Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Agrarian Reform

This chapter delves into the complex history of land ownership and agrarian reform in the Philippines, tracing its evolution from precolonial times to the post-war period.

1. Precolonial Period:

- Land was communally owned and administered by the barangay chief (datu).

- The population was divided into the warrior class (datu and timawa) and the laborer class (oripun or alipin).

- The produce of the land was shared among the community.

2. Spanish Colonial Period:

- The encomienda system was introduced, granting Spanish loyalists the right to collect tribute and draft labor from the inhabitants of a specific area.

- The encomenderos were responsible for protecting and Christianizing the population.

- The Spaniards also engaged in town-building, assigning land for housing and cultivation to Filipino families.

- The encomienda system was eventually abolished due to widespread abuses committed by the encomenderos.

- Spaniards, including friars, and the native principalia (descendants of former datu rulers) began claiming lands as their private property.

3. American Colonial Period:

- The opening of the Philippines to world trade led to an increase in the value of land and the rise of haciendas.

- Hacienda-owning friar orders and principalia expanded their landholdings through purchase or landgrabbing, dispossessing small farmers.

- The hacienda system introduced agricultural tenancy, with hacenderos hiring inquilinos (land managers) and kasama (tenant farmers) to work their lands.

- Poverty and hacendero abuses fueled social unrest in the form of banditry and peasant revolts.

- American administrators attempted to improve the conditions of small farmers and tenants by expropriating friar lands, implementing land registration, and initiating the Homestead Program.

- These efforts had limited impact, and local hacenderos who held high positions in government remained untouched.

- Large-scale peasant uprisings, such as the Colorums and Sakdalistas, erupted in the 1920s and 1930s.

- Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon launched a social justice program aimed at uplifting the common people and implementing land reform.

- Quezon’s efforts were cut short by the Japanese invasion in 1941.

4. Postwar Period:

- President Manuel Roxas (1946-1948) acknowledged the evils of the tenancy system and proposed several reforms, but his untimely death prevented their implementation.

- The Huk Rebellion, led by Luis Taruc, raged in the countryside of Central Luzon during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

- President Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965) introduced the first comprehensive agrarian reform program, the Agricultural Land Reform Code (Republic Act No. 3844) in 1963.

- The code aimed to abolish the tenancy system and redistribute land to small farmers.

- It also included a Bill of Rights for Agricultural Labor, guaranteeing rights such as self-organization, minimum wage, and protection against suspension or lay-off.

- The program faced setbacks due to Congress’s failure to enact funding for its implementation.

5. Martial Law Era:

- President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972 and proclaimed the entire country as a land reform area through Presidential Decree No. 2.

- Presidential Decree No. 27 (1972) aimed to emancipate tenant farmers by transferring land ownership to them.

- Landowners were allowed to retain a limited amount of land, while tenants could purchase a portion to be paid through amortization.

- The program was limited in scope and had problems in its implementation.

6. The Corazon Aquino Administration:

- President Corazon Aquino (1986-1992) launched the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) through Proclamation No. 131 and Executive Order No. 229.

- CARP aimed to distribute all public and private agricultural lands to tenants, making it the broadest agrarian reform program to date.

- The government established the Agrarian Reform Fund to finance the program’s implementation.

- The program faced challenges such as corruption scandals, budgetary shortages, and allegations of lack of political will.

7. Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 (Republic Act No. 6657):

- This law provided the legal basis for CARP.

- It defined the scope of the program, including all public and private agricultural lands, and established retention limits for landowners.

- It prioritized the distribution of rice and corn lands, idle or abandoned lands, and lands owned by the government.

- It also addressed the rights of indigenous communities to their ancestral lands.

- The law aimed to promote social justice, industrialization, and the establishment of owner-cultivatorship of economic-size farms.

Key Takeaways:

- The history of agrarian reform in the Philippines is marked by a long struggle for land ownership and social justice.

- The government’s efforts to address the land problem have been met with both successes and failures.

- The issue of agrarian reform remains a complex and challenging one, with ongoing debates about its implementation and effectiveness.

Assessment Questions:

- Research a major local revolt caused by agrarian problems and analyze its causes, participants, and significant events.

- Compare and contrast the agrarian reform programs of Presidents Macapagal and Aquino, highlighting the improvements of CARP over the earlier program.

- Discuss the current status of agrarian reform in the Philippines, including new laws or amendments, government priorities, challenges to implementation, and the present conditions of Filipino farmers.