All the efforts exerted by the landowners to oust Abajon from the landholding were in vain as the latter simply refused to budge. The parties had a confrontation before the Barangay Captain of Lawaan in Talisay, Cebu but failed to reach an agreement. Later, the new owners asked Abajon to vacate the premises, saying that they needed the property. Abajon offered to pay the new owners rental on the land occupied by his house, but his offer was not accepted. Sometime in March 1979, after the property was sold, the new owners, Arturo and Yolanda Caballes, told Abajon that the poultry they intended to build would be close to his house and pursuaded him to transfer his dwelling to the opposite or southern portion of the landholding. During those four years, he paid the P2.00 rental for the lot occupied by his house, and delivered 50% of the produce to Andrea Millenes. In 1978, he stopped planting corn but continued to plant bananas and camote. From 1975-1977, Abajon planted corn and bananas on the landholding. The landowner likewise allowed Abajon to plant on a portion of the land, agreeing that the produce thereof would be shared by both on a fitfy-fifty basis.

In 1975, before the sale in favor of the Caballes spouses, private respondent Bienvenido Abajon constructed his house on a portion of the said landholding, paying a monthly rental of P2.00 to the owner, Andrea Millenes. 3109-C was subseconsequently sold to the said spouses by Macario Alicaba and the other members of the Millenes family, thus consolidating ownership over the entire (500-square meter) property in favor of the petitioner. 3109-C, which has a total area of about 500 square meters, situated at Lawaan Talisay, Cebu. The landholding subject of the controversy, which consists of only sixty (60) square meters (20 meters x 3 meters) was acquired by the spouses Arturo and Yolanda Caballes, the latter being the petitioner herein, by virtue of a Deed of Absolute Sale dated Jexecuted by Andrea Alicaba Millenes This landholding is part of Lot No. The facts as gathered by the MAR are as follows: Heherson Alvarez, finding the existence of a tenancy relationship between the herein petitioner and the private respondent and certifying the criminal case for malicious mischief filed by the petitioner against the private respondent as not proper for trial. ALVAREZ and BIENVENIDO ABAJON, respondents.īefore us is a petition for certiorari seeking the annulment of an Order issued by the public respondent Ministry of Agrarian Reform, now the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), through its then Minister, the Hon.

Malicious mischief