Learning Packet 02

Success and Failures of the Philippine Agrarian Reform Programs

Introduction

Agrarian reform is one of the hottest issues hounding the Philippines since the Spanish period. The basic
principles of a genuine, meaningful and sustainable agrarian reform program are enshrined in the long
history of agrarian unrest and rural social movements that have punctuated the country's experience
since colonial times. These core principles are not translated in the real agricultural landscape of the
Philippines between the tenants and the landlords. There are many laws enacted relative to this but
ironically until now, the major issues concerning agrarian reform has not been fully addressed. The role
of agrarian reform to the development of our country is very critical and this can be achieving with the
genuine implementation of the agrarian reform laws.

THE PHILIPPINE AGRARIAN PROGRAMS

LEGISLATION DEVELOPMENT

Spanish Period: Agrarian Program Accomplishments

• The creation of Encomienderos he must defend his

• encomienda from external attack, maintain peace

• and order within and support the missionaries.

• It has the right to acquire the right to collect tribute

from the Indios (native).

Spanish Period: Agrarian Program Challenges

• The degenerated into the abuse of power by the

• Encomienderos.

• The tribute soon became land rents to a few powerful

landlords.

• The natives who once cultivated the lands in freedom

• were transformed into mere share tenants

American Period: Agrarian Program Accomplishments

• Philippine Bill of 1902 also known as Cooper Act, it

provided a Bill of Rights for the Filipinos that

protected their rights: to live, to acquire property, to

practice their religion, to be subjected to due process,

to exercise their obligations, to enjoy compensations

due to them, and freedom of expression.

• Rice Tenancy Act of 1933 (Act No. 4054 and 4113)

• – regulated relationships between landowners and

• tenants of rice (50-50 sharing) and sugar cane lands.

American Period: Agrarian Program Challenges

• After the eight years of the Philippines Bill of 1902,

despite the prohibition of landholdings larger than

1,024 hectares, shows that it was not completely

implemented. As a consequence, big plantations

emerged in Visayas and Mindanao islands. They concentrated on export crop production and were

operated by corporations accompanied by a

breakdown of the paternalistic structure in tenant-

landlord relationship.

• The share tenancy with sharing arrangements of 50

by 50 percent, or sometimes lower for the tenant,

persisted as the major form of land tenure in rural

farming.

• In Land Reform Act the majority of tenants within

one estate had to petition for redistribution and given

the power relations within haciendas, the landowners

could easily avoid major petitioning.

Japanese Occupation: Agrarian Program

Accomplishments

• HUKBALAHAP (Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa

Hapon) a peasants and worker organizations grew

strength.

• Those who supported the Huks earned fixed rentals

in favor of the tenants.

Japanese Occupation: Agrarian Program Challenges

• The landlords who supported the Japanese lost their

lands to peasants.

• The end of the war also signaled the end of gains

acquired by peasants.

Manuel A. Roxas: Agrarian Program Accomplishments

• 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.

Manuel A. Roxas: Agrarian Program Challenges

• President Roxas also negotiated for the purchase of

8,000 hectares of lands in Batangas owned by Ayala-

Zobel Family. These were sold to landless farmers.

• Due to lack of support facilities, these farmers were

forced to resell their lands to the landowning class.

This failure gave basis to doubt the real meaning of

land reform program.

Elpidio R. Quirino: Agrarian Program

Accomplishments

• 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.

Elpidio R. Quirino: Agrarian Program Challenges

• Due to the limited post-war resources, the program

was not successful.

Ramon F. Magsaysay: Agrarian Program

Accomplishments

• 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.

Ramon F. Magsaysay: Agrarian Program Challenges

• Out of the targeted 300 haciendas for distribution,

only 41 were distributed after its 7 years of

implementation. This was due to the lack of funds

and inadequate support services provided by these

programs.

• Landlords continued to be uncooperative and critical

to the program, the landownership and tenancy

continues.

Diosdado P. Macapagal: Agrarian Program

Accomplishments

• 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 an

administrative machinery for implementation,

institutionalized a judicial system of agrarian cases,

incorporated extension, marketing and supervised

credit system of services of farmer- beneficiaries.

Diosdado P. Macapagal: Agrarian Program Challenges

• The landed Congress did not provide effort to come up with a separate bill to provide funding for its
implementation.

• This law was never implemented as Magcapagal‘s

term ended after it was enacted and replaced by

Presidential Decree (PD) 27 in 1972, the agrarian

reform program of the Marcos Administration.

Ferdinand E. Marcos: Agrarian Program

Accomplishments

• A land reform commission was formed, and the

CARL, otherwise known as RA 6657, with its

implementing program the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was enacted in 1988.

• The total original area to be covered by CARP was

10.3 million hectares, one-third of the country ‘s land

area of 30 million hectares. As a result of CARP

Scope Validation, the covered area was reduced to

8.169 million hectares to be distributed among the

4.5 million beneficiaries.

Ferdinand E. Marcos: Agrarian Program Challenges

• The reform laws contained legal loopholes that gave landlords the opportunity to have their lands be
exempted, if not delaying the inclusion, through

legal means. This fact gave rise to rural unrest that

peaked up at the time of Marcos.

• The martial law gave them the opportunity to register

the lands under their name and establish vast

haciendas

Corazon C. Aquino: Agrarian Program

Accomplishments

• Executive Order No. 228, July 16, 1987 – Declared

full ownership to qualified farmer-beneficiaries

covered by PD 27. It also determined the value

remaining unvalued rice and corn lands subject of PD 27.

• Executive Order No. 229, July 22, 1987 – Provided

mechanism for the implementation of the

Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program

(CARP).

• Republic Act No. 6657, June 10, 1988

(Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law) – An act
which became effective June 15, 1988 and
instituted a comprehensive agrarian reform
program to promote social justice and industrialization providing the mechanism for its implementation
and for other purposes. This law is

still the one being implemented at present.

Corazon C. Aquino: Agrarian Program Challenges

• Issues in the absence of a clear-cut guidelines that

would answer problems on land use conversion.

Minimal efforts were exerted to discouraged and/or

prevent the conversion of lands into other use.

• It experienced budgetary shortfall due to low remittances from the Asset Privatization Trust and

the Presidential Commission on Good

Government.

• This administration also experienced constant

changes in DAR leadership. This led to lack of continuity of priority, programs, and projects.

• Allegation on the lack of political wills leadership

and genuine commitment to implement the

program. Critics say that the President could have

implemented a genuine agrarian reform program

because of her revolutionary powers after People

Power I.
Fidel V. Ramos: Agrarian Program Accomplishments

• Act Strengthening The Comprehensive Agrarian

Reform Program (Carp), Extending The

Acquisition And Distribution Of All Agricultural

Lands, Instituting Necessary Reforms, Amending

For The Purpose Certain Provisions Of Republic

Act No. 6657.

• The passage of RA 8532 which extended the land

reform program for another ten years (1998-2008)

and the provision of more public funds to support

its implementation amounting to Php 50 billion

(US$ 909.09 million).

Fidel V. Ramos: Agrarian Program Challenges

• Failure in enforcing the installation of some farmer beneficiaries on awarded lands an issue for this
administration.

• Some sectors also complained on the slowness of

this administration in the acquisition and

distribution of privately owned lands. Although this

administration was credited for having the biggest

accomplishment in terms of LAD, critics say this is

because the land acquired and distributed were

more on public lands and rice and corn lands.

Joseph E. Estrada: Agrarian Program Accomplishments

• Initiated the passage of Executive Order 151 that allowed farmers to access long-term capital from the
formal lending institutions.

• Executive Order N0. 151, September 1999

(Farmer’s Trust Fund) – Allowed the voluntary

consolidation of small farm operation into medium

and large-scale integrated enterprise that can access

long-term capital.

• Launched the Magkabalikat Para sa Kaunlarang

Agraryo or MAGKASAKA. The DAR forged into

joint ventures with private investors into the

agrarian sector to make FBs competitive.

Joseph E. Estrada: Agrarian Program Challenges

• Fiscal constrains encountered by this

administration resulted to the unpaid or delayed

payment of landowners covered under the

compulsory acquisition and VOS schemes.

• There were also issues on inter and intra ARBs

conflicts due to arguments for control over

negotiations with prospective joint venture

partners, some of which became violent.

Gloria M. Arroyo: Agrarian Program Accomplishments

• KALAHI ARZone. These zones consisted of Is Land

Reform a Failure in the Philippines. An Assessment

on CARP 349 one or more municipalities with

concentration of ARC population to achieve greater

agro-productivity.

• During Arroyo ‘s administration is that CARP was

supposed to end in 2008, where all targeted lands for

distribution would have been accomplished, and the

work of agencies concerned this time would be

limited to support services by assisting farmers in

their farm operations.

• Republic Act 9700, otherwise known as the

Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program

Extension with Reforms (CARPer) Bill. The

CARPer Bill provides for additional funding of PhP

150 billion (US$ 300 million) over the next five

years.

Gloria M. Arroyo: Agrarian Program Challenges

• Due to bureaucratic slowness, the total percentage of accomplishment was recorded at around 80
percent against the total land for redistribution. Without

other alternative, Arroyo and her allies in congress

extended the program.

• The RA 9700 is considered as the funding figures the

costly land reform in the Philippine history.

Benigno S. Aquino: Agrarian Program

Accomplishments

• Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and

Economic Support Services (ARCCESS) project

were created to contribute to the overall goal of rural poverty reduction especially in agrarian reform

areas.

• Agrarian Production Credit Program (APCP)

provided credit support for crop production to newly

organized and existing agrarian reform

beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs) and farmers’

organizations not qualified to avail themselves of

loans under the regular credit windows of banks.

• The legal case monitoring system (LCMS), a web-
based legal system for recording and monitoring
various kinds of agrarian cases at the provincial, regional and central offices of the DAR to ensure
faster resolution and close monitoring of agrarian-brelated cases, was also launched.

• 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.

Benigno S. Aquino: Agrarian Program Challenges

• With only two years left before the agrarian reformvprogram expires, his government will likely fail to
distribute the remaining bulk of 1 million hectares of agricultural lands. These include big contentious
landholdings controlled by the elite in thePhilippines, including his family’s Hacienda

Luisita”.

• The government clearly fails to protect, respect and

fulfil their right to adequate food as it shows no sign

of taking land distribution seriously.

• The farmer leaders have stated that there is still an

opportunity for the current administration to turn the

wheel around and erase its reputation as “the worst”

performer in land reform.

Generalization.

It is true that Philippines is very rich in natural resources,

however agricultural sector needs more attention. Generally,

farmers in this country are below poverty line, thus, it is high
time that the practice of share tenancy must advance to
owner-cultivator.
This change will eventually improve the living conditions of
the farmers, as they themselves will become taking an active
role in social and economic progress.