UNIT IV.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL

ISSUES IN THE PHILIPPINES:
PHILIPPINE AGRARIAN REFORM
AGRARIAN REFORM

🠶 The agrarian policies are centered on the

relationship between the production and
distribution of land among farmers.
Pre-Spanish Period
"This land is ours, God gave this land to us."

🠶 Before the colonization of the country,

Filipinos have their lives already, and every
village has a chieftain that governs the
community, which comprised the nobility,
then came the maharlikas, which
considered as freemen followed by slaves
composed by aliping namamahay and
aliping saguiguilid.
During Spanish colonization

🠶 Under the Spanish government, Filipinos did

not have the right to own land. Still, they
were only allowed to work in them and pay
colonial tributes to Spanish authorities
through agricultural products.
Encomienda system

🠶 Encomienda was a system of giving lands

(Royal Lands Grants) to the Spanish
conquerors that were loyal to the Spanish
monarch.
Land ownership during the American colonization

The following were some noteworthy regulations

enacted during the American period.

🠶 The Philippine bill of 1902 provided regulations on

the disposal of public lands, where a private
individual may own up to 16 hectares of land, and
corporate landholders may have 1,024 hectares.
🠶 The Philippine commission act no. 496, or the Land
Registration Act of 1902, addressed the absence of
records of land titles and conducted accurate land
surveys through the Torrens system.
🠶 The Public Land Act of 1903, introduced the
Homestead system, where a tenant could enter into
an agricultural business once the individual had
acquired 16 hectares of farmland.
🠶 The Tenancy Act of 1993 (Act No. 4054 and 4113),
which regulated relationship between land owners
and tenants of rice and sugar cane lands.
COMMONWEALTH PERIOD
During this period, President Manuel L. Quezon espoused the
"Social Justice" program to arrest the increasing social unrest
in Central Luzon. The following were significant legislations
enacted during Commonwealth period:

🠶 1935 Constitution – "The promotion of social justice to ensure

the well-being and economic security of all people should
be the concern of the State."
🠶 Commonwealth Act No. 178 (An Amendment to Rice
Tenancy Act No. 4045), November 13, 1936 – Provided
specific controls in the landlord-tenant relationships
🠶 National Rice and Corn Corporation (NARIC),
1936, established the price of rice and corn,
thereby helping the poor tenants and
consumers.
🠶 Commonwealth Act. No. 461, 1937 – Specified
reasons for the dismissal of tenants and only with
the approval of the Tenancy Division of the
Department of Justice.
🠶 Rural Program Administration, created March 2,
1939 – Provided the purchase and lease of
haciendas and their sale and lease to the
tenants.
🠶 Commonwealth Act No. 441 enacted on June 3,
1939 – Created the National Settlement
Administration with a capital stock of
P20,000,000.
Agrarian Reform Pre-World War I

🠶 The sakdal uprising was a peasant rebellion brought

about by the social inequality in land ownership and
tenancy. Sakdal means "to accuse.“
🠶 Hukbalahap controlled whole areas of Central Luzon;
🠶 The administration also created NARIC, or the National
Rice and Corn Corporation, to defend and assist the
peasants in court battles for their rights.
Agrarian reform after World War II

🠶 After the war, the administration focused on

rehabilitating and rebuilding the nation.
🠶 After the establishment of the Philippine
Independence in 1946, the problems of land
tenure remained. These became worst in
certain areas. Thus the Congress of the
Philippines revised the tenancy law.
President Manuel A. Roxas (1946-1948)
enacted the following laws:

🠶 Republic Act No. 34 -- Established the 70-30

sharing arrangements and regulating share-
tenancy contracts.
🠶 Republic Act No. 55 -- Provided for a more
effective safeguard against arbitrary
ejectment of tenants.
Elpidio R. Quirino (1948-1953) enacted the
following law:

🠶 Executive Order No. 355 issued on October

23, 1950 -- Replaced the National Land
Settlement Administration with Land
Settlement Development Corporation
(LASEDECO), which takes over the
responsibilities of the Agricultural Machinery
Equipment Corporation and the Rice and
Corn Production Administration.
Ramon Magsaysay (1953-1957) enacted the
following laws:

🠶 Republic Act No. 1160 of 1954 -- Abolished the

LASEDECO and established the National Resettlement
and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA) to resettle
dissidents and landless farmers.
🠶 Republic Act No. 1199 (Agricultural Tenancy Act of
1954) -- governed the relationship between
landowners and tenant farmers by organizing share-
tenancy and leasehold system.
🠶 Republic Act No. 1400 (Land Reform Act of 1955) --
Created the Land Tenure Administration (LTA), which
was responsible for the acquisition and distribution of
large tenanted rice and corn lands over 200 hectares
for individuals and 600 hectares for corporations.
🠶 Republic Act No. 821 (Creation of Agricultural Credit
Cooperative Financing Administration) -- Provided
small farmers and share tenants loans with low-
interest rates of six to eight percent
President Carlos P. Garcia (1957-1961)

🠶 Continued the program of President Ramon

Magsaysay. No new legislation passed.
President Diosdado P. Macapagal (1961-1965)
enacted the following law:

🠶 Republic Act No. 3844 of August 8, 1963 (Agricultural

Land Reform Code) -- Abolished share tenancy,
institutionalized leasehold, set retention limit at 75
hectares, invested rights of preemption and
redemption for tenant farmers, provided for
administrative machinery for implementation,
institutionalized a judicial system of agrarian cases,
incorporated extension, marketing and supervised
credit system of services of farmer-beneficiaries.
Agrarian reform during the Marcos regime

🠶 After the declaration of martial law in 1972,

president Marcos was able to start a
"fundamental restructuring" of government and
he wiped out the landlord-dominated congress.
🠶 Masagana 99 was a rice self-sufficiency
program in which farmers could borrow from
banks and purchase three-hectare plots of land
These are some agrarian reform policies passed
during the Marcos regime:

🠶 Republic Act No. 6389, (Code of Agrarian Reform)

and R.A. No. 6390 of 1971 -- Created the Department
of Agrarian Reform and the Agrarian Reform Special
Account Fund.
🠶 Presidential Decree No. 2, September 26, 1972 --
Declared the country under the land reform program.
It also activated the Agrarian Reform Coordinating
Council.
🠶 Presidential Decree No. 27, October 21, 1972 --
Restricted land reform scope to tenanted rice
and corn lands and set the retention limit at 7
hectares.
Post agrarian reform
🠶 The Constitution ratified by the Filipino people
during the administration of President Corazon C.
Aquino .
🠶 Article II, Sec. 21 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution
provides that “The State shall promote
comprehensive rural development and agrarian
reform.”
🠶 On June 10, 1988, the Republic Act No. 6657
(Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL))
signed into law and became effective on June 15,
1988.
🠶 In 1988, the republic act no. 6657, introduced
the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
(CARP) that enabled the distribution of
agricultural lands to tenant-farmers.
🠶 President Corazon Aquino also allowed the
option for stock redistribution.
President Fidel V. Ramos

🠶 His administration committed to the vision "Fairer,

faster and more meaningful implementation of the
Agrarian Reform Program”.
🠶 During the Ramos Administration, the Department
of Agrarian Reform (DAR) was able to distribute
58.25 percent of the total area covered by CARP.
🠶 He also signed the Republic Act no. 8532 in 1998 to
amend CARP.
President Joseph E. Estrada
“ERAP PARA SA MAHIRAP”

🠶 Executive Order N0. 151, September 1999

(Farmer's Trust Fund) – Allowed the voluntary
consolidation of small farm operations into
medium and large-scale integrated enterprises
that can access long-term capital.
🠶 Launched the Magkabalikat Para sa
Kaunlarang Agraryo or MAGKASAKA.
Agrarian reform in the present time

🠶 The agrarian reform program under the

Arroyo administration is anchored on the
vision “To make the countryside
economically viable for the Filipino family by
building partnership and promoting social
equity and new economic opportunities
towards lasting peace and sustainable rural
development.”
On September 27, 2004, President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, signed the following;

🠶 Executive Order No. 379 s 2004, amending Executive

Order No 364 entitled Transforming the Department of
Agrarian Reform into the Department of Land Reform
(DLR)
🠶 Memorandum Circular No. 4 series of 2003
operationalized the development of Kapit Bisig Laban
sa Kahirapan Agrarian Reform Zones (KALAHI
ARZones)
🠶 Republic Act No. 9700 s 2009 an act strengthening the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
President Benigno Aquino III
🠶 The Agrarian Production Credit Program (APCP)
provided credit support for crop production to newly
organized and existing Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries’
Organizations (ARBOs).
🠶 Completed the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program (CARP),
🠶 Enacted Executive Order No. 26, Series of 2011, to
mandate the Department of Agriculture-Department
of Environment and Natural Resources-Department of
Agrarian Reform Convergence Initiative to develop a
National Greening Program in cooperation with other
government agencies
President Rodrigo Duterte

🠶 Pursue an "aggressive" land reform program that

would help poor Filipino farmers.
🠶 Directed the DAR to launch the 2nd phase of
agrarian reform where landless farmers would be
awarded undistributed lands under CARP.
🠶 Duterte plans to place almost all public lands,
including military reserves, under agrarian reform.
🠶 Placed 400 hectares of agricultural land in
Boracay under CARP
🠶 DAR created an anti-corruption task force to
investigate and handle reports on alleged
anomalous activities by officials and
employees of the department
ISSUES AND PROBLEMS
IN AGRARIAN REFORM
IN THE PHILIPPINES
• Weak government implementation of the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
• Inherent loopholes in the law
• Strong landowner resistance
• Weak farmers’ organizations, and
• Continuing espousal by the New People’s
Army of its own agrarian revolution
Why land and agrarian reform?

More than half of the Philippine

population lives in rural areas. Forty
percent of land is attributed to the
agricultural sector, employing about
one-third of all Filipinos.
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program

Agrarian reform was considered an essential component of

the post-Marcos rural democratization process. In general,
the program mandated the distribution of all agricultural
lands to landless farmers, farmworkers or tenants under
the 1987 constitution. CARP set a five-hectare landowner
retention limit with an additional three hectares for every
legitimate heir as preferred beneficiaries. The goal is clear:
to promote equity and social justice.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is
the main agency tasked with redistributing
private lands, while the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
is tasked with distributing public lands.
CARP has many weaknesses such as loopholes in the law,
poor administrative capacity, violence, corruption and the
use of political influence. Despite its many loopholes, CARP
paved the way for farmers’ land-rights claims. But with the
various loopholes and weak program implementation it
became necessary that claimants should be organized, and
capable of opposing and resisting the anti-reform
initiatives of people opposed to CARP.