AGRARIAN REFORM
• Policies on Agrarian Reform
Agrarian Reform is essentially the rectification
of the whole system of agriculture, an important
aspect of the Philippine economy because nearly
half of the population is employed in the agrarian
sector, and most citizens live in rural areas.
• Agrarian reform is centerted on the
relationship between production and
the distribution of land among farmers
• Through genuine and comprehensive
agrarian reform, the Philippines would
be able to gain more from its
agricultural potential and uplift the
filipinos in the agricultural sector, who
have been for the longest time,
suffering in poverty and discontent.
• Landownership in the Philippines
under Spain
Pueblo agriculture
Law of the Indies - the Spanish
crown awarded tracts of land to 1.)
religious orders 2.) repartamientos for
Spanish military as reward for their
service and 3.) spanish
encomenderos.
• Filipinos were not given the right to
own land, and only worked in them so
that they might have a share of the
crops and pay tribute.
• The encomienda system was an unfair
and abusive system as "compras y
vandalas" became the norm for the
Filipino farmers working the land- they
were made to sell the products at a
very low price or surrender their
products to the encomenderos, who
• resold this at a profit.
• From this encomienda system, the
hacienda system developed in the
beginning of the 19th century as the
Spanish government implemented
policies that would fast tract the entry
of the colony into the capitalist world.
• The economy was tied to the world
market as the Philippines became an
exporter of raw materials and importer
of goods.
• Agricultural exports were demands
and the hacienda system was
developed as a new form of
ownership.
• In the 1860's, Spain enacted a law
ordering landowners to register their
landholdings.
• Lands were claimed and registered in
other people's names, and many
peasant families who were "assigned"
to the land in the earlier days of
colonization were driven out or forced
to come under the power of these
people who claimed rights to the land
because they held a title.
Landownership in the Philippines under
the Americans
The Philippine Bill of 1902 provided
regulations on the disposal of public
lands.
• Landownership did not improve
during the American period because
there was no limit to the size of
landholdings people could possess
and the accessibility of possession
was limited to those who could afford
to buy, register, and acquire fixed
property titles.
• The land reform program was also
implemented without support
mechanisms.
• The system introduced by the
Americans enabled more lands to be
placed under tenancy, which led to
widespread peasant uprising.
• During the years of the
Commonwealth government, the
situation further worsened as peasant
uprisings increased and landlord-
tenant relationship became more and
more disparate.
• President Quezon laid down a social
justice program focused on the
purchase of haciendas, which were to
be divided and sold to tenants.
Post-War Intervention toward Agrarian
Reform
• Rehabilitation and rebuilding after the
war were focused on proving
solutions to the problems of the past.
• The administration of President Roxas
President R
establish a 70-30 sharing arrangement
between tenant and landlord
respectively.
• Under the term of President Elpidio
Quirino, the Land Settlement
Development corporation
(LASEDECO) was established to
accelerate and expand the
resettlement program for peasants.
• This agency later on became the
National Resettlement and
Rehabilitation Administration(NARRA)
under the administration of President
Ramon Magsaysay.
• NARRA accelerated the government's
resettlement program and distribution
of agricultural lands to landless
tenants and farmers.
Agrarian Reform Efforts under Marcos
• President Marcos declared Martial
Law in 1972, enabling him to
essentially wipe out the landlord
dominated Congress.
• Through his "technocrats", he was
able to expand executive power to
start a "fundamental restructuring" of
government, including its efforts in
solving the deep structural problems
of the countryside.
• Presidential Decree No. 27 or the
Code of Agrarian Reform of the
Philippines became the core of
agrarian reform during Marcos regime
Post 1986 Agrarian Reform
• The overthrow of Marcos and the 1987
Constitution resulted in a renewed
interest and attention to agrarian
reform as President Corazon Aquino
envisioned agrarian reform to be the
centerpiece of her administration's
social legislation, which proved
difficult because her bachground
betrayed her - she came from a family
of a wealthy and landed clan that
owned the Hacienda Luisita.
• On July 22 1987, Aquino issued
Presidential Proclamation 131 and
Executive Order 229, which outlined
her land reform program.
• In 1988, Congress passed Republic
Act No. 6657 or the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), which
introduced the program with the same
name (Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program or CARP).
• It enabled the redistribution of
agricultural lands to tenant-farmers
from landowners, who were paid in
exchange by the government through
just compensation and allowed them
• to retain not more than five hectares.
• CARP was limited because it
accomplished very little during the
administration of Aquino.
• It only accomplished 22.5% of land
distribution in six years owing to the
fact that Congress, dominated by the
landed elite, was unwilling to fund the
high compensation costs of the
program.
• Under the term of President Ramos,
CARP implementation was speeded in
order to meet the ten year time frame,
despite limitations and constraints in
funding, logistics, and participation of
involved sectors.
• By 1996, the Department of Agrarian
Reform (DAR) distributed only 58.25%
of the total area target to be covered
by the program.
• To address the lacking funding and
the dwindling time for the
implementation of CARP, Ramos
sighned Republic Act No. 8532 in 1998
to amend CARL and extend the
program to another ten years.
Carper and the Future of Agrarian
Reform in the Philippines.
• The new deadline of CARP expired in
2008, leaving 1.2 million farmer
beneficiaries and 1.6 million hectares
of agricultural land to be distributed to
farmers.
• In 2009, President Arroyo signed
Republic Act No. 9700 or the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program Extension with Reforms
(CARPER), the amendatory law that
extended the deadline to five more
years.
• From 2009 to 2014, CARPER has
distributed a total of 1 million hecteres
of land to 900,000 farmer
beneficiaries. After 27 years of land
reform and two Aquino
administrations, 500,000 hectares of
lands remain un distributed.
• The DAR and the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR) are the government agencies
mandated to fulfill CARP and
CARPER, but even combined effort
and resources of the two
agencieshave provided incapable of
fully achieving the goal of agrarian
reform in the Philippines.
TAXATION
Taxation in Spanish Philippines
• subsistence economy
• tribute or taxes
• cedula personal
Taxation under the Americans
• From 1898 to 1903, the Americans
followed the Spanish system of
taxation with some modifications.
• industria tax - levied on business
• income tax
• inheritance tax
• national lottery
Taxation during the commonwealth
Period
• income tax
• residence tax
