Professional Documents
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History and Evolution of Major Agrarian Reform Laws
History and Evolution of Major Agrarian Reform Laws
1935 Constitution
"The promotion of social justice to ensure the well-being and economic
security of all people should be the concern of the State."
Act No. 4054 (Rice Share Tenancy Act)
This is the first law on crop-sharing which legalized the 50-50 share
between landlord and tenant
B.
Executive Order No. 355 Creating the Land Settlement and Development
Corporation and Dissolving the National Land Settlement Administration, the
Rice and Corn Production Administration and the Machinery and Equipment
Department of the National Development Company
Republic Act No. 1160 (NARRA Law) An Act to Further Implement the Free
Distribution of Agricultural Lands of the Public Domain as Provided for In
Commonwealth Act Numbered Six Hundred and Ninety-One, As Amended, to
Abolish the Land Settlement and Development Corporation Created Under
Executive Order Numbered Three Hundred and Fifty-Five, Dated October
Twenty-Three, Nineteen Hundred and Fifty, and to Create in Its Place the
National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration, and for Other Purposes
Abolished the Land Settlement Development Corporation (LASEDECO)
and created in its place the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation
Administration (NARRA)
The NARRA was established in order to hasten free distribution of
agricultural lands of the public domain to landless tenants and farmworkers
It was particularly aimed at the peasant base of the HUK movement (Hukbo
ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon HUKBALAHAP)
It was successful in attracting farmers-turned-rebels to a peaceful life by
giving them homelots and farms in NARRA settlements in Palawan and in
some parts of Mindanao
Republic Act No. 1199 (Agricultural Tenancy Act of 1954) An
Act to Govern the Relations Between Landholders and Tenants of
Agricultural Lands (Leasehold and Share Tenancy)
The first land reform law which regulated all forms and aspects of tenure
relations, except civil lease
It gave share tenants the right to shift to leasehold where they pay
landowners a fixed rental instead of a variable share
This Code abolished share tenancy and instituted the leasehold system
Invested rights of preemption and redemption for tenant farmers
Institutionalized a judicial system of agrarian cases
Incorporated extension, marketing and supervised credit system of services
to farmer beneficiaries
One of the law's basic objectives was to establish owner-cultivatorship and
the economic family-sized farm as the basis of Philippine agriculture and as a
consequence, divert landlord capital in agriculture to industrial development
This law created the Land Authority headed by a Governor (under the
control and supervision of the President) for its implementation and to carry
out the aforementioned basic objective
It incorporated some of the features of previous land reform laws
The Code exempted coverage of plantation crops which were deemed too
important as export earners that time
F.
Republic Act No. 6389 An Act Amending Republic Act Numbered ThirtyEight Hundred and Forty-Four, As Amended, Otherwise Known as the
Agricultural Land Reform Code, and for Other Purposes)
Significantly amended several provisions of Republic Act No. 3844
Created the Department of Agrarian Reform, a separate administrative
agency for agrarian reform, replacing the Land Authority
Instituted the Code of Agrarian Reforms
Presidential Decree No. 2 (Proclaiming the Entire Country as a
Land Reform Area)
Placed the whole country under land reform program
Presidential Decree No. 27 (Decreeing the Emancipation of Tenants from the
Bondage of the Soil, Transferring to Them the Ownership of the Land They Till
and Providing the Instruments and Mechanism Therefor)
1987 Constitution (Article II, Section 21) "The State shall promote
comprehensive rural development and agrarian reform"
Proclamation 131 (Instituting a Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program)
Instituted the CARP as a major program of the government
It provided for a special fund known as the Agrarian Reform Fund (ARF) in
the amount of 50 Billion Pesos to cover the estimated cost of the program for
the period 1987-1992
It covers all agricultural lands regardless of tenurial arrangement and
commodity produced, all public and private agricultural lands, including other
lands of the public domain suitable to agriculture
Executive Order No. 229 (Providing the Mechanism for the
Implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program)
Provided the mechanisms for CARP's implementation such as
administrative procedures and mechanics for land registration, private land
acquisition, and compensation procedures to landowners
It also specified the composition and functions of the governing entities that
will coordinate and supervise the implementation of the program
Executive Order No. 506 (Further Amending Executive Order No. 407,
Series of 1990, as Amended By Executive Order No. 448, Series of
1991, Accelerating the Acquisition and Distribution of Agricultural
Lands, Pasture Lands, Fishponds, Agro-Forestry Lands and Other Lands
of Public Domain Suitable for Agriculture)
It declared that except national parks and other protected areas, all lands or
portions of the public domain reserved by virtue of proclamation or law for
specific purposes or uses by departments, bureaus, offices and agencies of the
Government, which are suitable for agriculture and no longer actually,
directly and exclusively used or necessary for the purpose for which they have
been reserved as determined by the Department of Agrarian Reform in
coordination with the government agency or instrumentality concerned in
whose favor the reservation was established, shall be segregated from the
reservation and transferred to the Department of Agrarian Reform for
distribution to qualified beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program.
It also provided that all existing and proposed National Parks, Game
Refuge and Bird Sanctuaries, Wildlife Reserves, Wilderness Areas and Other
Protected Areas, including old growth or virgin forests, and all forests above
1,000 meters elevation or above 50 percent slope, are hereby excluded from
the present segregation, acquisition and distribution procedures being
conducted by the Department of Agrarian Reform until such time as these
area shall have been identified, studied and determined to be either retained
and reclassified under the National Integrated Protected Areas System of
DENR or to be segregated for agricultural purposes.
H.
Republic Act No. 7881 (An Act Amending Certain Provisions of Republic Act
No. 6657, Entitled "An Act Instituting a Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program to Promote Social Justice and Industrialization, Providing the
Mechanism for Its Implementation, and for Other Purposes")
Amended certain provisions of Republic Act No. 6657, more significantly
Section 10 thereof on exemptions and exclusions from CARP, to wit:
a) Lands actually, directly or exclusively used for parks and wildlife,
forest reserves, reforestation, fish sanctuaries and breeding grounds,
watersheds and mangroves;
b) Private lands actually, directly or exclusively used for prawn farms
and fishponds: Provided, That said prawn farms and fishponds have not
been distributed and Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA)
issued to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) under CARP; and
c) Lands actually, directly and exclusively used and found to be
necessary for sites and institutions, and all lands with 18% slope and
over, except those already developed.
Republic Act No. 7905 (An Act to Strengthen the Implementation of the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, and for Other Purposes)
It aimed to strengthen the implementation of the CARP by amending
certain provisions of Republic Act No. 6657, particularly the provisions on
the creation of support services office (Section 35), funding for support
services (Section 36), Provincial Agrarian Reform Coordinating Committee
(Section 44) and province-by-province implementation of CARP (Section 45).
Republic Act No. 8532 (An Act Strengthening Further the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), By Providing
Augmentation Fund Therefor, Amending for the Purpose Section
63 of Republic Act No. 6657, Otherwise Known as "The CARP
Law of 1988")