EN BANC

[G.R. No. 164195. October 12, 2010.]

APO FRUITS CORPORATION and HIJO PLANTATION, INC. , petitioners,

vs . LAND BANK OF THE PHILIPPINES,
PHILIPPINES respondent.

RESOLUTION

BRION J :
BRION, p

We resolve the petitioners' motion for reconsideration addressing our Resolution

of December 4, 2009 whose dispositive portion directs:
WHEREFORE, the Court denies the petitioners' second motion for
reconsideration (with respect to the denial of the award of legal interest and
attorney's fees), and reiterates the decision dated February 6, 2007 and the
resolution dated December 19, 2007 of the Third Division.

For a fuller and clearer presentation and appreciation of this Resolution, we hark back
to the roots of this case.
Factual Antecedents
Apo Fruits Corporation (AFC) and Hijo Plantation, Inc. (HPI), together also
referred to as petitioners, were registered owners of vast tracks of land; AFC owned
640.3483 hectares, while HPI owned 805.5308 hectares. On October 12, 1995, they
voluntarily offered to sell these landholdings to the government via Voluntary Offer to
Sell applications filed with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
On October 16, 1996, AFC and HPI received separate notices of land acquisition
and valuation of their properties from the DAR's Provincial Agrarian Reform O cer
(PARO). At the assessed valuation of P165,484.47 per hectare, AFC's land was valued
at P86,900,925.88, while HPI's property was valued at P164,478,178.14. HPI and AFC
rejected these valuations for being very low.
In its follow through action, the DAR requested the Land Bank of the Philippines
(LBP) to deposit P26,409,549.86 in AFC's bank account and P45,481,706.76 in HPI's
bank account, which amounts the petitioners then withdrew. The titles over AFC and
HPI's properties were thereafter cancelled, and new ones were issued on December 9,
1996 in the name of the Republic of the Philippines. THDIaC

On February 14, 1997, AFC and HPI led separate petitions for determination of
just compensation with the DAR Adjudication Board (DARAB). When the DARAB failed
to act on these petitions for more than three years, AFC and HPI led separate
complaints for determination and payment of just compensation with the Regional Trial
Court (RTC) of Tagum City, acting as a Special Agrarian Court. These complaints were
subsequently consolidated.
On September 25, 2001, the RTC resolved the consolidated cases, xing the just
compensation for the petitioners' 1,338.6027 hectares of land 1 at P1,383,179,000.00,
with interest on this amount at the prevailing market interest rates, computed from the
taking of the properties on December 9, 1996 until fully paid, minus the amounts the
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 petitioners already received under the initial valuation. The RTC also awarded attorney's
fees.
LBP moved for the reconsideration of the decision. The RTC, in its order of
December 5, 2001, modi ed its ruling and xed the interest at the rate of 12% per
annum from the time the complaint was led until nality of the decision. The
Third Division of this Court, in its Decision of February 6, 2007, a rmed this RTC
decision.
On motion for reconsideration, the Third Division issued its Resolution of
December 19, 2007, modifying its February 6, 2007 Decision by deleting the 12%
int erest due on the balance of the awarded just compensation. The Third Division
justi ed the deletion by the nding that the LBP did not delay the payment of just
compensation as it had deposited the pertinent amounts due to AFC and HPI within
fourteen months after they led their complaints for just compensation with the RTC.
The Court also considered that AFC had already collected approximately P149.6
million, while HPI had already collected approximately P262 million from the LBP. The
Third Division also deleted the award of attorney's fees.
All parties moved for the reconsideration of the modi ed ruling. The Court
uniformly denied all the motions in its April 30, 2008 Resolution. Entry of Judgment
followed on May 16, 2008.
Notwithstanding the Entry of Judgment, AFC and HPI led the following motions
on May 28, 2008: (1) Motion for Leave to File and Admit Second Motion for
Reconsideration; (2) Second Motion for Reconsideration, with respect to the denial of
the award of legal interest and attorney's fees; and (3) Motion to Refer the Second
Motion for Reconsideration to the Honorable Court En Banc. ICcaST

The Third Division found the motion to admit the Second Motion for
Reconsideration and the motion to refer this second motion to the Court En Banc
meritorious, and accordingly referred the case to the Court En Banc. On September 8,
2009, the Court En Banc accepted the referral.
The Court En Banc Resolution
On December 4, 2009, the Court En Banc, by a majority vote, denied the
petitioners' second motion for reconsideration based on two considerations.
First, the grant of the second motion for reconsideration runs counter to the
immutability of nal decisions. Moreover, the Court saw no reason to recognize the
case as an exception to the immutability principle as the petitioners' private claim for
the payment of interest does not qualify as either a substantial or transcendental
matter or an issue of paramount public interest.
Second, on the merits, the petitioners are not entitled to recover interest on the
just compensation and attorney's fees because they caused the delay in the payment of
the just compensation due them; they erroneously led their complaints with the
DARAB when they should have directly led these with the RTC acting as an agrarian
court. Furthermore, the Court found it signi cant that the LBP deposited the pertinent
amounts in the petitioners' favor within fourteen months after the petitions were led
with the RTC. Under these circumstances, the Court found no unreasonable delay on the
part of LBP to warrant the award of 12% interest.
The Chico-Nazario Dissent
Justice Minita V. Chico-Nazario, 2 the ponente of the original December 19,
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 interest) dissented from the Court En Banc's
2007 Resolution (deleting the 12% interest),
December 4, 2009 Resolution.
On the issue of immutability of judgment, Justice Chico-Nazario pointed out that
under extraordinary circumstances, this Court has recalled entries of judgment on the
ground of substantial justice. Given the special circumstances involved in the present
case, the Court En Banc should have taken a second hard look at the petitioners'
positions in their second motion for reconsideration, and acted to correct the clearly
erroneous December 19, 2007 Resolution.
Speci cally, Justice Chico-Nazario emphasized the obligation of the State, in the
exercise of its inherent power of eminent domain, to pay just compensation to the
owner of the expropriated property. To be just, the compensation must not only be the
correct amount to be paid; it must also be paid within a reasonable time from the time
the land is taken from the owner. If not, the State must pay the landowner interest, by
way of damages, from the time the property was taken until just compensation is fully
paid. This interest, deemed a part of just compensation due, has been established by
prevailing jurisprudence to be 12% per annum.
On these premises, Justice Nazario pointed out that the government deprived the
petitioners of their property on December 9, 1996, and paid the balance of the just
compensation due them only on May 9, 2008. The delay of almost twelve years earned
the petitioners interest in the total amount of P1,331,124,223.05. IDSaAH

Despite this nding, Justice Chico-Nazario did not see it t to declare the
computed interest to be totally due; she found it unconscionable to apply the full force
of the law on the LBP because of the magnitude of the amount due. She thus reduced
the awarded interest to P400,000,000.00, or approximately 30% of the
computed interest.
The Present Motion for Reconsideration
In their motion to reconsider the Court En Banc's December 4, 2009 Resolution
(the present Motion for Reconsideration), the petitioners principally argue that: (a) the
principle of immutability of judgment does not apply since the Entry of Judgment was
issued even before the lapse of fteen days from the parties' receipt of the April 30,
2008 Resolution and the petitioners timely led their second motion for
reconsideration within fteen days from their receipt of this resolution; (b) the April 30,
2008 Resolution cannot be considered immutable considering the special and
compelling circumstances attendant to the present case which fall within the
exceptions to the principle of immutability of judgments; (c) the legal interest due is at
12% per annum, reckoned from the time of the taking of the subject properties and this
rate is not subject to reduction. The power of the courts to equitably reduce interest
rates applies solely to liquidated damages under a contract and not to interest set by
the Honorable Court itself as due and owing in just compensation cases; and (d) the
Honorable Court's fears that the interest payments due to the petitioners will produce
more harm than good to the system of agrarian reform are misplaced and are based
merely on conjectures.
The Comment of the Land Bank of the Philippines
The LBP commented on the petitioners' motion for reconsideration on April 28,
2010. It maintained that: (a) the doctrine of immutability of the decisions of the
Supreme Court clearly applies to the present case; (b) the LBP is not guilty of undue
delay in the payment of just compensation as the petitioners were promptly paid once
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 the Court had determined the nal value of the properties expropriated; (c) the
Supreme Court rulings invoked by the petitioners are inapplicable to the present case;
(d) since the obligation to pay just compensation is not a forbearance of money,
interest should commence only after the amount due becomes ascertainable or
liquidated, and the 12% interest per annum applies only to the liquidated amount, from
the date of nality of judgment; (e) the imposition of 12% interest on the balance of
P971,409,831.68 is unwarranted because there was no unjusti ed refusal by LBP to
pay just compensation, and no contractual breach is involved; (f) the deletion of the
attorney's fees equivalent to 10% of the amount nally awarded as just compensation
is proper; (g) this case does not involve a violation of substantial justice to justify the
alteration of the immutable resolution dated December 19, 2007 that deleted the award
of interest and attorney's fees.
The Court's Ruling
We nd the petitioners' arguments meritorious and accordingly GRANT
the present motion for reconsideration.
Just compensation — a Basic
Limitation on the State's
Power of Eminent Domain
At the heart of the present controversy is the Third Division's December 19, 2007
Resolution which held that the petitioners are not entitled to 12% interest on the
balance of the just compensation belatedly paid by the LBP. In the presently assailed
December 4, 2009 Resolution, we a rmed the December 19, 2007 Resolution's
ndings that: (a) the LBP deposited "pertinent amounts" in favor of the petitioners
within fourteen months after they led their complaint for determination of just
compensation; and (b) the LBP had already paid the petitioners P411,769,168.32. We
concluded then that these circumstances refuted the petitioners' assertion of
unreasonable delay on the part of the LBP.
A re-evaluation of the circumstances of this case and the parties' arguments,
viewed in light of the just compensation requirement in the exercise of the State's
inherent power of eminent domain, compels us to re-examine our ndings and
conclusions.
Eminent domain is the power of the State to take private property for public use.
3 It is an inherent power of State as it is a power necessary for the State's existence; it
is a power the State cannot do without. 4 As an inherent power, it does not need at all to
be embodied in the Constitution; if it is mentioned at all, it is solely for purposes of
limiting what is otherwise an unlimited power. The limitation is found in the Bill of
Rights 5 — that part of the Constitution whose provisions all aim at the protection of
individuals against the excessive exercise of governmental powers.
Section 9, Article III of the 1987 Constitution (which reads "No private property
shall be taken for public use without just compensation." ) provides two essential
limitations to the power of eminent domain, namely, that (1) the purpose of taking must
be for public use and (2) just compensation must be given to the owner of the
private property. cCSDaI

It is not accidental that Section 9 speci es that compensation should be "just" as

the safeguard is there to ensure a balance — property is not to be taken for public use
at the expense of private interests; the public, through the State, must balance the injury
that the taking of property causes through compensation for what is taken, value for
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 value.
Nor is it accidental that the Bill of Rights is interpreted liberally in favor of the
individual and strictly against the government. The protection of the individual is the
reason for the Bill of Rights' being; to keep the exercise of the powers of government
within reasonable bounds is what it seeks. 6
The concept of "just compensation" is not new to Philippine constitutional law, 7
but is not original to the Philippines; it is a transplant from the American Constitution. 8
It found fertile application in this country particularly in the area of agrarian reform
where the taking of private property for distribution to landless farmers has been
equated to the "public use" that the Constitution requires. In Land Bank of the
Philippines v. Orilla , 9 a valuation case under our agrarian reform law, this Court had
occasion to state:
Constitutionally, "just compensation" is the sum equivalent to the market
value of the property, broadly described as the price xed by the seller in open
market in the usual and ordinary course of legal action and competition, or the
fair value of the property as between the one who receives and the one who
desires to sell, it being xed at the time of the actual taking by the government.
Just compensation is de ned as the full and fair equivalent of the
property taken from its owner by the expropriator. It has been repeatedly
stressed by this Court that the true measure is not the taker's gain but the owner's
loss. The word "just" is used to modify the meaning of the word "compensation"
to convey the idea that the equivalent to be given for the property to be
taken shall be real, substantial, full and ample.
ample 1 0 [Emphasis supplied.]

In the present case, while the DAR initially valued the petitioners' landholdings at
a total of P251,379,104.02, 1 1 the RTC, acting as a special agrarian court, determined
the actual value of the petitioners' landholdings to be P1,383,179,000.00. This
valuation, a nding of fact, has subsequently been a rmed by this Court, and is now
beyond question. In eminent domain terms, this amount is the "real, substantial, full and
ample" compensation the government must pay to be "just" to the landowners.
Signi cantly, this nal judicial valuation is far removed from the initial valuation
made by the DAR; their values differ by P1,131,799,897.00 — in itself a very
substantial sum that is roughly four times the original DAR valuation. We mention these
valuations as they indicate to us how undervalued the petitioners' lands had been at the
start, particularly at the time the petitioners' landholdings were "taken". This reason
apparently compelled the petitioners to relentlessly pursue their valuation claims all
they way up to the level of this Court.
While the LBP deposited the total amount of P71,891,256.62 into the petitioners'
accounts (P26,409,549.86 for AFC and P45,481,706.76 for HPI) at the time the
landholdings were taken, these amounts were mere partial payments that only
amounted to 5% of the P1,383,179,000.00 actual value of the expropriated properties.
We point this aspect out to show that the initial payments made by the LBP when the
petitioners' landholdings were taken, although promptly withdrawn by the petitioners,
could not by any means be considered a fair exchange of values at the time of taking; in
fact, the LBP's actual deposit could not be said to be substantial even from the original
LBP valuation of P251,379,103.90. IaEASH

Thus, the deposits might have been su cient for purposes of the immediate
taking of the landholdings but cannot be claimed as amounts that would excuse the
LBP from the payment of interest on the unpaid balance of the compensation due. As
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 discussed at length below, they were not enough to compensate the petitioners for the
potential income the landholdings could have earned for them if no immediate taking
had taken place. Under the circumstances, the State acted oppressively and was far
from "just" in their position to deny the petitioners of the potential income that the
immediate taking of their properties entailed.
Just Compensation from the
Prism of the Element of Taking.
Apart from the requirement that compensation for expropriated land must be fair
and reasonable, compensation, to be "just," must also be made without delay.
1 2 Without prompt payment, compensation cannot be considered "just" if the property
is immediately taken as the property owner suffers the immediate deprivation of both
his land and its fruits or income.
This is the principle at the core of the present case where the petitioners were
made to wait for more than a decade after the taking of their property before they
actually received the full amount of the principal of the just compensation due them. 1 3
What they have not received to date is the income of their landholdings
corresponding to what they would have received had no uncompensated
taking of these lands been immediately made. This income, in terms of the
interest on the unpaid principal, is the subject of the current litigation.
We recognized in Republic v. Court of Appeals 1 4 the need for prompt payment
and the necessity of the payment of interest to compensate for any delay in the
payment of compensation for property already taken. We ruled in this case that:
The constitutional limitation of "just compensation" is considered to be the
sum equivalent to the market value of the property, broadly described to be the
price xed by the seller in open market in the usual and ordinary course of legal
action and competition or the fair value of the property as between one who
receives, and one who desires to sell, i[f] xed at the time of the actual taking by
the government. Thus, if property is taken for public use before
compensation is deposited with the court having jurisdiction over the
case, the nal compensation must include interest[s] on its just value
to be computed from the time the property is taken to the time when
compensation is actually paid or deposited with the court. In ne,
between the taking of the property and the actual payment, legal
interest[s] accrue in order to place the owner in a position as good as
(but not better than) the position he was in before the taking occurred.
1 5 [Emphasis supplied.]

Aside from this ruling, Republic notably overturned the Court's previous ruling in
National Power Corporation v. Angas 1 6 which held that just compensation due for
expropriated properties is not a loan or forbearance of money but indemnity for
damages for the delay in payment; since the interest involved is in the nature of
damages rather than earnings from loans, then Art. 2209 of the Civil Code, which xes
legal interest at 6%, shall apply.
In Republic, the Court recognized that the just compensation due to the
landowners for their expropriated property amounted to an effective
forbearance on the part of the State. Applying the Eastern Shipping Lines ruling, 1 7
the Court xed the applicable interest rate at 12% per annum, computed from the time
the property was taken until the full amount of just compensation was paid, in order to
eliminate the issue of the constant uctuation and in ation of the value of the currency
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 over time. In the Court's own words:
The Bulacan trial court, in its 1979 decision, was correct in imposing
interest[s] on the zonal value of the property to be computed from the time
petitioner instituted condemnation proceedings and "took" the property in
September 1969. This allowance of interest on the amount found to be
the value of the property as of the time of the taking computed, being
an effective forbearance, at 12% per annum should help eliminate the
issue of the constant uctuation and in ation of the value of the
currency over time. 1 8 [Emphasis supplied.]
CAIHTE

We subsequently upheld Republic's 12% per annum interest rate on the unpaid
expropriation compensation in the following cases: Reyes v. National Housing
Authority, 1 9 Land Bank of the Philippines v. Wycoco , 2 0 Republic v. Court of Appeals , 2 1
Land Bank of the Philippines v. Imperial , 2 2 Philippine Ports Authority v. Rosales-
Bondoc, 2 3 and Curata v. Philippine Ports Authority. 2 4
These were the established rulings that stood before this Court issued the
currently assailed Resolution of December 4, 2009. These would be the rulings this
Court shall reverse and de-establish if we maintain and a rm our ruling
deleting the 12% interest on the unpaid balance of compensation due for
properties already taken.
Under the circumstances of the present case, we see no compelling reason to
depart from the rule that Republic rmly established. Let it be remembered that shorn
of its eminent domain and social justice aspects, what the agrarian land reform
program involves is the purchase by the government, through the LBP, of agricultural
lands for sale and distribution to farmers. As a purchase, it involves an exchange of
values — the landholdings in exchange for the LBP's payment. In determining the just
compensation for this exchange, however, the measure to be borne in mind is
not the taker's gain but the owner's loss 2 5 since what is involved is the
takeover of private property under the State's coercive power . As mentioned
above, in the value-for-value exchange in an eminent domain situation, the State must
ensure that the individual whose property is taken is not shortchanged and must hence
carry the burden of showing that the "just compensation" requirement of the Bill of
Rights is satisfied.
The owner's loss, of course, is not only his property but also its income-
generating potential. Thus, when property is taken, full compensation of its value must
immediately be paid to achieve a fair exchange for the property and the potential
income lost. The just compensation is made available to the property owner so that he
may derive income from this compensation, in the same manner that he would have
derived income from his expropriated property. If full compensation is not paid for
property taken, then the State must make up for the shortfall in the earning potential
immediately lost due to the taking, and the absence of replacement property from
which income can be derived; interest on the unpaid compensation becomes due as
compliance with the constitutional mandate on eminent domain and as a basic
measure of fairness.
In the context of this case, when the LBP took the petitioners' landholdings
without the corresponding full payment, it became liable to the petitioners for the
income the landholdings would have earned had they not immediately been taken from
the petitioners. What is interesting in this interplay, under the developments of this
case, is that the LBP, by taking landholdings without full payment while holding
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 on at the same time to the interest that it should have paid, effectively used
or retained funds that should go to the landowners and thereby took
advantage of these funds for its own account.
From this point of view, the December 19, 2007 Resolution deleting the award of
12% interest is not only patently and legally wrong, but is also morally unconscionable
for being grossly unfair and unjust. If the interest on the just compensation due — in
reality the equivalent of the fruits or income of the landholdings would have yielded had
these lands not been taken — would be denied, the result is effectively a con scatory
action by this Court in favor of the LBP. We would be allowing the LBP, for twelve long
years, to have free use of the interest that should have gone to the landowners.
Otherwise stated, if we continue to deny the petitioners' present motion for
reconsideration, we would — illogically and without much thought to the
fairness that the situation demands — uphold the interests of the LBP, not
only at the expense of the landowners but also that of substantial justice as
well.
Lest this Court be a party to this monumental unfairness in a social program
aimed at fostering balance in our society, we now have to ring the bell that we have
muted in the past, and formally declare that the LBP's position is legally and morally
wrong. To do less than this is to leave the demands of the constitutional just
compensation standard (in terms of law) and of our own conscience (in terms of
morality) wanting and unsatisfied.
The Delay in Payment Issue
Separately from the demandability of interest because of the failure to fully pay
for property already taken, a recurring issue in the case is the attribution of the delay.
ITSCED

That delay in payment occurred is not and cannot at all be disputed. While the
LBP claimed that it made initial payments of P411,769,168.32 (out of the principal sum
due of P1,383,179,000.00), the undisputed fact is that the petitioners were
deprived of their lands on December 9, 1996 (when titles to their landholdings
were cancelled and transferred to the Republic of the Philippines), and received full
payment of the principal amount due them only on May 9, 2008.
In the interim, they received no income from their landholdings because these
landholdings had been taken. Nor did they receive adequate income from what should
replace the income potential of their landholdings because the LBP refused to pay
interest while withholding the full amount of the principal of the just compensation due
by claiming a grossly low valuation. This sad state continued for more than a decade. In
any language and by any measure, a lengthy delay in payment occurred.
An important starting point in considering attribution for the delay is that the
petitioners voluntarily offered to sell their landholdings to the government's
land reform program;
program they themselves submitted their Voluntary Offer to Sell
applications to the DAR, and they fully cooperated with the government's program. The
present case therefore is not one where substantial con ict arose on the issue of
whether expropriation is proper; the petitioners voluntarily submitted to expropriation
and surrendered their landholdings, although they contested the valuation that the
government made.
Presumably, had the landholdings been properly valued, the petitioners would
have accepted the payment of just compensation and there would have been no need
for them to go to the extent of ling a valuation case. But, as borne by the records, the
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 petitioners' lands were grossly undervalued by the DAR, leaving the petitioners with no
choice but to file actions to secure what is justly due them.
The DAR's initial gross undervaluation started the cycle of court actions that
followed, where the LBP eventually claimed that it could not be faulted for seeking
judicial recourse to defend the government's and its own interests in light of the
petitioners' valuation claims. This LBP claim, of course, conveniently forgets that at the
root of all these valuation claims and counterclaims was the initial gross undervaluation
by DAR that the LBP stoutly defended. At the end, this undervaluation was proven
incorrect by no less than this Court; the petitioners were proven correct in their claim,
and the correct valuation — more than ve-fold the initial DAR valuation — was decreed
and became final.
All these developments cannot now be disregarded and reduced to
insigni cance. In blunter terms, the government and the LBP cannot now be heard to
claim that they were simply protecting their interests when they stubbornly defended
their undervalued positions before the courts. The more apt and accurate statement is
that they adopted a grossly unreasonable position and the adverse developments that
followed, particularly the concomitant delay, should be directly chargeable to them.
To be sure, the petitioners were not completely correct in the legal steps they
took in their valuation claims. They initially led their valuation claim before the DARAB
instead of immediately seeking judicial intervention. The DARAB, however, contributed
its share to the petitioners' error when it failed or refused to act on the valuation
petitions for more than three (3) years. Thus, on top of the DAR undervaluation was the
DARAB inaction after the petitioners' landholdings had been taken. This Court's
Decision of February 6, 2007 duly noted this and observed: EIDaAH

It is not controverted that this case started way back on 12 October 1995,
when AFC and HPI voluntarily offered to sell the properties to the DAR. In view of
the failure of the parties to agree on the valuation of the properties, the Complaint
for Determination of Just Compensation was led before the DARAB on 14
February 1997. Despite the lapse of more than three years from the ling of the
complaint, the DARAB failed to render a decision on the valuation of the land.
Meantime, the titles over the properties of AFC and HPI had already been
cancelled and in their place a new certificate of title was issued in the name of the
Republic of the Philippines, even as far back as 9 December 1996. A period of
almost 10 years has lapsed. For this reason, there is no dispute that this case has
truly languished for a long period of time, the delay being mainly attributable to
both o cial inaction and indecision, particularly on the determination of the
amount of just compensation, to the detriment of AFC and HPI, which to date,
have yet to be fully compensated for the properties which are already in the hands
of farmer-bene ciaries, who, due to the lapse of time, may have already converted
or sold the land awarded to them.

Verily, these two cases could have been disposed with dispatch
were it not for LBP's counsel causing unnecessary delay . At the inception
of this case, DARAB, an agency of the DAR which was commissioned by law to
determine just compensation, sat on the cases for three years, which was the
reason that AFC and HPI led the cases before the RTC. We underscore the
pronouncement of the RTC that "the
the delay by DARAB in the determination
of just compensation could only mean the reluctance of the Department
of Agrarian Reform and the Land Bank of the Philippines to pay the
claim of just compensation by corporate landowners."
landowners.
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 To allow the taking of landowners' properties, and to leave them empty-
handed while government withholds compensation is undoubtedly oppressive.
[Emphasis supplied.]

These statements cannot but be true today as they were when we originally
decided the case and awarded 12% interest on the balance of the just compensation
due. While the petitioners were undisputedly mistaken in initially seeking recourse
through the DAR, this agency itself — hence, the government — committed a graver
transgression when it failed to act at all on the petitioners' complaints for
determination of just compensation.
In sum, in a balancing of the attendant delay-related circumstances of this case,
delay should be laid at the doorsteps of the government, not at the petitioners'. We
conclude, too, that the government should not be allowed to exculpate itself from this
delay and should suffer all the consequences the delay caused.
The LBP's arguments on the
applicability of cases imposing
12% interest
The LBP claims in its Comment that our rulings in Republic v. Court of Appeals, 2 6
Reyes v. National Housing Authority , 2 7 and Land Bank of the Philippines v. Imperial , 2 8
cannot be applied to the present case.
According to the LBP, Republic is inapplicable because, rst, the landowners in
Republic remained unpaid, notwithstanding the fact that the award for just
compensation had already been xed by nal judgment; in the present case, the Court
already acknowledged that "pertinent amounts" were deposited in favor of the
landowners within 14 months from the ling of their complaint. Second, while Republic
involved an ordinary expropriation case, the present case involves expropriation for
agrarian reform. Finally, the just compensation in Republic remained unpaid
notwithstanding the nality of judgment, while the just compensation in the present
case was immediately paid in full after LBP received a copy of the Court's resolution.
We find no merit in these assertions. SHECcD

As we discussed above, the "pertinent amounts" allegedly deposited by LBP were

mere partial payments that amounted to a measly 5% of the actual value of the
properties expropriated. They could be the basis for the immediate taking of the
expropriated property but by no stretch of the imagination can these nominal amounts
be considered "pertinent" enough to satisfy the full requirement of just compensation —
i.e., the full and fair equivalent of the expropriated property, taking into account its
income potential and the foregone income lost because of the immediate taking.
We likewise nd no basis to support the LBP's theory that Republic and the
present case have to be treated differently because the rst involves a "regular"
expropriation case, while the present case involves expropriation pursuant to the
country's agrarian reform program. In both cases, the power of eminent domain was
used and private property was taken for public use. Why one should be different from
the other, so that the just compensation ruling in one should not apply to the other, truly
escapes us. If there is to be a difference, the treatment of agrarian reform
expropriations should be stricter and on a higher plane because of the government's
societal concerns and objectives. To be sure, the government cannot attempt to
remedy the ills of one sector of society by sacri cing the interests of others within the
same society.
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 Finally, we note that the nality of the decision (that xed the value of just
compensation) in Republic was not a material consideration for the Court in awarding
the landowners 12% interest. The Court, in Republic, simply a rmed the RTC ruling
imposing legal interest on the amount of just compensation due. In the process, the
Court determined that the legal interest should be 12% after recognizing that the just
compensation due was effectively a forbearance on the part of the government. Had
the nality of the judgment been the critical factor, then the 12% interest should have
been imposed from the time the RTC decision xing just compensation
became final. Instead, the 12% interest was imposed from the time that the Republic
commenced condemnation proceedings and "took" the property.
The LBP additionally asserts that the petitioners erroneously relied on the ruling
in Reyes v. National Housing Authority. The LBP claims that we cannot apply Reyes
because it involved just compensation that remained unpaid despite the nality of the
expropriation decision. LBP's point of distinction is that just compensation was
immediately paid in the present case upon the Court's determination of the actual value
of the expropriated properties. LBP claims, too, that in Reyes, the Court established that
the refusal of the NHA to pay just compensation was unfounded and unjusti ed,
whereas the LBP in the present case clearly demonstrated its willingness to pay just
compensation. Lastly, in Reyes, the records showed that there was an outstanding
balance that ought to be paid, while the element of an outstanding balance is absent in
the present case.
Contrary to the LBP's opinion, the imposition of the 12% interest in Reyes did not
depend on either the nality of the decision of the expropriation court, or on the nding
that the NHA's refusal to pay just compensation was unfounded and unjusti ed. Quite
clearly, the Court imposed 12% interest based on the ruling in Republic v. Court of
Appeals that ". . . if property is taken for public use before compensation is deposited
with the court having jurisdiction over the case,the the nal compensation must
include interest[s] on its just value to be computed from the time the
property is taken to the time when compensation is actually paid or
deposited with the court. In ne, between the taking of the property and the actual
payment, legal interest[s] accrue in order to place the owner in a position as good as
(but not better than) the position he was in before the taking occurred." 2 9 This is the
same legal principle applicable to the present case, as discussed above.
While the LBP immediately paid the remaining balance on the just compensation
due to the petitioners after this Court had xed the value of the expropriated properties,
it overlooks one essential fact — from the time that the State took the petitioners'
properties until the time that the petitioners were fully paid, almost 12 long years
passed. This is the rationale for imposing the 12% interest — in order to compensate
the petitioners for the income they would have made had they been properly
compensated for their properties at the time of the taking. DaScAI

Finally, the LBP insists that the petitioners quoted our ruling in Land Bank of the
Philippines v. Imperial out of context. According to the LBP, the Court imposed legal
interest of 12% per annum only after December 31, 2006, the date when the decision on
just compensation became final.
The LBP is again mistaken. The Imperial case involved land that was
expropriated pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 27, 3 0 and fell under the coverage of
DAR Administrative Order (AO) No. 13. 3 1 This AO provided for the payment of a 6%
annual interest if there is any delay in payment of just compensation. However, Imperial
was decided in 2007 and AO No. 13 was only effective up to December 2006. Thus, the
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 Court, relying on our ruling in the Republic case, applied the prevailing 12% interest
ruling to the period when the just compensation remained unpaid after December 2006.
It is for this reason that December 31, 2006 was important, not because it was the date
of finality of the decision on just compensation.
The 12% Interest Rate and
the Chico-Nazario Dissent
To fully re ect the concerns raised in this Court's deliberations on the present
case, we feel it appropriate to discuss the Justice Minita Chico-Nazario's dissent from
the Court's December 4, 2009 Resolution.
While Justice Chico-Nazario admitted that the petitioners were entitled to the
12% interest, she saw it appropriate to equitably reduce the interest charges from
P1,331,124,223.05 to P400,000,000.00. In support of this proposal, she enumerated
various cases where the Court, pursuant to Article 1229 of the Civil Code, 3 2 equitably
reduced interest charges.
We differ with our esteemed colleague's views on the application of equity.
While we have equitably reduced the amount of interest awarded in numerous
cases in the past, those cases involved interest that was essentially consensual in
nature, i.e., interest stipulated in signed agreements between the contracting parties. In
contrast, the interest involved in the present case "runs as a matter of law and follows
as a matter of course from the right of the landowner to be placed in as good a
position as money can accomplish, as of the date of taking." 3 3
Furthermore, the allegedly considerable payments made by the LBP to the
petitioners cannot be a proper premise in denying the landowners the interest due them
under the law and established jurisprudence. If the just compensation for the
landholdings is considerable, this compensation is not undue because the
landholdings the owners gave up in exchange are also similarly considerable
— AFC gave up an aggregate landholding of 640.3483 hectares, while HPI's
gave up 805.5308 hectares. When the petitioners surrendered these sizeable
landholdings to the government, the incomes they gave up were likewise sizeable and
cannot in any way be considered miniscule. The incomes due from these properties,
expressed as interest, are what the government should return to the petitioners after
the government took over their lands without full payment of just compensation. In
other words, the value of the landholdings themselves should be equivalent to
the principal sum of the just compensation due; interest is due and should be
paid to compensate for the unpaid balance of this principal sum after taking
has been completed. This is the compensation arrangement that should prevail if
such compensation is to satisfy the constitutional standard of being "just." TEAcCD

Neither can LBP's payment of the full compensation due before the nality of the
judgment of this Court justify the reduction of the interest due them. To rule otherwise
would be to forget that the petitioners had to wait twelve years from the time they gave
up their lands before the government fully paid the principal of the just compensation
due them. These were twelve years when they had no income from their landholdings
because these landholdings have immediately been taken; no income, or inadequate
income, accrued to them from the proceeds of compensation payment due them
because full payment has been withheld by government.
If the full payment of the principal sum of the just compensation is legally
signi cant at all under the circumstances of this case, the signi cance is only in putting
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 a stop to the running of the interest due because the principal of the just compensation
due has been paid. To close our eyes to these realities is to condone what is effectively
a confiscatory action in favor of the LBP.
That the legal interest due is now almost equivalent to the principal to be paid is
not per se an inequitable or unconscionable situation, considering the length of time the
interest has remained unpaid — almost twelve long years. From the perspective of
interest income, twelve years would have been su cient for the petitioners to double
the principal, even if invested conservatively, had they been promptly paid the principal
of the just compensation due them. Moreover, the interest , however enormous it may
b e , cannot be inequitable and unconscionable because it resulted directly
from the application of law and jurisprudence — standards that have taken into
account fairness and equity in setting the interest rates due for the use or forebearance
of money.
If the LBP sees the total interest due to be immense, it only has itself to blame,
as this interest piled up because it unreasonably acted in its valuation of the
landholdings and consequently failed to promptly pay the petitioners. To be sure, the
consequences of this failure — i.e., the enormity of the total interest due and the alleged
nancial hemorrhage the LBP may suffer — should not be the very reason that would
excuse it from full compliance. To so rule is to use extremely awed logic. To so rule is
to disregard the question of how the LBP, a government nancial institution that now
professes di culty in paying interest at 12% per annum, managed the funds that it
failed to pay the petitioners for twelve long years.
It would be utterly fallacious, too, to argue that this Court should tread lightly in
imposing liabilities on the LBP because this bank represents the government and,
ultimately, the public interest. Su ce it to say that public interest refers to what will
bene t the public, not necessarily the government and its agencies whose task is to
contribute to the bene t of the public. Greater public bene t will result if government
agencies like the LBP are conscientious in undertaking its tasks in order to avoid the
situation facing it in this case. Greater public interest would be served if it can
contribute to the credibility of the government's land reform program
through the conscientious handling of its part of this program.
As our last point, equity and equitable principles only come into full play when a
gap exists in the law and jurisprudence. 3 4 As we have shown above, established rulings
of this Court are in place for full application to the present case. There is thus no
occasion for the equitable consideration that Justice Chico-Nazario suggested.
The Amount Due the Petitioners
as Just Compensation
As borne by the records, the 12% interest claimed is only on the difference
between the price of the expropriated lands (determined with nality to be
P1,383,179,000.00) and the amount of P411,769,168.32 already paid to the
petitioners. The difference between these gures amounts to the remaining balance of
P971,409,831.68 that was only paid on May 9, 2008. DITEAc

As above discussed, this amount should bear interest at the rate of 12%
per annum from the time the petitioners' properties were taken on December
9, 1996 up to the time of payment. At this rate, the LBP now owes the petitioners
the total amount of One Billion Three Hundred Thirty-One Million One Hundred Twenty-
Four Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Three and 05/100 Pesos (P1,331,124,223.05),
computed as follows:
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 Just Compensation P971,409,831.68
Legal Interest from 12/09/1996
To 05/09/2008 @ 12%/annum
12/09/1996 to 12/31/1996 23 days 7,345,455.17
01/01/1997 to 12/31/2007 11 years 1,282,260,977.82
01/01/2008 to 05/09/2008 130 days 41,517,790.07
––––––––––––––
P1,331,124,223.05 3 5
=============

The Immutability of Judgment Issue

As a rule, a nal judgment may no longer be altered, amended or modi ed, even if
the alteration, amendment or modi cation is meant to correct what is perceived to be
an erroneous conclusion of fact or law and regardless of what court, be it the highest
Court of the land, rendered it. 3 6 In the past, however, we have recognized exceptions to
this rule by reversing judgments and recalling their entries in the interest of substantial
justice and where special and compelling reasons called for such actions.
Notably, in San Miguel Corporation v. National Labor Relations Commission , 3 7
Galman v. Sandiganbayan , 3 8 Philippine Consumers Foundation v. National
Telecommunications Commission , 3 9 and Republic v. de los Angeles , 4 0 we reversed
our judgment on the second motion for reconsideration, while in Vir-Jen Shipping and
Marine Services v. National Labor Relations Commission , 4 1 we did so on a third
motion for reconsideration. In Cathay Paci c v. Romillo 4 2 and Cosio v. de Rama , 4 3 we
modi ed or amended our ruling on the second motion for reconsideration. More
recently, in the cases of Muñoz v. Court of Appeals , 4 4 Tan Tiac Chiong v. Hon. Cosico ,
4 5 Manotok IV v. Barque , 4 6 and Barnes v. Padilla , 4 7 we recalled entries of judgment
after finding that doing so was in the interest of substantial justice. In Barnes, we said:
. . . Phrased elsewise, a nal and executory judgment can no longer be
attacked by any of the parties or be modi ed, directly or indirectly, even by the
highest court of the land.

However, this Court has relaxed this rule in order to serve substantial
justice considering (a) matters of life,
life liberty , honor or property , (b) the
existence of special or compelling circumstances,
circumstances (c) the merits of the
case,
case (d) a cause not entirely attributable to the fault or negligence of the party
favored by the suspension of the rules, (e) a lack of any showing that the review
sought is merely frivolous and dilatory, and (f) the other party will not be unjustly
prejudiced thereby.

Invariably, rules of procedure should be viewed as mere tools designed to

facilitate the attainment of justice. Their strict and rigid application, which would
result in technicalities that tend to frustrate rather than promote substantial
justice, must always be eschewed. Even the Rules of Court re ects this principle.
The power to suspend or even disregard rules can be so pervasive and compelling
as to alter even that which this Court itself had already declared to be nal. 4 8
[Emphasis supplied.]

That the issues posed by this case are of transcendental importance is not hard
to discern from these discussions. A constitutional limitation, guaranteed under no less
than the all-important Bill of Rights, is at stake in this case: how can compensation in an
eminent domain be "just" when the payment for the compensation for property already
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 taken has been unreasonably delayed? To claim, as the assailed Resolution does, that
only private interest is involved in this case is to forget that an expropriation involves
the government as a necessary actor. It forgets, too, that under eminent domain, the
constitutional limits or standards apply to government who carries the burden of
showing that these standards have been met. Thus, to simply dismiss this case as a
private interest matter is an extremely shortsighted view that this Court should not
leave uncorrected. CaTSEA

As duly noted in the above discussions, this issue is not one of rst impression in
our jurisdiction; the consequences of delay in the payment of just compensation have
been settled by this Court in past rulings. Our settled jurisprudence on the issue alone
accords this case primary importance as a contrary ruling would unsettle, on the
flimsiest of grounds, all the rulings we have established in the past.
More than the stability of our jurisprudence, the matter before us is of
transcendental importance to the nation because of the subject matter involved —
agrarian reform, a societal objective that the government has unceasingly sought to
achieve in the past half century. This reform program and its objectives would suffer a
major setback if the government falters or is seen to be faltering, wittingly or
unwittingly, through lack of good faith in implementing the needed reforms. Truly,
agrarian reform is so important to the national agenda that the Solicitor General, no
less, pointedly linked agricultural lands, its ownership and abuse, to the idea of
revolution. 4 9 This linkage, to our mind, remains valid even if the landowner, not the
landless farmer, is at the receiving end of the distortion of the agrarian reform program.
As we have ruled often enough, rules of procedure should not be applied in a very
rigid, technical sense; rules of procedure are used only to help secure, not override,
substantial justice. 5 0 As we explained in Ginete v. Court of Appeals: 5 1
Let it be emphasized that the rules of procedure should be viewed as
mere tools designed to facilitate the attainment of justice. Their strict and
rigid application, which would result in technicalities that tend to frustrate rather
than promote substantial justice, must always be eschewed. Even the Rules of
Court re ect this principle. The power to suspend or even disregard rules can be
so pervasive and compelling as to alter even that which this Court itself has
already declared to be final, as we are now constrained to do in the instant case.

xxx xxx xxx

The emerging trend in the rulings of this Court is to afford every party
litigant the amplest opportunity for the proper and just determination of his cause,
free from the constraints of technicalities. Time and again, this Court has
consistently held that rules must not be applied rigidly so as not to override
substantial justice. 5 2 [Emphasis supplied.]

Similarly, in de Guzman v. Sandiganbayan, 5 3 we had occasion to state:

The Rules of Court was conceived and promulgated to set forth guidelines
in the dispensation of justice but not to bind and chain the hand that dispenses it,
for otherwise, courts will be mere slaves to or robots of technical rules, shorn of
judicial discretion. That is precisely why courts in rendering justice have always
been, as they ought to be, conscientiously guided by the norm that when on the
balance, technicalities take a backseat against substantive rights, and
not the other way around. Truly then, technicalities, in the appropriate
language of Justice Makalintal, "should give way to the realities of the situation".
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 54 [Emphasis supplied.]

We made the same recognition in Barnes, 5 5 on the underlying premise that a

court's primordial and most important duty is to render justice; in discharging the duty
to render substantial justice, it is permitted to re-examine even a nal and executory
judgment. aSTHDc

Based on all these considerations, particularly the patently illegal and erroneous
conclusion that the petitioners are not entitled to 12% interest, we nd that we are duty-
bound to re-examine and overturn the assailed Resolution. We shall completely and
inexcusably be remiss in our duty as defenders of justice if, given the chance to make
the rectification, we shall let the opportunity pass.
Attorney's Fees
We are fully aware that the RTC has awarded the petitioners attorney's fees when
it xed the just compensation due and decreed that interest of 12% should be paid on
the balance outstanding after the taking of the petitioners' landholdings took place. The
petitioners, however, have not raised the award of attorney's fees as an issue in the
present motion for reconsideration. For this reason, we shall not touch on this issue at
all in this Resolution.
WHEREFORE , premises considered, we GRANT the petitioners' motion for
reconsideration. The Court En Banc's Resolution dated December 4, 2009, as well as
the Third Division's Resolutions dated April 30, 2008 and December 19, 2007, are
hereby REVERSED and SET ASIDE .
The respondent Land Bank of the Philippines is hereby ORDERED to pay
petitioners Apo Fruits Corporation and Hijo Plantation, Inc. interest at the rate of 12%
per annum on the unpaid balance of the just compensation, computed from the date
the Government took the properties on December 9, 1996, until the respondent Land
Bank of the Philippines paid on May 9, 2008 the balance on the principal amount.
Unless the parties agree to a shorter payment period, payment shall be in
monthly installments at the rate of P60,000,000.00 per month until the whole amount
owing, including interest on the outstanding balance, is fully paid.
Costs against the respondent Land Bank of the Philippines.
SO ORDERED.
Carpio Morales, Velasco, Jr., Del Castillo, Villarama, Jr., Perez, Mendoza and
Sereno, JJ., concur.
Corona, C.J. and Nachura, J., join the dissent of J. Bersamin.
Carpio and Abad, JJ., are on wellness leave.
Leonardo-de Castro, J., I maintain my vote in the December 4, 2009 Resolution.
Peralta, J., is on leave.
Bersamin, J., I dissent.

Separate Opinions
BERSAMIN J., dissenting:
BERSAMIN,

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 By their motion for reconsideration, the petitioners seek the review and setting
aside of the resolution dated December 4, 2009, 1 whereby the Court disposed as
follows:
WHEREFORE, the Court denies the petitioners' second motion for
reconsideration (with respect to the denial of the award of legal interest and
attorney's fees) , and reiterates the decision dated February 6, 2007 and the
resolution dated December 19, 2007 of the Third Division.
IHcTDA

SO ORDERED.

The petitioners contend that the doctrine of immutability of judgment does not
apply because of the several special and compelling considerations exempting them
from the application of the doctrine, namely: (a) that they suffered substantial injustice
from the patently unjust denial of interest; (b) that their case, being impressed with
public interest, had transcendental importance; and (c) that the fact that the Court en
banc had accepted the referral by the Third Division indicated that the case deserved
another review. They insist that the legal interest due on the just compensation paid to
them should be 12% per annum, a rate that was not subject to reduction.
The majority vote to grant the motion for reconsideration. Alas, I cannot join the
majority.
I dissent.
The resolution dated December 19, 2007 promulgated by the Third Division
(deleting the award of interest of 12% per annum on the just compensation and the
award of attorney's fees) already attained nality. Entry of judgment was in fact issued
on May 16, 2008.
In order to accord with the doctrine of immutability of judgment, the resolution
dated December 4, 2009 rejected the petitioners' second motion for reconsideration
(with respect to the denial of the award of legal interest and attorney's fees) , pointing
out that granting the motion would render nugatory the time-honored doctrine of
immutability; that none of the recognized exceptions to the doctrine of immutability
applied to the petitioners; that even if the reopening of the nal judgment was allowed,
the petitioners were still not entitled to recover interest on the just compensation
because there had been no delay in paying their just compensation; and that granting
the motion would produce more harm than good, considering that such reopening of a
nal judgment would surely open the oodgates to petitions for the resurrection of
litigations long ago settled.
I concede that the immutability doctrine admits several exceptions, such as: (a)
the correction of clerical errors; (b) the nunc pro tunc entries that cause no prejudice to
any party; (c) void judgments; and (d) whenever circumstances transpire after the
nality of the decision rendering its execution unjust and inequitable. Yet, my review of
the arguments raised in the petitioners' motion for reconsideration discloses no
compelling reason to deviate from the holding that none of the exceptions applies
herein. Consequently, I urge that we should continue to hold that the matters involved
herein were different from any of those involved in the exceptions. I do not think that
the petitioners established the existence of any of the special and compelling
considerations that supposedly exempted this case from the application of the
immutability doctrine.
Neither was it unjust to deny interest to the petitioners, who were not entitled to
interest in the face of the showing that Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) had not
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 unduly delayed paying their just compensation.
In this regard, I consider worth reiterating the following relevant portions of the
questioned resolution of December 4, 2009, to wit:
No Interest is Due Unless There is Delay
In Payment of Just Compensation

Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that the Court allows the
reopening of a nal judgment, AFC and HPI are still not entitled to recover interest
on the just compensation and attorney's fees.

xxx xxx xxx

In Land Bank of the Philippines v. Wycoco , however, the Court came to
explicitly rule that interest is to be imposed on the just compensation only in case
of delay in its payment, which fact must be su ciently established. Signi cantly,
Wycoco was moored on Article 2209, Civil Code, which provides: cSDIHT

Article 2209.If the obligation consists in the payment of money and

the debtor incurs in delay , the indemnity for damages, there being no
stipulation to the contrary, shall be the payment of the interest agreed
upon, and in the absence of stipulation, the legal interest, which is six per
cent per annum. (1108)
The history of this case proves that Land Bank did not incur delay in the
payment of the just compensation. As earlier mentioned, after the petitioners
voluntarily offered to sell their lands on October 12, 1995, DAR referred their VOS
applications to Land Bank for initial valuation. Land Bank initially xed the just
compensation at P165,484.47/hectare, that is, P86,900,925.88, for AFC, and
P164,478,178.14, for HPI. However, both petitioners rejected Land Bank's initial
valuation, prompting Land Bank to open deposit accounts in the petitioners'
names, and to credit in said accounts the amounts equivalent to their valuations.
Although AFC withdrew the amount of P26,409,549.86, while HPI withdrew
P45,481,706.76, they still led with DARAB separate complaints for determination
of just compensation. When DARAB did not act upon their complaints for more
than three years, AFC and HPI commenced their respective actions for
determination of just compensation in the Tagum City RTC, which rendered its
decision on September 25, 2001.

It is true that Land Bank sought to appeal the RTC's decision to the CA, by
ling a notice of appeal; and that Land Bank led in March 2003 its petition for
certiorari in the CA only because the RTC did not give due course to its appeal.
Any intervening delay thereby entailed could not be attributed to Land Bank,
however, considering that assailing an erroneous order before a higher court is a
remedy afforded by law to every losing party, who cannot thus be considered to
act in bad faith or in an unreasonable manner as to make such party guilty of
unjusti ed delay. As stated in Land Bank of the Philippines v. Kumassie
Plantation:
The mere fact that LBP appealed the decisions of the RTC and the
Court of Appeals does not mean that it deliberately delayed the payment of
just compensation to KPCI. . . . It may disagree with DAR and the
landowner as to the amount of just compensation to be paid to the latter
and may also disagree with them and bring the matter to court for judicial
determination. This makes LBP an indispensable party in cases involving
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 just compensation for lands taken under the Agrarian Reform Program,
with a right to appeal decisions in such cases that are unfavorable to it.
Having only exercised its right to appeal in this case, LBP cannot be
penalized by making it pay for interest.
The Third Division justified its deletion of the award of interest thuswise:

AFC and HPI now blame LBP for allegedly incurring delay in
the determination and payment of just compensation. However,
the same is without basis as AFC and HPI's proper recourse after
rejecting the initial valuations of respondent LBP was to bring the
matter to the RTC acting as a SAC, and not to le two complaints
for determination of just compensation with the DAR, which was
just circuitous as it had already determined the just
compensation of the subject properties taken with the aid of LBP.
In Land Bank of the Philippines v. Wycoco , citing Reyes v. National
Housing Authority and Republic v. Court of Appeals, this Court held that the
interest of 12% per annum on the just compensation is due the landowner
in case of delay in payment, which will in effect make the obligation on the
part of the government one of forbearance. On the other hand, interest
in the form of damages cannot be applied, where there was
prompt and valid payment of just compensation . Thus:

The constitutional limitation of "just compensation" is

considered to be the sum equivalent to the market value of the
property, broadly described to be the price xed by the seller in open
market in the usual and ordinary course of legal action and
competition or the fair value of the property as between one who
receives, and one who desires to sell, it being xed at the time of the
actual taking by the government. Thus, if property is taken for
public use before compensation is deposited with the court
having jurisdiction over the case, the nal compensation
must include interests on its just value to be computed
from the time the property is taken to the time when
compensation is actually paid or deposited with the court.
In ne, between the taking of the property and the actual payment,
legal interests accrue in order to place the owner in a position as
good as (but not better than) the position he was in before the
taking occurred. HICEca

. . . This allowance of interest on the amount found to be the

value of the property as of the time of the taking computed, being
an effective forbearance, at 12% per annum should help eliminate
the issue of the constant uctuation and in ation of the value of
the currency over time. Article 1250 of the Civil Code, providing that,
in case of extraordinary in ation or de ation, the value of the
currency at the time of the establishment of the obligation shall be
the basis for the payment when no agreement to the contrary is
stipulated, has strict application only to contractual obligations. In
other words, a contractual agreement is needed for the effects of
extraordinary in ation to be taken into account to alter the value of
the currency.

It is explicit from LBP v. Wycoco that interest on the just

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 compensation is imposed only in case of delay in the payment
thereof which must be su ciently established. Given the
foregoing, we nd that the imposition of interest on the award of
just compensation is not justi ed and should therefore be
deleted.

It must be emphasized that "pertinent amounts were deposited in

favor of AFC and HPI within fourteen months after the ling by the latter of
the Complaint for determination of just compensation before the RTC". It is
likewise true that AFC and HPI already collected P149.6 and P262 million,
respectively, representing just compensation for the subject properties.
Clearly, there is no unreasonable delay in the payment of just
compensation which should warrant the award of 12% interest per annum
in AFC and HPI's favor.
The foregoing justification remains correct, and is reiterated herein. 2

As far as I am concerned, nothing in the motion for reconsideration effectively

refutes the aforequoted ratiocination rendered in the resolution of December 4, 2009.
With LBP not being guilty of delay in paying to the petitioners their just compensation,
any plea of suffering substantial injustice from the denial of interest should be
justifiably rejected.
Lastly, I cannot bring myself to agree that this case is impressed at all with public
interest, involving as it does only a "private claim for interest and attorney's fees which
cannot even be classi ed as unprecedented," which "does not qualify either as a
substantial or transcendental matter, or as an issue of paramount public interest for no
special or compelling circumstance was present to warrant the relaxation of the
doctrine of immutability in favor of the petitioners." 3
ACCORDINGLY I vote to deny the petitioners' motion for reconsideration and to
ACCORDINGLY,
uphold the resolution dated December 4, 2009.

Footnotes
1.While the petitioners owned a total of 1,454.8791 hectares based on the landholdings stated
in this Court's February 6, 2007 Decision, the RTC, in its decision, xed just
compensation for 1,388.6027 hectares of land.

2.Retired from the Court on December 5, 2009.

3.See Masikip v. City of Pasig, G.R. No. 136349, January 23, 2006, 479 SCRA 391, citing
Visayan Refining Co. v. Camus, 40 Phil. 550, 558-559 (1919).
4.See Manapat v. Court of Appeals, G.R. Nos. 110478, 116176 and 116491-503, October 15,
2007, 536 SCRA 32.

5.See Heirs of Alberto Saguitan v. City of Mandaluyong, G.R. No. 135087, March 14, 2000, 328
SCRA 137.

6.Id., citing City of Manila v. Chinese Community of Manila, 40 Phil. 349 (1919).
7.The authority to exercise the power of eminent domain was expressly conferred to the
Philippine Government through Section 63 of the Philippine Bill of 1902, which states:

That the Government of the Philippine Islands is hereby authorized, subject to the
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