Code of Agrarian Reforms

Section 160

To strengthen the legal assistance to agricultural lessees and agricultural owner-cultivators referred to in this Code, the Tenancy Mediation Commission is hereby expanded and shall hereafter be known as the Office of the Agrarian Counsel. The head of the Office shall hereafter be known as Agrarian Counsel and shall have the rank, qualifications and salary of First Assistant Solicitor General. He shall be assisted by a Deputy Agrarian Counsel, who shall have the rank, qualifications and salary of Assistant Solicitor General. The Agrarian Counsel and Deputy Agrarian Counsel shall be appointed by the President with the consent of the Commission on Appointments of Congress and shall be under the direct supervision of the Secretary of Justice.

Section 161

There is hereby created in the Office of the Agrarian Counsel eighty additional positions of Special Attorneys, who shall be appointed by the President upon recommendation of the Secretary of Justice and with the consent of the Commission on Appointments. They shall have the rank, qualifications and salary provided by law for a solicitor in the Office of the Solicitor General with the lowest rank.

Section 162

The Agrarian Counsel shall appoint the subordinate officials and employees of the Office of the Agrarian Counsel, subject to Civil Service rules and regulations, fix their compensation and prescribe their duties. The compensation of special attorneys transferred to the Office of Agrarian Counsel shall be fixed on salary scales corresponding to solicitors of the Office of the Solicitor General and the compensation of subordinate officials and employees shall be based on equivalent positions in the office of the Courts of Agrarian Relations: Provided, finally, That the compensation of employees whose positions do not have equivalence in the office of the Courts of Agrarian Relations shall be increased by thirty per cent of their salaries. (Amending Section 162 of R.A. No. 3844 (Agricultural Land Reform Code), Republic Act No. 5984, [August 4, 1969]) The Agrarian Counsel shall have the power to organize such divisions and sections as will insure maximum efficiency of the Office.

Section 163

It shall be the responsibility of the Office of the Agrarian Counsel upon proper notification by the party concerned or by the association or organization to which he belongs, to represent tenants, agricultural lessees, agricultural farm workers and agricultural owner-cultivators or the members of their immediate farm household referred to in this Code who cannot engage the services of competent private counsel in cases before the Court of Agrarian Relations. This responsibility shall include representation before courts, including appellate, in cases civil or criminal, instituted by or against said tenant, agricultural lessees, farm workers or owners-cultivator or the members of their immediate farm household, where the cases arise from or are connected with, or results or effects of an agrarian dispute. The decision of the Office of the Agrarian Counsel to provide legal assistance shall be final. (Amending Section 163 of R.A. No. 3844 (Agricultural Land Reform Code), Republic Act No. 4886, [June 17, 1967], further amended by Republic Act No. 6389, [September 10, 1971])

Section 164

The Agrarian Counsel, the Deputy Agrarian Counsel and the Special Attorneys of the Office of the Agrarian Counsel are hereby authorized to administer oaths and acknowledgment free of charge. (Amendments to RA No. 3844 (Agricultural Land Reform Code), Republic Act No. 6389, [September 10, 1971])

Section 165

There is hereby appropriated, in addition to the appropriation of the Tenancy Mediation Commission for Fiscal Year 1964, the sum of three million pesos, or so much thereof as may be necessary, out of the unappropriated funds in the National Treasury, for salaries, wages, purchase of motor vehicles, supplies, equipment, and other sundry expenses. The amount appropriated herein shall be carried in the appropriations for the Office of the Agrarian Counsel in the General Appropriations Acts for succeeding fiscal years.