[ LETTER OF INSTRUCTION NO. 650, January 05, 1978 ]

TO: Secretary of Reform
Chairman, Board of Directors,
Land Bank of the Philippines President,
Land Bank of the Philippines
WHEREAS, the establishment of pilot land consolidation projects under the Agrarian Reform Program in the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Camarines Sur and Pangasinan, has transformed self-reliant and economically and socially stable farmers, and has brought about maximum land utilization and development, and increased fern production, through multiple cropping and crop sequencing, and farm income through cooperative endeavors;

WHEREAS, the setting up of such land consolidation projects needs the attention and encouragement of the government; and

WHEREAS, the acquisition of the 632—hectare property of landowner Emerito M. Ramos in Arayat and Candaba, Pampanga, is necessary in order to put up a modern land consolidation project in that province similar to that of the General Ricarte cooperative settlement in Llanera, Nueva Ecija;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, do hereby order:
  1. The Secretary of Agrarian Reform to carry out a land consolidation scheme in the property of Emerito M. Ramos and allocate the farmlets and homelots therein in accordance with the integrated development plan prepared for the project; and
  2. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Land Bank and the President of the Land Bank to finance under any of the recognized modes of settlement provided in Presidential Decree No. 251, the acquisition of the entire area of the aforementioned Ramos property: Provided, that, the tenant-farmers therein and landless farmer-members of the HUK VETS Association, Inc., as well as the farmer's cooperative of which they are members shall amortize to the Land Bank the total cost of the property in accordance with Presidential Decree No. 27, and other related decrees or orders: Provided, further, that in the retitling of the lands thus acquired such arrangement to be effected shall always give due regard to the rights conferred upon the tenant-farmers and HUK VETS farmer-members as owners of the land they till, the area of the farmlots and the homelots to conform to the land consolidation scheme and integrated development plan prepared for the said project.
Done in the City of Manila, this 5th day of January, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-eight.

(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS
President of the Philippines