SOPHIA MARIE S.

DAPAR

LESSON 6: AGRARIAN DISPUTES

Agrarian reform is defined as the rectification of the whole system of

agriculture. It is concerned with the relation between production and
distribution of land among farmers. The processing of materials that are
produced by farming the land from the respective industries. The Agrarian
Reform Program has been justified for two main reasons. The first is to
introduce greater efficiency in agricultural production in terms of land size.
This is based on the notion that smaller-sized farms (due to the agrarian
reform) are more productive than larger-sized farms. The comprehensive
agrarian reform program was a response to the people’s clamor and
expectation of a more effective land reform program that would supposedly
correct many flaws that plagued the previous land reform programs. The
major features of the Republic Act 6657 known as Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Law of 1988 provides for the coverage of all agricultural lands
regardless of crops produced or tenurial statues of the tiller. It also recognizes
as beneficiaries of the program all workers in the land given that they are
landless and willing to till the land. It provides for the delivery of support
services to program beneficiaries, and arrangements that ensure the tenurial
security of farmers and farm workers. It creates and adjudication body that will
resolve agrarian disputes.

The policies under RA 6657 is that it promotes social justice and to move
the nation toward sound rural development and industrialization, and the
establishment of owner-cultivatorship of ecomic-size farms as the basis of
Philippine agriculture; Have more equitable distribution and ownership of land,
with due regard to the rights of landowners to just compensation and to the
ecological needs of the nation;Greater productivity of agricultural lands to
provide farmers and farm workers with the opportunity to enhance their dignity
and improve the quality of their lives;Agrarian Reform program is founded on
the right of farmers and regular farm workers, who are landless, to own
directly or collectively the lands they till or, in the case of other farm workers,
to receive a just share of the fruits thereof; Recognize participation of farmers,
farm workers and landowners, as well as cooperatives and other independent
farmers’ organizations in the planning, organization, and management of the
program; Provide support to agriculture through appropriate technology and
research, and adequate financial, production, marketing and other support
services (Section 5, Article XIII, 1987 Philippine Constitution); Resettle
farmers and farm workers in its own agricultural estates, which shall be
distributed to them in a manner provided by law (Section 6,Article XIII, 1987
Philippine Constitution); Encourage the formation and maintenance of
economic-size family farms to be constituted by individual beneficiaries and
small landowners;

The results show that agrarian reform has had a positive impact on farmer-
beneficiaries. It has led to higher real per capita incomes and reduced poverty
incidence between 1990 and 2000. Agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) tend
to have higher incomes and lower poverty incidence compared to non-ARBs.
The qualified beneficiaries of agrarian reform are the landless residents
having a priority to those who are agricultural lessees and share tenants,
regular farmworkers, seasonal farmworkers, actual tillers or occupants of
public lands, collectives or cooperatives of the above beneficiaries and others
directly working on the land. President Diosdado Macapagal was considered
the “Father of Agrarian Reform” It was during his term that the Agricultural
Land Reform Code or RA No. 3844 was enacted on August 8, 1963. This was
considered to be the most comprehensive piece of agrarian reform legislation
ever enacted in the country that time.