The Court of Appeals’ decision for the government to compensate Hacienda Luisita Inc. under the agrarian reform program is not yet final and executory because of a standing motion for reconsideration, the state-owned Land Bank said in a statement on Thursday.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has already filed a motion for reconsideration of the ruling, as early as May 25, and is awaiting resolution of the case, the Land Bank said.
In its decision promulgated on April 25, the CA ordered the government to pay Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) P28.48 billion in just compensation under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
“The CA decision is not yet final and executory. The DAR filed a motion for reconsideration in May 2025 and is awaiting resolution. If the CA sustains its ruling, the DAR may elevate the case to the SC,” the Land Bank said.
The Land Bank added that it had already been dropped as a party or respondent in the just compensation case before the Court of Appeals.
The bank said “just compensation” to HLI is chargeable against the Agrarian Reform Fund, which is owned by the national government and administered by the DAR.
DAR is yet to issue an official statement on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) said that the P28 billion compensation is “excessive,” especially since the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board and the Tarlac Regional Trial Court only approved a valuation of P304 million.
“Aside from appealing the verdict, DAR should review its implementing rules on landowner compensation. Congress should do the same with R.A. 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law),” Leonardo Montemayor, FFF chairman, said in a separate message on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) also condemned the CA’s decision, saying that it shows the “continued injustice” caused by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to farmers.
“There is no justice in giving billions of pesos in compensation to landlords who have exploited and amassed wealth from the farmers and farm workers of Hacienda Luisita for decades. This is clear proof of the failure and corruption of CARP,” Danilo Ramos, KMP chair, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Ramos said that this development occurred even if those “who actually tilled the land were killed, driven out and repressed,” while “those who profited from the monopoly of land ownership were rewarded.”
KMP lamented that the CARP only turned land reform into a business, as it did not actually distribute land but only involved the sale, conversion, and speculation on land.
“The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) will pay more than its entire 2025 budget to the Cojuangco-Aquinos. This family should not be paid, as well as the Lorenzos, who already have a large stake in Hacienda Luisita,” the KMP said.
Instead of allocating sufficient funds for aid, production support, and compensation to farmers, the government will pour the nation’s wealth into landlords. While the farmers are hungry and destitute, the landlords still have bonuses,” Ramos said.
DAR’s allocated budget for this year was P11.101 billion.
The CA ruling ordered the government to pay Hacienda Luisita Incorporated (HLI) P28.48 billion in just compensation for the distribution of 4,500 hectares of HLI land under CARP in 2012.
The ruling was contained in a 35-page decision promulgated on April 25, 2025, but only made public recently.
The Special Twelfth Division issued it through Associate Justice Raymond Reynold Lauigan, who ruled that the Tarlac Regional Trial-Special Agrarian Court (RTC-SAC) incorrectly computed the compensation to HLI.
The RTC-SAC had issued a decision on February 15, 2023, and a resolution on August 11, 2023, junking the petition for judicial determination of just compensation filed by HLI.
The RTC-SAC ruling upheld the decision of the DAR’s Adjudication Board, which adopted the valuations fixed by the Land Bank and dismissed HLI’s claim for additional compensation and interest.
The Land Bank fixed the valuation at P304.033 million and interests of P167.468 million covering the period from 1989 to 1999.
However, the CA stated that the RTC-SAC should have utilized validated production records submitted by HLI instead of industry data in the valuation.
“We find that the RTC-SAC erred. To this Court, just compensation was not correctly assessed and determined by the RTC-SAC as what should be paid to the landowner in exchange for the property taken shall be real, substantial, full, ample, just and fair under the factors enumerated under Section 17 on determination of just compensation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law,” the CA said.
The appellate court stated that the RTC-SAC failed to require the DAR Adjudication Board to substantiate its claim that HLI’s computation of the Average Gross Income was inaccurate.
“No proof was provided in the said DAR Adjudication Board decision that no data was submitted by the landowner HLI or that the data that HLI submitted cannot be verified or validated,” the CA said.
The appellate court added that it has also taken into consideration that in computing the land value, the amounts already received by the petitioner in the sum of P471,501,417. 98 should be deducted adequately in the year 2013.
Concurring with the ruling are Associate Justices Ferdinand Baylon and Marie Christine Azcarraga-Jacob.
The SC in a November 2011 ruling ordered the distribution of the 4,500 hectares of HLI land to around 6, 000 farmer-beneficiaries as it set aside the option given to them to remain as HLI stockholders.
The High Court upheld its ruling in April 2012.
The sprawling estate was under the control of the family of former presidents Corazon and Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III before the SC stepped in and ordered the distribution of lands under the government’s agrarian reform program.
