Flashcards Studio

A primary cooperative organized under the Cooperative Code, RA 9520, with 52 voting members, has by-laws expressly authorizing it to acquire, hold, and convey real property for its purposes. It plans to purchase a 12-hectare agricultural land to be used for a community store, a training center for members, and member farming plots. The title of the land is proposed to be issued in the name of the cooperative. To ensure compliance with constitutional land ownership limits, the cooperative also forms a Filipino‑owned corporation, called Lightlink Holdings, Inc. (LLI), which is closely controlled by the cooperative’s members and will acquire the land in its own name. A member challenges the arrangement, arguing that cooperatives under RA 9520 cannot own land in their own name and that land must be titled in the name of a natural person or a Filipino-owned corporation. (a) Identify the controlling doctrinal rule on whether a cooperative organized under RA 9520 may acquire and own land in its own name or through a separate Filipino-owned corporate vehicle closely controlled by the cooperative. (b) Distinguish the capacity of cooperatives to own land from that of other corporate forms under the Constitution and RA 9520. (c) Apply the doctrine to this case: is the land ownership valid? If valid, what are the implications under RA 9520 Article 16 on dissolution; if not, what remedies are available?