Pursuant to RA 3844, a tenant of an agricultural land has a security of tenure. Meaning, he cannot be ejected outside those grounds provided under the law. His right to cultivate the land can be passed on to qualified immediate family members.
Once established, expressly or impliedly, this seemingly infinite right of the tenant to hold and cultivate a landowner's agricultural land can be problematic to those who want to sell the land, change tenants or to those landowners who want to handle production by themselves.
Under the law, there are three instances tenancy may be dissolved or extinguished:
1. By court order;
2. By voluntary surrender of landholding in favor of the landlord;
3. By absence of immediate family member to continue cultivation in case of permanent disability, old age or death of the tenant.
Outside the said three instances, a tenant may not be legally ousted from his cultivation of the land.
Some landowners would complain to the concerned government agency that their tenant has not been paying rentals, or is engaging in subleasing arrangement, etc. This may be valid grounds to eject but still this matter should be brought to an agrarian court in order to secure a court order ejecting the erring tenant.
When it comes to getting back cultivation of the land through voluntary surrender, most often, this can be secured by offering the tenant some form of compensation for his services. There is no concrete formula on how much should be offered to the tenant. As long as the parties agree with the terms, it is okay. Compensation may be in the form of cash, piece of land, or cultivation of the land for a period of time without paying rentals.
If the parties agree on voluntary surrender, the landowner must make sure to secure from the tenant an Affidavit of Voluntary Surrender. It is the best evidence that tenancy was voluntarily terminated.
Under the third situation where tenancy is extinguished, it is worth noting that absence of the IMMEDIATE family member of the tenant, tenancy is extinguished. If despite of the absence of qualified successor, the landowner accepts or acknowledge a relative of the deceased or permanently disabled tenant then, it is deemed that a new and independent tenancy relationship is established between the landowner and that relative of the former tenant.