Land reform in the Philippines
Land reform in the Philippines has long been a contentious issue rooted in the Philippines's
History
Much like
American period
The United States of America took possession of the Philippines following the
Further the U.S.
The 1902 Philippine Organic Act was a constitution for the Insular Government, as the U.S. civil administration was known. This act, among other actions, disestablished the Catholic Church as the state religion. The United States government, in an effort to resolve the status of the friars, negotiated with the Vatican. The church agreed to sell the friars' estates and promised gradual substitution of Filipino and other non-Spanish priests for the friars. It refused, however, to withdraw the religious orders from the islands immediately, partly to avoid offending Spain. In 1904 the administration bought for $7.2 million the major part of the friars' holdings, amounting to some 166,000 hectares (410,000 acres), of which one-half was in the vicinity of Manila. The land was eventually resold to Filipinos, some of them tenants but the majority of them estate owners.[2]
Commonwealth Period
During the American Colonial Period, tenant farmers complained about the sharecropping system, as well as by the dramatic increase in population which added economic pressure to the tenant farmers' families.[3] As a result, an agrarian reform program was initiated by the Commonwealth. However, success of the program was hampered by ongoing clashes between tenants and landowners.
An example of these clashes includes one initiated by Benigno Ramos through his Sakdalista movement,[4] which advocated tax reductions, land reforms, the breakup of the large estates or haciendas, and the severing of American ties. The uprising, which occurred in Central Luzon in May 1935, claimed about a hundred lives
When the
In 1936, this Act was amended to get rid of its loophole, but the landlords made its application relative and not absolute. Consequently, it was never carried out in spite of its good intentions. In fact, by 1939, thousands of peasants in Central Luzon were being threatened with wholesale eviction.[5] By the early 1940s, thousands of tenants in Central Luzon were ejected from their farmlands and the rural conflict was more acute than ever.[5]
Therefore, during the Commonwealth period, agrarian problems persisted.[5] This motivated the government to incorporate a cardinal principle on social justice. Dictated by the social justice program of the government, expropriation of landed estates and other landholdings commenced. Likewise, the National Land Settlement Administration (NSLA) began an orderly settlement of public agricultural lands. At the outbreak of the Second World War, major settlement areas containing more than 65,000 hectares were already established.[5]
Roxas administration
When the Philippines gained its independence in 1946, much of the land was held by a small group of wealthy landowners. There was much pressure on the democratically elected government to redistribute the land. At the same time, many of the democratically elected office holders were landowners themselves or came from land-owning families.
In 1946, shortly after his induction to presidency, Manuel Roxas proclaimed the Rice Share Tenancy Act of 1933 effective throughout the country.[5] However problems of land tenure continued. In fact these became worse in certain areas.[5] Among the remedial measures enacted was Republic Act No. 34 likewise known as the Tenant Act which provided for a 70–30 sharing arrangements and regulated share-tenancy contracts.[5] It was passed to resolve the ongoing peasant unrest in Central Luzon.[5]
As part of his Agrarian Reform agenda, President Elpidio Quirino issued on October 23, 1950, Executive Order No. 355 which 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.[6]
Ramon Magsaysay administration
To amplify and stabilize the functions of the Economic Development Corps (EDCOR), President
As further aid to the rural people,[7] the president established the Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Administration (ACCFA). The idea was for this entity to make available rural credits. Records show that it did grant, in this wise, almost ten million dollars. This administration body next devoted its attention to cooperative marketing.[7]
Along this line of help to the rural areas, President Magsaysay initiated in all earnestness the artesian wells campaign. A group-movement known as the Liberty Wells Association was formed and in record time managed to raise a considerable sum for the construction of as many artesian wells as possible. The socio-economic value of the same could not be gainsaid and the people were profuse in their gratitude.[7]
Finally, vast irrigation projects, as well as enhancement of the Ambuklao Power plant and other similar ones, went a long way towards bringing to reality the rural improvement program advocated by President Magsaysay.[7]
President Ramón Magsaysay enacted the following laws as part of his Agrarian Reform Program:
- Republic Act No. 1160 of 1954 – Abolished the LASEDECO and established the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA) to resettle dissidents and landless farmers. It was particularly aimed at rebel returnees providing home lots and farmlands in Palawan and Mindanao.
- Republic Act No. 1199 (Agricultural Tenancy Act of 1954) – Governed the relationship between landowners and tenant farmers by organizing share-tenancy and leasehold system. The law provided the security of tenure of tenants. It also created the Court of Agrarian Relations.
- 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.[6]
Macapagal administration
Land Reform Code
The Agricultural Land Reform Code (RA 3844) was a major
The code declared that it was State policy
- To establish owner-cultivatorship and the economic family-size farm as the basis of Philippine agriculture and, as a consequence, divert landlord capital in agriculture to industrial development;
- To achieve a dignified existence for the small farmers free from pernicious institutional restraints and practices;
- To create a truly viable social and economic structure in agriculture conducive to greater productivity and higher farm incomes;
- To apply all labor laws equally and without discrimination to both industrial and agricultural wage earners;
- To provide a more vigorous and systematic land resettlement program and public land distribution; and
- To make the small farmers more independent, self-reliant and responsible citizens, and a source of genuine strength in our democratic society.
and, in pursuance of those policies, established the following
- An agricultural leasehold system to replace all existing share tenancy systems in agriculture;
- A declaration of rights for agricultural labor;
- An authority for the acquisition and equitable distribution of agricultural land;
- An institution to finance the acquisition and distribution of agricultural land;
- A machinery to extend credit and similar assistance to agriculture;
- A machinery to provide marketing, management, and other technical services to agriculture;
- A unified administration for formulating and implementing projects of land reform;
- An expanded program of land capability survey, classification, and registration; and
- A judicial system to decide issues arising under this Code and other related laws and regulations.
Marcos administration
On September 10, 1971, President
In 1978, the DAR was renamed the Ministry of Agrarian Reform.
On July 26, 1987, following the People Power Revolution, the department was re-organized through Executive Order (EO) No. 129-A.
In 1988, under the 1987 Constitution framework which was signed by then-President Cory Aquino, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law created the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, which is also known as CARP. The main highlight of the land reform program of Marcos is presidential decree number 27, which confiscated rice or corn lands over 7 hectares by mar and gave it to qualified tenants of the landowner. However, many landowners were not paid because of martial law.
Corazon Aquino administration
President Corazon Aquino envisioned agrarian and land reform as the centerpiece of her administration's social legislative agenda. However, her family background and social class as a privileged daughter of a wealthy and landed clan became a lightning rod of criticisms against her land reform agenda. On January 22, 1987, less than a month before the ratification of the 1987 Constitution, agrarian workers and farmers marched to the historic Mendiola Street near the
In response to calls for agrarian reform, President Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order 229 on July 22, 1987, which outlined her land reform program, which included sugar lands. In 1988, with the backing of Aquino, the new Congress of the Philippines passed Republic Act No. 6657, more popularly known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. The law paved the way for the redistribution of agricultural lands to tenant-farmers from landowners, who were paid in exchange by the government through just compensation but were also allowed to retain not more than five hectares of land.[9] However, corporate landowners were also allowed under the law to "voluntarily divest a proportion of their capital stock, equity or participation in favor of their workers or other qualified beneficiaries", in lieu of turning over their land to the government for redistribution.[10] Despite the flaws in the law, the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in 1989, declaring that the implementation of the comprehensive agrarian reform program (CARP) provided by the said law, was "a revolutionary kind of expropriation".[11]
Despite the implementation of CARP, Aquino was not spared from the controversies that eventually centered on
Critics argued that Aquino bowed to pressure from relatives by allowing stock redistribution under Executive Order 229. Instead of land distribution, Hacienda Luisita reorganized itself into a corporation and distributed stock. As such, ownership of agricultural portions of the hacienda were transferred to the corporation, which in turn, gave its shares of stocks to farmers.[12]
The arrangement remained in force until 2006, when the Department of Agrarian Reform revoked the stock distribution scheme adopted in Hacienda Luisita, and ordered instead the redistribution of a large portion of the property to the tenant-farmers. The Department stepped into the controversy when in 2004, violence erupted over the retrenchment of workers in the Hacienda, eventually leaving seven people dead.[12]
Ramos administration
President
One major problem that the Ramos administration faced was the lack of funds to support and implement the program.[5] The Php50 million, allotted by R.A. No. 6657 to finance the CARP from 1988 to 1998, was no longer sufficient to support the program. To address this problem, Ramos signed R.A. No. 8532 to amend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) which further strengthened the CARP by extending the program to another ten years.[5] Ramos signed this law on February 23, 1998 – a few months before the end of Ramos' term.[5]
Arroyo administration
On September 27, 2004, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, signed Executive Order No. 364, and the Department of Agrarian Reform was renamed to Department of Land Reform. This EO also broadened the scope of the department, making it responsible for all land reform in the country. It also placed the Philippine Commission on Urban Poor (PCUP) under its supervision and control. Recognition of the ownership of ancestral domain by indigenous peoples also became the responsibility of this new department, under the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).[13]
On August 23, 2005, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Executive Order No. 456 and renamed the Department of Land Reform back to Department of Agrarian Reform, since "the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law goes beyond just land reform but includes the totality of all factors and support services designed to lift the economic status of the beneficiaries."[14]
When President
Hacienda Luisita, owned by the Cojuangco family, which includes the late former President Corazón C. Aquino and her son, former President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III, has been a notable case of land reform.
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program is the current law under which land reform is conducted. Large landholdings are broken up and distributed to farmers and workers on that particular hacienda. The crops grown on such haciendas include sugar and rice. Each farmer is given a "certificates of land ownership award" or CLOA for their new property.[15] Under the law, a landowner can only retain 5 hectares, regardless of the size of the hacienda.[15] Conflict can arise between previous landowners and "beneficiaries" and between competing farmers' groups that have conflicting claims.[15]
In December 2008, CARP expired and the following year CARPer was passed. CARPer stands for "Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms". CARPer expired in 2014.
Proposed legislation
In 2007, Representative Crispin Beltran filed House Bill 3059, or the proposed Genuine Agrarian Reform Act, in the House of Representatives to address what proponents say are the shortcomings of CARP.[16]
House Bills 114 and 3051 were filed in the House of Representatives in 2017 and endorsed by the Department of Agrarian Reform. The bills aimed to distribute land without the need for beneficiaries to pay amortization.[17]
In 2022, House Bill 1161, or the Free Land Distribution Act, was filed in the House of Representatives.[18]
See also
- Land Bank of the Philippines
- Squatting in the Philippines
- Sugar industry of the Philippines
- Agriculture in the Philippines
General:
- Development-induced displacement
- Eminent domain
- Homestead principle
- Land Banking
- Land claim
- Land rights
- Restitution
- Inclosure
References
- ^ a b c d "Ronald E. Dolan, ed. Philippines: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991". Retrieved July 1, 2013.
- ^ Seekins, Donald M. (1993), "The First Phase of United States Rule, 1898–1935", in Dolan, Ronald E. (ed.), Philippines: A Country Study (4th ed.), Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, retrieved December 25, 2007
- ^ "Philippine history American Colony and Philippine Commonwealth (1901–1941)". Windows on Asia. MSU. Archived from the original on October 10, 2007. Retrieved February 11, 2007.
- ^ Roces; Luna, Juan Luis Z Jr; Arcilla, Reynaldo (1986), RR Philippine almanac: book of facts, Ramon Roces y Pardo, p. 140.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Manapat, Carlos, et al. Economics, Taxation, and Agrarian Reform. Quezon City: C&E Pub., 2010.Print.
- ^ a b "Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) – Organizational Chart". Archived from the original on February 18, 2010. Retrieved June 29, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Molina, Antonio. The Philippines: Through the centuries. Manila: University of Santo Tomas Cooperative, 1961. Print.
- ^ "Republic Act No. 3844 : The Agricultural Land Reform Code of the Philippines". August 8, 1963.
- ^ "Section 6, Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law". Archived from the original on August 23, 2007. Retrieved March 13, 2010.
- ^ "Section 31, Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law". Archived from the original on August 23, 2007. Retrieved March 13, 2010.
- ^ Association of Small Landowners v. Luz, 175 SCRA 343, 386 (Supreme Court of the Philippines July 14, 1989).
- ^ a b c Russell Arador (May 4, 2007). "Life once 'sweeter' at Hacienda Luisita". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. Retrieved March 25, 2008.
- ^ "Executiver Order No. 364". Archived from the original on May 24, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2013.
- ^ "Executive Order No. 456". Archived from the original on January 10, 2010. Retrieved June 29, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e Yap, DJ (June 29, 2013). "4 haciendas distributed; 270 sugar farmers cheer". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved June 29, 2013.
- ^ "KMP chief urges solons to consider HB 3059 or GARB". GMA News Online. June 6, 2008. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
- ^ "DAR endorses Genuine Agrarian Reform Program". DAR. March 2, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
- ^ "Makabayan bloc refiles genuine agrarian reform bill". CNN. July 5, 2022. Archived from the original on September 24, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
Further reading
- Jong-sung You (January 22, 2015). "The genesis of inequality, land reforms and path dependence". Democracy, Inequality and Corruption. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107078406.
External links
- Agricultural Land Reform Code on the LAWPhil Project.
- The Sa-up (Bill)