Readings in Philippine

History
Darwin S. Cama
Shannon Lyn L. Nombrado
 Social, Political, Economic, and
Cultural Issues in
Philippine History
Darwin S. Cama
Shannon Lyn L. Nombrado
 Agrarian
Reform Policies
Agrarian Reform
• Essentially the restructuring of the
whole system of agriculture.
• It is the Philippine economy vital
part because it is approximately
partial of the population is
employed in the agricultural sector,
and most citizens live in rural areas
• It also focused on the affiliation
between production and the
dissemination of land among farmers.
• Agriculture is the main source of
living particularly for the emerging
countries. Reforms are significant
because they protect the rights of the
farmers.
• It also concerns the handling of the raw
materials that are manufactured by farming
the land from the particular industries.
• It incorporates all programs designed to
bring about development in all the
organizations surrounding farm life, as well
as acquaintance measures essential to
make the work of the resident, farmers, and
owner cultivator prosperous.
 Philippines
Landownership under
Spain
 When the Spaniards colonized the Philippines, they
conveyed the system of Pueblo agricultural, where the
rural groups, often disseminated and spread in nature,
were structured into a pueblo and given land to nurture.
The Spain’s King owned the land so that Families are
not permissible to own their land and Filipino were
allocated to these land to nurture them.
They compensated their colonial tributes to the
Spanish Authorities in the form of agricultural products.
 Through the Indies Law, the Spanish crown awarded
areas of land to the following:
1. Religious Order
2. Repartamientos for Spanish military as reward for
their service
3. Spanish encomenderos, those mandated to manage
the encomienda or the lands given to them, where
Filipinos worked and paid their tributes to the
encomendero.
 Filipinos only worked so they might have a part
of the harvests and pay compliments, they were
not given the right to own the land.
 Encomienda system was an unfair and obnoxious
system as “compras y vandala” became the custom
for the Filipino farmers working the land – they were
through to trade their products at a cheaper price or
surrender their products to the encomenderos, who
resold this at a income. Filipino in Encomienda were
also necessary to render services to their
encomenderos that were discrete to agricultural.
 Hacienda system was established at the beginning of the 19th
century as the Spanish government implemented rules that would fast
track the access of the colony into the industrial world. The mixed,
native, and elite families of Spanish in the state relished exclusive
rights over enormous areas of productive lands, and abused the
native Filipino labors to work on their manors for their profit at the
locals' expenditure. Distinct the abolishment of the hacienda system
in the South American after their liberation, this system continuous to
occur in the Philippines even after became independent in 1946.
 The hacendados became more visibly authoritative, and they
formed new aristocracy of the autonomous country. Some
agrarian reforms were familiarized in Philippines in the later years
to balance land dissemination between the landless farmers and
rich landowners, but less than total accomplishment has been
attained to date. The Ramon Magsaysay Philippine Presidency is
worthy of declaration, during his term in bureau many Philippines
landless farmers were given land ownership. The partition
between the rich and the poor Filipinos on the basis of land title,
but, still remains to outbreak this island nation.
Landownership in the
Philippines under the
Americans
 We are aware that Americans were the main
reason of social unrest in the Philippines was
landlessness. They endeavored to put an end to
the terrible situations of the tenant farmers by
passing numerous land policies to increase the
minor landholders and allocate the title to a
greater number of Filipino tenants and agrarians
 The 1902 Philippines Bill provided regulations on the discarding
of public lands. Each private individual may possess 16 hectares of
land while corporate landowners may partake 1,024 hectares. The
Philippine Commission also enacted Act No. 496 or the Land
Registration Act, which introduced the Torrens system to discourse
the absence of previous records of allotted land titles and conduct
exact land surveys. The 1903 homestead program was presented,
permitting a tenant to enter into a farming business by attaining a
farm of at least 16 hectares but it was limited to areas in Northern
Luzon and Mindanao, where colonial diffusion had been tough for
Americans, a problem they innate from the Spaniards.
 This early land reform was also applied
without support mechanisms- if a landless farmer
received land, they just received land, nothing
else. Many were enforced to return to tenancy and
well-off Filipino hacienderos bought or forcefully
took over lands from agrarians who could not
afford to pay their debts.
 The system introduced by the Americans allow
more properties to be positioned under tenancy,
which led to widespread farmworker revolts, such
as the Colorum and Sakdal Uprising in Luzon.
Agrarians and workers found haven from
millenarian movements that provided them hope
that change could still happen through militancy.
 During the Commonwealth government years, the condition were
deteriorated as farmers revolts increased and landlords-tenant affiliation became
more and more disparate. President Quezon placed a social justice program
concentrated on the purchased of haciendas, which were to be distributed and
traded to tenants. His government also created the National Rice and Corn
Corporation (NARIC) to allocate public defenders to assist farmers in the court
battles for their privileges to the land, and the Court of Industrial Relations to use
jurisdiction over disagreements arising from landowner-tenant affiliation. The
homestead program also continuous over the National Land Settlement
Administration (NLSA). Efforts toward agrarian reform by the Commonwealth failed
because of many difficulties such as budget distribution for the settlement program
and widespread farmer revolts. World War II put cessation to all interventions to
solve these problems as the Japanese occupied the country.
Post-war Interventions
toward Agrarian Reform
 Restoration and innovation after the war were engrossed
on providing solutions to the problems of the previous the
administration of President Roxas handed Republic Act No. 34
to establish a 70-30 allocation arrangement between tenant
and landowner, correspondingly, which reduced the interest of
landowners’ mortgages to tenants at six percent or less. The
government also tried to reallocated hacienda lands,
deteriorating prey to despairs of similar actions since no
provision was given to small agrarians who were given lands.
 The Land Settlement Development Corporation
(LASEDECO), under the period of President Elpidio Quirino,
was established to accelerate and expand the resettlement
program for farmers, this agency later on became the National
Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA)
under the government of President Ramon Magsaysay.
Magsaysay saw the significance of pursuing genuine land
reform program and persuaded the Congress, majority of
which were elite owners, to pass legislation to develop the
land reform situation.
 NARRA improved the government’s relocation
program and dissemination of agricultural lands to
landless tenants and agrarians. It also intended to
persuade members of the Huks, a movement of rebels
in Central Luzon, to relocate in areas where they could
resume their lives as peaceful citizen.
A major pace in land reform arrived during the term
of President Diosdado Macapagal over the Agricultural
Land Reform Code (Republic Act No.3844)
 This Code eliminated share occupancy in the
Philippines and prescribed a program to transform
tenant-farmers to boarders and later on owner-
cultivators. It also aimed to allowed tenants from
tenancy and emphasize owner-cultivatorship and
agrarian individuality, equality, equity, productivity
improvement, and public land dissemination.
Agrarian Reform Efforts
under Marcos
 Martial Law in 1972 was declared by President
Marcos, allowing him to fundamentally wipe out
the landlord-dominated Congress. Over his
“technocrats” he was able to develop executive
power to start a “fundamental restructuring” of
government, with its exertions in solving the deep
structural problems of the country.
 Many other techniques were engaged by the
elite to discover a way to uphold their power and
power, which were deteriorated by the
exploitation of Marcos and his associates who
were also involve in the agricultural area.
CARPER and the Further
of Agrarian Reform in
the Philippines
 “The new deadline of CARP terminated in 2008, leaving 1.2
million agrarian beneficiaries and 1.6 million hectares of agricultural
land to be disseminated to farmers. In 2009, Republic Act No. 9700
was signed by President Arroyo or the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER), the amendatory
law that extended the deadline to five more years. Section 30 of the
law also mandates that any case and/or continuing including the
implementation of provisions of CARP, as amended, which may endure
pending on 30 June 2014 shall be allowed to proceed to its finality and
executed even beyond such date.”
 From 2009 to 2014, CARPER has disseminated a total of 1 million hectares
of property to 900,000 agrarian beneficiaries. After 27 years of land reform and
two Aquino admirations, 500,000 hectares of properties stay undistributed. The
DAR and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) are the
government agencies mandated to fulfill CARP and CARPER, however even the
joint effort and resources of the two agencies have shown incapable of fully
accomplishing the aim of agrarian reform in the Philippines. The same problems
have afflicted its implementation: the influential landed elite and the indecisive
bureaucracy of the Philippine government. Until these two challenges are
conquered, genuine agrarian reform in the Philippines remains but a dream to
Filipino Farmers who have been fighting for their right to landownership for
eras.
 References and Supplementary Materials
Books and Journals
1.Antonio, Eleonor D., Dallo, Evangeline M. at et al... ;
2010; Kayamanan (kasaysayan ng Pilipinas);
Sampaloc, Manila; Rex Book Store, Inc.
2.Agoncillo, Teodoro A.; 2010; Philippine History; South
Triangle, Quezon City; C & E Publishing, Inc.
3.Candelaria, John Lee P., Alporha, Veronica C.: Reading
in Philippine History; Sampaloc Manila: REX Book
Store, Inc.
 Online Supplementary Reading Materials
1. http://www.economywatch.com/agrarian/reform.html
2. https://www.slideshare.net/NeilDagohoy/agrarian-reform-
in-the-philippines
3. https://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1963/ra_3844_
1963.html
4. https://www.lawphil.net/statutes/presdecs/pd1972/pd_27_
1972.html
Online Instructional Videos
1. Agrarian Reform;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7YpBARMsaY