Article 12

SEC. 3. Lands of the public domain are classified into agricultural, forest or timber, mineral lands and national parks. Agricultural lands of the public domain may be further classified by law according to the uses to w/c they may be devoted. Alienable lands of the public domain shall be limited to agricultural lands. Private corporations or associations may not hold such alienable lands of the public domains except by lease, for a period exceeding twenty-one years and not exceed one-thousand hectares in area. Citizens of the Philippines may lease not more than five hundred hectares or acquire not more than twelve hectares thereof by purchase, homestead or grant.

Taking into account the requirements of conservation, ecology and development and subject to the requirements of agrarian reform, the Congress shall determine, by law, the size of lands of the public domain which may be acquired, developed, held or leased and the conditions therefore.

Classifications of lands of the public domain.

1) Agricultural – land devoted principally to the raising of crops such as rice, sugar, tobacco, coconut, etc., or for farming

2) Forest or timber – land producing wood or able to produce wood or if agricultural crops on the same land will not bring the financial return that timber will or if the same land is needed for protection purposes;

3) Mineral – Land in w/c minerals exist in sufficient quantity or quality to justify he necessary expenditures to be incurred in extracting and utilizing such minerals

4) National parks – land maintained by the national government as a place of beauty or for public recreation, like the Rizal Park or forested land reserved from settlement and maintained in its natural state for public use (as by campers or hunters) or as wildlife refuge.

Basis and rationale of classification

1) The classification of land (1973 Constitution)a) Agriculturalb) Industrial / commercialc) Residentiald) Resettlemente) Mineralf) Timber of forestg) Grazing lands

2) The rationale for the change is to limit the lands of the public domain w/c may be alienated to public agricultural lands.

Determination of size of landholdings and conditions therefor.

- The constitutions authorizes Congress to determine by law the size of alienable lands of the public domains w/c any qualified individual, corporation or association may develop, hold or acquire or lease and the conditions therefor.

- According to studies made 42% of the land area of the Philippines should be forest in order to maintain the proper ecological balance.

Maximum size of landholdings

1. Individual – the maximum area of public agricultural lands may be acquired by purchase, homestead or grant is 12 hectares (reduced from 24 hectares) and by lease, 500 hectares.

2. Corporations and associations – the maximum area that may be leased 1,000 hectares. o Lease period shall not exceed 25 years renewable for not more than 25 years.

Grant. Now a mode for acquisition of public lands - Grant alienable and disposable public lands to qualified individual citizens; the recipient

will not pay for the land, although he may be made to shoulder the cost of titling and surveying. (1973 constitution; 1984 plebiscite)

REASONS:1. It is timely step in making vast parcels of idle public lands available to the less

fortunate citizens and in boosting agricultural production in the country.2. The land grant is designed to benefit only qualified farmers, landless agricultural

workers, and other landless citizens3. Only individuals w/ considerable resources have been able to acquire public

lands, defeating the constitutional intent to benefit small settlers in the distributions of public lands to uninformed but deserving citizens w/in a relatively short period of time.

4. Gives social justice and renders public land distribution more honored in practice than in theory; it provides safeguard to prevent abuses and ensure that public lands of suitable areas will go to the really deserving.

5. A simple method of land acquisition has become imperative to legitimize the tenure of some three million landless agricultural workers and landless families now occupying or “squatting” on public agricultural production and economic development.

SEC. 4. The Congress shall, as soon as possible, determine by law the specific limits of forest lands and national parks, marking clearly their boundaries on the ground. Thereafter, such forest lands and national parks shall be conserved and may not be increased nor diminished, except by law. The Congress shall provide, for such period as it may determine measures to prohibit logging in endangered forests and watershed areas.

SEC. 5. The state, subject to the provisions of this Constitutions and national development policies and programs, shall protect the rights of indigenous cultural

communities to their ancestral lands to ensure their economic, social and cultural well-being.

The Congress may provide for the applicability of customary laws governing property rights or relations in determining the ownership and extent of ancestral domain.

Protection of rights of indigenous cultural communities to their ancestral lands

1. Communal ownership of lands2. Applicability of indigenous customary laws.

- Ancestral domain embraces all lands located within and generally belong to what is called a “ cultural region” including lands w/c are not yet strictly occupied

- Ancestral land refers to be the occupied portions of the ancestral domain.

SEC. 6. The use of property bears a social function and all economic agents shall contribute to the common good. Individual and private groups, including corporations, cooperatives, and similar collective organizations, shall have the right to own, establish and operate economic enterprises subject to the duty of the State to promote distributive justice and to intervene when the common good so demands.

- “The State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use and disposition of property and its increments.” (ART. XIII, Sec. 1 par. 2)

Right to own, establish and operate economic enterprises

1. Many economic systems2. Free enterprise system – “free private enterprise” persons can own and operate

business enterprises risking their own resources and thereby taking the profits or the losses in consequence.

3. Intervention by the State4. Regulated capitalism