The Court of Appeals (CA) has ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Land Bank of the Philippines to pay Hacienda Luisita Inc. a total of P28.49 billion for the 4,500 hectares of sugarcane land taken by the government and distributed under its agrarian reform program.
In a decision promulgated on April 25, the CA ruled that the base value of the land—taken in 1989—should have been P1.03 billion, significantly higher than the P304 million valuation originally determined by DAR.
DAR and LandBank could still appeal the decision, or elevate it to the Supreme Court.
Hacienda Luisita, located in Tarlac, was owned by the Cojuangco family, which includes the late presidents Corazon Aquino and Benigno Simeon Aquino III. The property has long been at the center of political and legal controversy, symbolizing both the promise and challenges of land reform in the Philippines.
The original valuation of DAR was contested by Hacienda Luisita but was affirmed by its adjudication board in 2015. The government had paid P471.5 million—including interest—which was upheld by a lower court. However, the CA found this insufficient due to the decades-long delay in compensating the landowners.
In a 35-page decision penned by Associate Justice Raymond Reynold Lauigan, the CA recalculated the compensation using the present value of money and compounded interest. “The delay in the payment of just compensation is a forbearance of money and, as such, is necessarily entitled to earn interest,” the ruling stated. “To compensate the owner for the loss of income due to the taking that can drag from days to decades, the imposition of interest is only just and proper.”
The court also noted that had prompt payment been made, Hacienda Luisita would have profited from investing the amount. The recalculated figure reflects a “middle ground between established doctrine and substantial justice.”
After deducting the payments made in 2013, the CA concluded that DAR and the Land Bank must still pay P28.49 billion as of April 30.
