after the 15-day period lapsed without an MR being filed.

On the contrary, the ARBs through Cerro had questioned the legality of the DAR order within the prescriptive period, the lawyer said.

Raised in the motion for reconsideration was the fact that all ARBs of Hacienda Caylaway, to which Barangay Aga where most of them live belongs, “never consented to the voluntary withdrawal of all pending cases that paved the way for the consolidated order.”

A copy of the motion obtained by DAILY TRIBUNE read: “Respondents were misrepresented by their former counsel in agreeing to the voluntary submission of the Consolidated Order; the Honorable Secretary (Estrella III) committed grave abuse of discretion in evading the positive duty directed by the Supreme Court in GR 127876; and the Consolidated Order brushed aside the final and executory judgments in GR 127876 and the Consolidated Cases in GR Nos. 149598, 167505, 167540, 167543, 167845, and 179650.”

Cerro stressed that despite the consolidated order, the CLOAs of the residents are not yet voided because of the lodged motion, which fervently hoped that Estrella would reconsider the decision as thousands of residents will suffer from the takeover of their lands.

“Also, the consolidated order is still appealable to the Office of the President” Cerro said.

He said that under the 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, the only body with the power to cancel CLOAs is the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council, or PARC, the highest policy-making body implementing agrarian reform laws and dealing with issues covered by CARP.

“Once registered, only the PARC can cancel CLOAs, not the DAR secretary. But what happened is that in 2014, an Administrative Order was issued giving the DAR secretary broader powers. But the decision of the secretary is still appealable to the Office of the President, then to the Court of Appeals, and finally to the Supreme Court,” Cerro said.

DAILY TRIBUNE has been trying to get the reactions of Roxas and Co. and Mahinay.