A mere lessee of an agricultural land has no right under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) to demand for just compensation for its standing crops and improvements from the Land Bank. Its rights as lessee are totally independent of and unaffected by any judgment rendered in an agrarian case. The CARL does not contain any proviso recognizing the rights of a lessee of a private agricultural land to just compensation for the crops it planted and improvements it built. Just compensation for the produce and infrastructure of a private agricultural land logically belongs to the landowner since the former are part and parcel of the latter. The DAR Adjudication Board (DARAB) has no jurisdiction to pass upon the issue of ownership over standing crops and improvements between the landowner and the lessee. This is so, because the right of a lessor and lessee over the improvements introduced by the latter is not an agrarian dispute within the meaning of the CARL. Since lease contract is governed by the Civil Code provisions on lease, it is the Regional Trial Court, as a court of general jurisdiction that can resolve with finality the rights of a lessor and lessee over the improvements built by the latter (G.R. No. 187801, Sept. 13, 2012).
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