Philippine Agrarian Reform: History, Policies, and Hacienda Luisita

Flashcards covering key vocabulary terms, statutory laws, historical timelines, and notable agrarian cases including CARP and Hacienda Luisita.

Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)

A Philippine state policy instituted in 1988 designed to promote the welfare of landless farmers and farm workers while advancing social justice, equity, and rural industrialization.

Republic Act No. 6657

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) signed by President Corazon C. Aquino on June 10, 1988, serving as the legal mechanism to implement CARP.

Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)

The lead government agency responsible for implementing CARP by undertaking land tenure improvement, agrarian justice delivery, and coordinated support service programs for farmer-beneficiaries.

DAR Logo Symbolism

An emblem where the color green represents fertility and productivity, while the color yellow symbolizes hope and a golden harvest for agrarian reform beneficiaries.

Executive Order No. 456

An executive order signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on August 23 renaming the Department of Land Reform to the Department of Agrarian Reform to broaden its functional scope and allied services.

Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC)

The apex policymaking body for agrarian reform, chaired by the President of the Philippines with the Secretary of Agrarian Reform serving as Vice-Chairperson.

Farmer (under RA 6657)

A natural person whose primary livelihood is cultivating land or producing agricultural crops, livestock, or fisheries personally or with immediate farm household assistance.

Rural Women (under RA 6657)

Women who engage directly or indirectly in farming or fishing as their source of livelihood, whether paid or unpaid, regular or seasonal, including household maintenance and agricultural food preparation.

Award Ceilings for Beneficiaries

The statutory limit under RA 6657 establishing that an agrarian reform beneficiary may be awarded contiguous or cumulative parcels not exceeding an area of $3\,\text{hectares}$.

Beneficiary Amortization Terms (CARP)

The payment structure requiring beneficiaries to repay the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) across $30$ annual amortizations at $6\%$ interest per annum, beginning one year after registration of the Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) or actual occupancy.

Kaingin System

A traditional slash-and-burn cultivation technique used in pre-colonial Philippines where land was cleared by burning vegetation before planting crops.

Barangay Land System

A pre-colonial social unit consisting of $30$ to $100$ families ruled by datus or chiefs, wherein land was communally owned under the concept of stewardship and open resource sharing.

Maragtas Code

An ancient document documenting an early recorded land sale in the Philippines, recording the barter of Panay Island by native Atis to ten Bornean datus for a golden salakot and necklace.

Pueblo Agriculture

A Spanish colonial system in which rural native families were settled into pueblos and assigned $4\,\text{to}\;5\,\text{hectares}$ of land as tillers under royal Spanish domain rather than private owners.

Encomienda

A Spanish royal grant awarding large tracts of land and native populations to favored Spaniards (encomienderos), who collected colonial tributes and extracted labor from native cultivators.

Compras y Vandalas

A Spanish colonial compulsory requisition scheme compelling native tillers to surrender harvests or sell agricultural yields to authorities at low rates for commercial resale.

Philippine Bill of 1902

An American colonial statute setting public agricultural land disposal limits at $16\,\text{hectares}$ for private individuals and $1{,}024\,\text{hectares}$ for corporations.

Torrens System

A land titling and registration system introduced during the American colonial period to establish fixed, government-guaranteed titles and replace defective Spanish registration records.

Homestead Program of 1903

An American-era land distribution program that permitted enterprising tenants to acquire a farm tract of at least $16\,\text{hectares}$, primarily piloted in Northern Luzon and Mindanao.

HUKBALAHAP

The Hukbong Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon, an armed anti-Japanese guerrilla resistance group formed by peasant workers on March 29, 1942, which confiscated landed estates and distributed land to tillers during World War II.

Republic Act No. 34

A law passed under President Manuel Roxas establishing a $70\text{--}30$ crop-sharing arrangement in which $70\%$ went to the party financing planting, harvesting, and work-animal expenses.

Land Settlement Development Corporation (LASEDECO)

A government agency established under President Elpidio Quirino through Executive Order No. 355 to expedite post-war peasant resettlement projects.

Agricultural Land Reform Code (Republic Act No. 3844)

A sweeping agrarian law enacted under President Diosdado Macapagal on August 8, 1963, that abolished agricultural share tenancy and initiated the conversion of share tenants into leaseholders and owner-cultivators.

Presidential Decree No. 27

A decree signed by President Ferdinand Marcos under Martial Law transferring ownership of privately owned tenanted rice and corn lands to tenants, establishing a landholding ceiling of $7\,\text{hectares}$.

Bayan-Anihan

The CARP implementation framework adopted by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, derived from Bayan (people), Anihan (harvest), and Bayanihan (collaborative effort).

Stock Distribution Option (SDO)

An alternative mechanism under RA 6657 allowing corporate agrarian landowners to distribute corporate shares of stock to farmworkers rather than redistributing physical agricultural land.

Hacienda Luisita

A $4{,}915.75\,\text{hectare}$ estate in Tarlac purchased in 1957 by Jose Cojuangco Sr., which became the center of a decades-long agrarian land controversy over SDO implementation.

2011 Supreme Court Ruling on Hacienda Luisita

A unanimous $14\text{--}0$ decision on November 22, 2011, revoking the SDO and ordering the physical distribution of $4{,}195\,\text{hectares}$ of Hacienda Luisita to $6{,}296$ farmworker-beneficiaries using 1989 land valuation.