AGRARIAN vs LAND REFORM
Land reform is a change of laws regulations or customs
regarding land ownership. It refers to the transfer of
ownership from one person to another but is applicable to
the ownership of plantations, large ranches and agribusiness
plants. In some parts of the world, land reform is associated
with communism.
 Communism – a society in which all property is
publicly owned and each person works and is paid
according to their abilities and needs
Meanwhile, agrarian reform includes land reform and other
supportive measures to make beneficiaries economically
viable and self-reliant.
It has a wider scope because it is not only about land
distribution. It also includes production and processing of the
raw materials that are produced by farming the land from the
respective industries.
But among the two, agrarian reform is much preferred than
land reform because it has more positive concept and a much
acceptable strategy to end rural poverty.
PRE SPANISH ERA
During the pre-Spanish era when the datus ruled the
Philippines, the land is communal and the datu would only
take away the land if it's untilled for two years.
When the Spaniards came, the encomienda system was
established to the country.
 Encomienda – is a divided property. The divided land
is not a property to own, but the people are only
given jurisdiction over a territory.
This resulted to the Spaniards’ abuse of power and therefore
the Filipinos started to hate them.
AMERICAN ERA
It was during the time of the Americans where the misery of
the Filipino farmers has ended as they established laws that
expand the base of small land holdings and distribute the land
ownership among Filipinos.
 Philippine Bill of 1902 - Provided regulations on the
disposal of public lands - an individual can own 16
hectares of land; corporate land holdings can avail
1024 hectares; Americans are allowed to own
agricultural land.
 Torrens System – is a land registration and land
transfer system; this replaced the Spanish
registration system, and served a solution to the 400
00 native farmers who don't have titles at the start
of the American era.
 Lands Registration Act of 1902 – placed all public
and private lands under the Torrens system.
 Cadastral Act - speeds up the issuance of Torrens
titles by surveying a municipality.
 Homestead Program - allows enterprising tenants to
acquire a farm with 16 hectares of land to cultivate.
 Friar Land Act of 1120 - provides administrative and
temporary leasing of friar lands to its tillers.
COMMONWEALTH
To end problems at that time, several policies and programs
were implemented.
 Commonwealth Act No. 608 – established security of
tenure between landlord and tenant. It prohibits
discharging tenants without legal grounds.
However, it did not improve the lives of the farmers because
they were given small plots of land and it's difficult to
implement the programs.
Despite these laws, farmers still can't sustain a decent living
since they were given a small plot of land to cultivate. Since
landlords were involved in these laws, it was hardly
implemented.
JAPANESE ERA
During the war peasants and farmers formed Hukbong Bayan
Laban sa Hapon, or HUKBALAHAP. They see the war as a
golden opportunity to push pro-poor land reform programs.
But when the war ended the landlords took back their
property with the help of the authorities. Landlords reclaimed
lands and Filipinos received nothing.
SOLUTION BY THE PRESIDENTS
Former President Manuel Roxas established several agrarian
reform laws which failed due to lack of support facilities.
 Republic Act No. 34 - established a 70:30 sharing
arrangement between the tenant and landlord.
FAILED
Elpidio Quirino made an executive order, No. 355, which
FAILED because of limited post-war resources.
 Executive Order No. 355 - was established to
accelerate and expands the peasant resettle ment
program of the government.
Ramon Magsaysay made several agrarian reform laws during
his time as president which was not fully successful due to the
lack of funds and inadequate support services.
 Republic Act No. 1160 - is the free distribution of
resettlement and rehabilitation and agricultural
land. It is an act establishing the national
resettlement and rehabilitation association or
NARRA.
 Republic Act No. 1266 – the expropriation of
Hacienda Del Rosario, Valdefuente, Cabanatuan City.
(exproporiation - the action by the state or an
authority of taking property from its owner for public
use or benefit.)
 Agricultural Tenancy Act – an act to improve land
tenancy, fix rentals on tenanted land and settle
disputes between filed by landowners and peasant
 organizations. It also established the agricultural
tenancy commission to administer tenancy related
problems.
 Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Financing
Administration (ACCFA) - a government agency
which provides warehouse facilities, assist farmers
market, their product and establish the farmers’
cooperatives and marketing associations or
FACOMAS.
 Republic Act No. 1160 of 1654 - established the
government's resettlement program, and
accelerated the free distribution of agricultural lands
to landless tenants and farmers. It aimed to convince
HUKBALAHAP. FAILED
Diosdado Macapagal who became president after Magsaysay
earned the name, "Father of Agrarian Reform." He introduced
the most comprehensive piece of agrarian reform legislation
named the agrarian reform code or Republic Act. No. 3844.
 Republic Act. No. 3844 – Abolished shared tenancy in
the Philippines; converting the tenant farmers into
lessees and eventually into owner-cultivators; aimed
to free tenants from tenancy and emphasized owner-
cultivator relationship and farmer independence,
equity and productivity improvement, and the public
distribution of lands. FAILED
Despite this the Congress did not make a bill for its funding.
When Ferdinand Marcos became the president of the country
he made several agrarian reform laws, bills, and programs in
order to make farmers useful, dignified, responsible, and
progressive in nation-building.
 Code of Agrarian Reforms in the Philippines or
Republic Act No. 6389 - governed the
implementation of agrarian reform in the country
which instituted the code of agrarian, reforms, and
significantly amended several provisions of RA. 3844
of Macapagal.
When Corazon Aquino became the president of the country
after Marcos, she introduced agrarian reform laws and
programs including the comprehensive agrarian reform
program or CARP.
 Proclamation 131 - it instituted the CARP. It gave a
special fund known as the Agrarian Reform Fund
(ARF), which is 50 million pesos to cover the
expenses of the program during Cory's term.
 Republic Act No. 6657 - Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Law (CARL); it institutes a program that aims
to promote social injustice and industrialization. It
also provides its mechanism for its implementation
and other purposes.
However, she faced challenges in the implementation of
CARP. Challenges like land evaluation (the Garchitorena land
scam), absence of a clear cut guideline, and minimal efforts
were exerted to discourage and prevent the conversion of
lands into other use.
When Fidel Ramos became president, he brought back to
support of key stakeholders of CARP. He bridged certain
policy gaps on land acquisition and distribution, land
evaluation, and case resolution to gain back the support of
key stakeholders of CARP, and enhanced the internal
operating systems and strengthens the capabilities of
Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) bureaucracy and for
tapping more resources to help implement the program.
But it also faced challenges like failure in enforcing the
installation of some farmer beneficiaries on awarded lands.
Despite the challenges, he still got one of the biggest
accomplishments in terms of land acquisition and
distribution.
During Joseph Estrada's time as the president of the country,
he tried to improve agrarian reform by introducing the
Magkabalikat Para sa Kaunlarang Agraryo or MAGKASAKA
Program; the working performance targets and by forging
alliances with other countries.
 MAGKASAKA Program - encourages investors to
invest in the countryside and enhance the income of
the farmers through joint venue schemes. It also
enables farmers to be more efficient and more
globally competitive.
However, defeats problems due to arguments for control
over the negotiations. The negotiations became violent.
When Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo became president in 2001,
she improved CARP by giving it a new implementing
framework, the Bayan-anihan Framework. She expanded its
scope in the comprehensive agrarian reform program
extension with reformist.
Benigno Aquino III also made improvements on CARP by
focusing the Department of Agrarian Reform on sustaining
the gains of agrarian reform and by introducing Republic Act.
No. 9700
 Republic Act No. 9700 - it completes the land
acquisition and distribution (LAD) and/or balance
through: focus on large-sized private agricultural
lands, redeployment of Competent DAR Personnel to
the 20 high LAD provinces, streamline LAD processes
and procedures, and enhance the database of
landholdings for ease in targeting and monitoring
the LAD.
As you can see, our presidents proposed plans to solve our
agrarian problems but almost no one succeeded. Our farmers
are still suffering from poverty. They are fighting for the rights
over the lands and finding a way back to take it back. We've
already been through so much; enough with the exploitation
of lands.