Agrarian Reform in Philippine History

Vocabulary flashcards covering the historical development, policies, laws, and programs of land ownership and agrarian reform in the Philippines from Spanish colonization to CARPER.

Agrarian Reform

The rectification of the entire agricultural system, centered on the relationship between production and land distribution among farmers to improve their socio-economic status.

System of Pueblo Agriculture

A Spanish colonial system in which scattered rural communities were organized into pueblos and assigned agricultural lands to cultivate without landownership rights.

Law of the Indies

Spanish colonial legislation through which the crown awarded land tracts to religious orders, military repartamientos, and encomenderos.

Encomenderos

Spanish individuals appointed to manage encomiendas (assigned lands) where native Filipinos worked and paid colonial tributes.

Compras y Vandalas

An abusive practice under the Spanish encomienda system where farmers were forced to sell products at extremely low prices or surrender them to encomenderos for profitable resale.

Hacienda System

A system of large-scale landownership developed in the early nineteenth century under Spanish rule to facilitate export-oriented agricultural production for the world market.

Philippine Bill of 1902

An American colonial law regulating public land disposal, restricting private individual landownership to 16 hectares and corporate landownership to 1,024 hectares.

Act No. 496 (Land Registration Act)

Legislation enacted by the Philippine Commission that established the Torrens system to regulate land surveying and formalize title registration.

Torrens System

A land titling and registration system introduced under Act No. 496 to address the absence of official title records and ensure accurate boundary surveys.

Homestead Program of 1903

An American colonial program allowing tenant farmers to acquire farmlands of at least 16 hectares, primarily focused in Northern Luzon and Mindanao.

Sakdal Uprising

A peasant rebellion in Central Luzon that took place on May 2–3, 1935, protesting landownership inequality, heavy taxation, and gradual independence policy.

Sakdal

A Filipino word meaning 'to accuse', which served as the name of the newspaper founded by Benigno Ramos.

Partido Sakdalista

A political party organized in 1933 demanding tax abolition, equal land distribution, and immediate severance of ties with the United States.

National Rice and Corn Corporation (NARIC)

A Commonwealth-era corporation established under President Quezon to provide public defenders for assisting peasants in land ownership court litigation.

Court of Industrial Relations

A Commonwealth-era judicial body created under President Quezon to resolve disputes arising from landlord-tenant relationships.

Republic Act No. 34

A post-WWII law passed during President Roxas's term establishing a 70-30 crop sharing arrangement between tenant farmers and landlords, respectively.

Land Settlement Development Corporation (LASEDECO)

An agency established during President Quirino's term to accelerate and expand peasant resettlement programs.

National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA)

An agency created under President Magsaysay (replaces LASEDECO) to distribute agricultural land to landless farmers and resettle former Huk rebels.

Republic Act No. 1199 (Agricultural Tenancy Act)

A law enacted under President Magsaysay to regulate landlord-tenant relationships and protect the tenurial rights of tenant farmers.

Court of Agricultural Relations

A specialized court created in 1955 to protect tenancy security, fix land rentals on tenanted farms, and settle land disputes.

Agricultural Land Reform Code (Republic Act No. 3844)

A landmark 1963 law enacted under President Macapagal that abolished share tenancy in the Philippines and aimed to establish owner-cultivatorship.

Presidential Decree No. 27

The central agrarian reform decree issued by President Marcos on October 21, 1972, applicable to tenant farmers working private rice and corn lands.

Operation Land Transfer

A Marcos-era agrarian program targeting tenant-occupied rice and corn lands with holdings exceeding seven hectares for redistribution.

Masagana '99

A credit and rice self-sufficiency program under the Marcos administration allowing farmers to borrow bank funds to buy 3-hectare land plots and agricultural inputs.

Republic Act No. 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law)

The 1988 law signed by President Corazon Aquino that instituted the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) with a 5-hectare land retention limit.

Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)

The major post-1986 agrarian reform program providing for land redistribution to tenant farmers and allowing stock distribution options for corporate landowners.

Republic Act No. 8532

A 1998 law signed by President Ramos amending CARL to allocate additional funding and extend CARP implementation by ten years.

Republic Act No. 9700 (CARPER)

The 2009 law signed by President Arroyo that extended the CARP deadline for five additional years with programmatic reforms.