AGRARIAN REFORM IN THE PHILIPPINES

This topic talks about different social, political, economic, and cultural issues that the Philippines
encountered in the course of obtaining its independence and developing self-governance. These issues
are products of the demands made by Filipinos throughout history which were given attention by each
administration with hopes of achieving progress and maintaining order. Such issues include the Agrarian
Reform Policy and its role in Philippine development, the Constitutions of the Philippines and their
implications to development, and the tax system and the Philippine development experience.

So, when we say Land reform- It also refers to the remedies to improve the relation
between the tiller and the owner of the land or employee and employer in a
farm. In other words, it identifies the rights of the one who owns or uses a
particular agricultural land. Land reform is often used interchangeably with
agrarian reform but the latter is much broader.
Agrarian Reform also means the redistribution of lands, regardless of crops or fruits produced to farmers
and regular farmworkers who are landless, irrespective of tenurial arrangement, to include the totality of
factors and support services designed to lift the economic status of the beneficiaries and all other
arrangements alternative to the physical redistribution of lands, such as production or profit-sharing,
labor administration, and the distribution of shares of stocks, which will allow beneficiaries to receive a
just share of the fruits of the lands they work.

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6657

AN ACT INSTITUTING A COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM TO PROMOTE SOCIAL JUSTICE

AND INDUSTRIALIZATION, PROVIDING THE MECHANISM FOR ITS IMPLEMENTATION, AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES

- 6657, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL). It is the
redistribution of private and public agricultural lands to help the beneficiaries survive as small
independent farmers, regardless of the “tenurial” arrangement.

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 DIFFERENCES:

Land reforms refers to a wide variety of specific programmes and measures to bring about more
effective control and use of land for the benefit of the community as a whole. Land reforms generally
comprise the takeover of land by state from big land lords with partial compensation and transfer it to
small farmers and landless workers.

Land reforms are aimed at changing the agrarian structure to bring equity and to increase productivity.
The structure includes both the man-land relationship and man-man relationship (tenant and landlord).
In India, the land reforms aim to follow the ideal of socialistic and democratic society. The land reforms
in India are envisaged to bring reforms through abolition of intermediaries, tenancy reforms, ceiling on
land holdings, and consolidation and encouragement of co-operatives.

Agrarian Reforms

Agrarian reform is a broader term. Along with land reforms it also includes measures to modernize the
agricultural practices and improving the living conditions of entire agrarian population. It also covers the
establishment of co-operatives; development of institutions to provide agricultural credit and other
inputs; processing and marketing of agricultural produce; and establishment of ago-based industries etc.

Moreover, according to the History of Agrarian Reform

Pre-Colonial Times (Before 16th Century)

• Land was commonly owned by the community known as barangay. This is a small unit of government
consisting of 30- 100 families administered by the chiefs. Everyone in the barangay regardless of status
had access on the land and mutually shares resources and the fruits of their labour. They believed and
practiced the concept of “stewardship” where relationship between man and nature is important.

• Land cultivation was done commonly by kaingin system or the slash and burn method wherein land
was cleared by burning the bushes before planting the crops or either land was plowed and harrowed
before planting.

• Maragtas Code seems to be the only recorded transaction of land sale during this time. This tells us
about the selling of the Panay Island by the natives to the ten Bornean datus in exchange of a golden
salakot and a long gold necklace.

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 SPANISH ERA (1521-1896)

• The colonial government at this period introduced a pueblo agriculture, a system wherein native rural
communities were organized into pueblo and each Christianized native family is given a four to five
hectares of land to cultivate. The pueblo agriculture practiced no share cropper class or landless class.

• The native families were merely landholders and not landowners. By law, the land assigned to them
was the property of the Spanish King where they pay their colonial tributes to the Spanish authorities in
the form of agricultural products they produced.

• Through the Laws of the Indies, the Spanish crown awarded vast tracts of land to wit: a Friar lands for
the religious orders; Repartiamentos for lands granted to the Spanish military as a reward for their
service; and Encomienda a large tracts of land given to Spaniards (encomiendero) to manage and have
the right to receive tributes from the natives tilling it. Natives within these areas became mere tillers
working for a share of crops.They did not even have any rights to the land.

• Abusive encomienderos collected more tributes that became the land rentals from the natives living in
the area. A compras y vandalas system was practiced wherein tillers were made to compulsory sell at a
very low price or surrender their agricultural harvests to Spanish authorities where encomienderos can
resell it for a profit. People of the encomiendas were also required to render personal services on public
and religious work and as a household help to the encomienderos.

• The Spanish crown made a law in 1865 ordering landholders to register their landholdings. Only those
who were aware of these decrees benefited. Ancestral lands were claimed and registered in other
people’s names (Spanish officials or local chieftains). As a result, many peasant families were driven out
from the lands they have been cultivating for centuries or were forced to become tillers.

• As more tillers were abused, exploited and deprived of their rights, the revolution of peasants and
farmers in 1896 articulated their aspirations for agrarian reform and for a just society. Women also
fought for freedom and played an important role in the planning and implementing the activities of the
revolutionary movements.

• The revolutionary government confiscated the large landed estates, especially the friar lands and
declared these as properties of the government. (Malolos Constitution, 1896, Article XVII)

The Kasama System

Under the kasama system, the tenant cultivates the land with the landowner advancing all expenses
such as irrigation fee, dealings, land preparation, etc. Farm management decisions are usually made by
the landowner, including those on seed selection, use of fertilisers, and dates of planting and harvesting.
After the crop is harvested, the landowner is reimbursed of his expenses and the reminder of the harvest
is divided with the tenant. The kasama system provides a degree of security to the peasant and fosters a
reciprocal relationship between landlord and the tenant .

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