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C. 3. ENCOMENDIA SYSTEM ENCOMENDIA

SPANISH Spanish colonizers purchased communal lands through
the barangay headmen who represented the natives.
is a vast tract of landholding which served as self-
reliant food producing community.
E NCOMIE NDA Areas acquired were hurriedly titled and all uninhabited It was applied on a much larger scale during the
Spanish colonization of the Americas and the
SYST E M lands were declared “reserved” for the Spanish King, who,
later on issued Royal decrees and land grants in favor of
Philippines.
Spanish friars and soldiers. It was assigned to a Spanish encomendero
(caretaker), usually a friar or soldier.
LATIN AMERICA AND PHILIPPINES
REPORTED BY: Hernán Cortés, conqueror
of the Aztecs and premier
ANGELICA DIAZ encomendero
Spain.
of New

ENCOMENDIA 18th century

mad scramble for
 It was a vehicle used to collect taxes from Filipinos, who
tilled the land and surrendered part of their produce to wealth thru world trade C.4 .
the encomendero as tribute in the form of agricultural  Spanish officials and
their families, as well as rich
RE G A L I A N DOCT RINE
crops, poultry, woven mats, cotton yarn, etc.
Chinese traders C0NCEPT OF JURE REGALIA
 accumulated vast Article XII (National Economy and Patrimony), Section 2
tracts of land  Haciendas

Thus, encomiendas were

replaced by h a c i e n d a s .
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REGALIAN DOCTRINE  The Regalian Doctrine dictates that all lands of

the public domain belong to the State, that the
refers to the feudal principle that private title to land State is the source of any asserted right to
must emanate, directly or indirectly, from the Spanish ownership of land and charged with the
crown with the latter retaining the underlying title. conservation of such patrimony.
 The doctrine has been consistently adopted under
The term refers to royal rights, or those rights to which the 1935, 1973, and 1987 Constitutions.
the King has by virtue of his prerogatives.
 Thus, all lands that have not been acquired from
A Western legal concept that was first introduced by the the government, either by purchase or by grant,
Spaniards into the country through the Laws of the Indies belong to the State as part of the inalienable
and the Royal Cedulas. public domain.