WEEK 8: AGRARIAN

REFORMS
PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD
- before any colonial powers arrived in the Philippines
Barangay system

- Composed of 30-100+ families, each barangay is independent of one over the other.
- Barangay is a land owned by a datu/rajah/sultan (banwa or puod)
- Kaingin system is a slash-and-burn method of land cultivating wherein they burn the bushed
before planting crops.
- Barter trade between barangays is prevalent as well
o Picturan kita picturan mo ko 2022
o Exchange of goods that are equal in value
 Tela to damit or baboy. Kahit mag kaiba basta same ng value.
- “stewardship” regardless of a social call, each and every pre-colonial must access land with
mutuality and share resources with the rest of the community
- TIMAWA- “free people” in charge of agriculture and other trade and business matters

Agrarian Codes
– legal instrument – legal documents, law codes written in copper

- Maragtas Code
o The only recorded code of transaction of the land sale. This is the selling of Panay Island
to the ten Bornean Datus in exchange for a golden salakot and a long gold necklace.
- Luwaran Code
o The oldest written laws of Muslim society containing provisions on the lease of
cultivated lands.
SPANISH COLONIAL PERIOD

- In 1521 the Spanish colonial government introduced the Pueblo system.

- Native rural communities regardless of social class were given 4-5 hectares of land, however,
there is no ownership.
- In essence, the cultivated land is owned by the Spanish crown and all earnings or tribute are given
to the colonial government and the Spanish crown
- Compras Y Vandalas or better known as “Bandala” system is a compulsory selling of produce at
a very cheap price, where the encomienderos would profit
o Bandala – sapilitang pag bebenta ng mag inani ng mag sasaka sa murang halaga
- Agricultural tenancy was given either as reparation and pension for militaries and expatriates in
the Philippine colony known as repartimientos or as awarded to Spaniards residing in the
Philippines, they are called encomienderos.
Encomienda system
– The right of the Encomienderos to manage and receive tributes from the native tilling the land
known as encomiendas. The purpose of this system is to protect the natives and further introduce them to
the catholic faith, but abusive encomienderos collected more tributes and the landowners became renters
themselves.
Agrarian laws

- Ley hiptecaria (1893)

o Also known as “mortgage law” provided systematic registration of titles, deeds, and
claims. It is a misnomer as this is more on registration rather than a mortgage.
- Maura Law (1894)
o The law gives a grace period of 1 year to register their land claim, if not done, the state
shall sequester the land
AMERICAN COLONIAL PERIOD

- The American colonizers sought to end the miserable conditions of tenant tillers and small
farmers by passing several policies to widen the base of small landholdings and distribute land
ownership to the Filipinos.
- Nagkaroon ng court

Torrens System

- Introduced to replace the flawed Maura and ley hipotecaria laws of Spain, although a registration
system, the reason behind creating another registration law is because 400,00 native farmers were
without titles, further aggravated by the absence of issued records, titles, and accurate land
surveys
The land Registration Act of 1902

- Or Act. No 496 placed all public and private lands in the Torrens system

The Cadastral Act or Act no.2258

- Sped up the process of land registrations through surveying municipalities all while presenting
these findings in the land registration courts.
Homestead Program of 1903

- Allowed an enterprising tenant to acquire 16 hectares of land to cultivate, however this was only
done on selected areas of the country notable in northern Luzon and Mindanao
First Public Land Act or Act no.926

- Provided rules and regulations for selling and leasing public portions of public domain,
completing defective Spanish land titles, and canceling and confirming Spanish concessions.
Second Public land Act of 1919 or Act no, 2874

- Limits the use of Filipinos, Americans, and Citizens of other countries on agricultural land, it was
amended to include equality of access between Filipino and Americans
Friar Land Act

- There is also the friar land act which provided the administrative and temporary leasing and
selling of friar land to its tillers.
Tenant-Landlord Relationship Laws

- Rice Share Tenancy Act of 1933

o Provided the groundwork for tenants and landlords to have a 50-50 crop sharing
arrangement
- Sugarcane Tenancy Contracts Act of 1933
o Provided regulations on relationships between tenants and landlords that required tenancy
contracts on lands cultivated by sugarcane
COMMONWEALTH AND JAPANESE ERA

- Katiwala “system”
- Hukbalahap (hukbong bayan laban sa hapon)

EVOLUTION OF THE INITIATIVES TO THE LAND REFORMS

POST-WAR REFORMS
During Quezon’s administration

- Improved the RICE TENANCY LAW by including it in the 1935 constitution

- COMMONWEALTH ACT NO. 461 provided security to the tenant which before being
dismissed should undergo approval from the Tenancy Division of the Department of Justice
- COMMONWEALTH ACT NO. 608 established a provision on the security of tenure between the
tenant and the landlord, including social justice programs on haciendas purchased by the
government and sold to tillers/tenants
- COURT OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS is established as the court for agri-workers and
landowners

- Creation of the NATIONAL LAND SETTLEMENT ADMINISTRATION

Under Elpidio Quirino

- The LAND SETTLEMENT DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (LASEDECO) under Executive
Order (E.O.) no. 355 was established to accelerate and expand the peasant resettlement program
of the government.
- Due to scarce post-war resources LASEDECO was unsuccessful

During Ramon Magsaysay

- Considered the “Golden Age” of Philippine Governance and in terms of agricultural sufficiency
- Realized the pursuit of “Honest-to-Goodness” land reform
- Convinced the elite-controlled congress to pass several legislations to improve land reform, some
of these are the following:
 - REPUBLIC ACT (R.A.) NO. 1199 (1954) The Agricultural Tenancy Act governed the
relationship between landholders and tenant farmers. The law helped protect the tenure rights of
tenant tillers and enforced fair tenancy practices
- R.A. NO. 1160 (1954) Free distribution of resettlement and rehabilitation of agricultural land and
an Act establishing the NATIONAL RESETTLEMENT AND REHABILITATION
ADMINISTRATION or NARRA
- R.A. NO. 1400 (1955) The Land Reform Act or “Land to the landless” program sought
improvements to land tenure and guaranteed the expropriation of all tenanted landed estates
- R.A. NO. 1266 (1955) Expropriation of Hacienda del Rosario situated at Valdefuente,
Cabanatuan city
- Establishment of COURT OF AGRICULTURAL RELATIONS (1955) and the
AGRICULTURAL CREDIT AND COOPERATIVE FINANCING (ACCFA) and FARMERS
COOPERATIVES AND MARKETING ASSOCIATIONS (FACOMAs) as well as the
AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL BANK

CONTEMPORARY PERIOD OF REFORMS

Under Diosdado Macapagal

- Father of agrarian code

- Pathway to own the farmer’s land

- R.A. NO. 3844 or Agricultural Land Reform Code of 1963 considered as the most comprehensive
agrarian policy
- Abolished shared tenancy in the Philippines
- Prescribed a program converting tenant farmers to lessors and eventually owner-cultivators
- Freed tenants over bonds of tenancies and the high possibility of being the owners of their tilled
lands
- Emphasized owner-cultivator relationship, farmer independence, equity, productivity
improvement, and public distribution of land.

During Marcos Regime

- Agrarian reform programs is characterized by the following: Land Tenure Program, Institutional
Development, Physical Development, Agricultural Development, and Human Resource
- •PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 2 Placing the entire country on Land Reform Code
- •PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 27 Emancipating tenant from bondage of soil, transferring to
them the ownership and providing needed instruments
- •AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM was considered revolutionary as it was passed during
Martial Law and there was no need for legislative or technical process and was enacted swiftly,
however, there was no due process on the owner-cultivator relationship
- •RA NO. 6389 and 6390 were the republic acts that created the CODE OF AGRARIAN
REFORMS and created the DEPARTMENT OF AGRARIAN REFORM, the republic acts also
accelerated the implementation of reforms in the fields of land acquisition and agricultural credit
Under Corazon Aquino

- Pathway not just to owners but just be an entrepreneur

- Aligned the agrarian reform policies under the new 1987 constitution
- Article 2 Section 21 “The state shall promote comprehensive rural development and agrarian
reform”
- Grants and budgetary supports where some of the highlights of the Aquino Administration on
agrarian reform
- Intensification of livelihood and agro-industrial projects, and programs to support and develop
agriculture were implemented for higher productivity and transform them to entrepreneurial
farmers
- PROCLAMATION 131 instituted the COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM
or CARP as a major program of the government. Provided special fund known as the
AGRARIAN REFORM FUND (ARF) in the amount of 60 Billion that will cover 1987 –1997
- •EXECUTIVE ORDER (E.O.) 129 reorganized the Department of Agrarian Reform and
expanded its power and operations
- •E.O. 228 declared full ownership of the land to qualified farmer-beneficiaries, regulated the
value of remaining rice and corn lands for coverage provided for the manner of payment
- •E.O. 229 LISTASAKA program
- •R.A. 6657 COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM LAW instituted CARP to promote
social justice and industrialization
- •E.O. NO. 405 gave Land Bank of the Philippines the primary responsibility for land valuation
function
- •E.O. NO. 406 emphasized CARP as the government’s effort to hasten agro-industrial
development
- •E.O. NO. 407 directed all government financing institutions and government owned and
controlled corporations
- •E.O. NO. 408 pursued the policy that government should lead the efforts in placing lands for
coverage under CARP

THE 2000’S AND BEYOND

Under Estrada

- Magkabalikat para sa Kaunlara ng Agraryo or MAGSASAKA

- Aims to encourage investors to bring in investments into the countryside and to enhance the
income of farmers through joint ventures and contract growing schemes

During Arroyo

- BAYAN-ANIHAN Framework
 - Katarungan: prompt and fair settlement of agrarian disputes and delivery of agrarian reform
justice
- Salin-Lupa: Acceleration of land transfer and improving land tenure
- Bayanihan: better delivery by the government of appropriate support services
- KARZONE –Kahirapan Agrarian Reform Zones

Under Benigno Aquino

- The following are the objectives of Benigno“Noynoy” Aquino’s reforms:

- DAR PROGRAM BENEFICIARIES DEVELOPMENT (PBD) PRIORITIES
- SPEED UP RESOLUTION ON AR-RELATED CASE and expediting the delivery of
AGRARIAN JUSTICE

SUBSTANTIALLY COMPLETE ASSET REFORM AS MANDATED BY R.A. NO.9700

- Completing the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) or R.A.9700 balance through: Focus on large-sized
private agricultural lands, streamline the process.
- Prioritizing Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs)
- Fast-tracking the documentation and settlement of landowner compensation for already
distributed lands
- Partnership with civil society organizations in the delivery of Land Tenure Improvement
programs

DAR PROGRAM BENIFICAIRIES DEVELOPMENT (PBD) PRIORITIES

- Undertaking convergence initiatives with rural development agencies to complement there

sources and streamline the efforts of DAR, DA, and DENR
- Inking public-private partnerships (PPP), develop models of collaboration and business models in
Agrarian Reform (AR) areas with participation of the civil society organizations (CSO), academe,
research, and development institutions, and local government units
- Expanding the official assistance development fund (ODA) portfolio in order to augment incomes
for PBD

SPEED UP RESOLUTION ON AR-RELATED CASE AND EXPEDITING THE DELIVERY OF

AGRARIAN JUSTICE

- Putting the legal framework in place to expedite the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD)
process and undertake PBD lawyering to ensure Agrarian reform businesses’ free and informed
consent on Agri-business agreements
- Developing common templates and legal outlines in order to nationalize the DAR lawyers to
paralegal’s appreciation and decision cases
- Utilization of information, communication technology or ICT to enhance legal work