Lesson in Semi-Finals

• Agrarian reform


  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
• Social structure in pre-Spanish Philippines

  • Chieftains or datus (nobility)
  • Timawas (freemen)
  • Alipin (dependents or slaves)
• In pre-Spanish Philippines, everyone could access the fruits of the soil, and rice served as the medium of exchange
• Encomienda


  A system introduced during early Spanish colonization where encomienderos were given the right to collect tributes or taxes from the inhabitants of an area, in exchange for defending them from external attack, maintaining peace and order, and supporting the missionaries
• Duties of encomienderos

  • Give protection
  • Help the missionaries in the conversion of the natives to Christians
  • Promote education
• Abuses committed by Spanish encomienderos

  • Brutal treatment
  • Excessive collection of tribute
  • Forcing the people to work for them
  • Seizure of farm animals and crops without just compensation
• The colonial government tried to solve the agrarian problem by purchasing the "friar lands" from religious corporations and selling them to the servants
• Many tenants soon began to resort to armed means to "get back" their land, as these lands were claimed by landlords with "land titles"
• The promotion of social justice to ensure the well-being and economic security of all people should be the concern of the State
• Legislations enacted during the American Period

  • Philippine Bill of 1902 (Cooper Act)
  • Land Registration Act of 1902 (Act No. 496)
  • Public Land Act of 1903
  • Tenancy Act of 1933 (Act No. 4054 and Act No. 4113)
• Torrens system of land registration


  A system used in the Philippines to assure a buyer that if he buys a land covered by an Original Certificate of Title (OCT) or the Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) issued by the Registry of Deeds, the same will be absolute, indefeasible and imprescriptibly
• The registration of the land under Torrens system in the name of one person does not bar evidence to show that the land is owned by another person, for example, the land is held in trust for another
• Purpose of the Torrens system

  1. To quiet the title to land

  2. To put a stop forever to any question of legality of the title, except claims which were noted at the time of registration, in the certificate, or which may arise subsequent thereto
• Legislations enacted during the Commonwealth Period


  • Commonwealth Act No. 178 (An Amendment to Rice Tenancy Act No. 4045)
  • National Rice and Corn Corporation (NARIC)
  • Commonwealth Act No. 461
  • The Rural Program Administration
  • Commonwealth Act No. 441
• After the establishment of Philippine Independence in 1946, the problems of land tenure remained and became worse in certain areas
• Legislations enacted during the Roxas Administration (1946-1948)


  • Republic Act No. 34 (70-30 sharing and regulated share tenancy contracts)
  • Act No. 55 (security to tenants from arbitrary ejectment)
• Legislations enacted during the Magsaysay Administration (1953-1957)


  • Republic Act No. 1160 (National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration)
  • Republic Act No. 1199 (Agricultural Tenancy Act of 1954)
  • Republic Act No. 1400 (Land Reform Act of 1955)
  • Republic Act No. 821 (Agricultural Credit Cooperative Financing Administration)
• In August 8, 1963, the Macapagal Administration enacted Republic Act No. 3844, also known as the Agricultural Land Reform Code, that was hailed as one that would emancipate Filipino farmers from the bondage of tenancy
• Legislations enacted during the Marcos Administration (1965-1986)


  • Republic Act No. 6389 (Code of Agrarian Reform)
  • Republic Act No. 6390 (Agrarian Reform Special Account Fund)
  • Presidential Decree No. 2 (declared the country under land reform program)
  • Presidential Decree No. 27 (restricted land reform scope to tenanted rice and corn lands and set the retention limit at 7 hectares)
• On June 10, 1988, President Corazon C. Aquino signed into law Republic Act No. 6657 or otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL)
• Executive Order No. 228 declared full ownership to qualified farmer-beneficiaries covered by PD 27 and determined the value remaining to be paid by the farmer-beneficiaries
• Presidential Decree No. 2 declared the country under land reform program


  September 26, 1972
• Presidential Decree No. 2


  1. Enjoined all agencies and offices of the government to extend full cooperation and assistance to the DAR

  2. Activated the Agrarian Reform Coordinating Council
• Presidential Decree No. 27 restricted land reform scope to tenanted rice and corn lands and set the retention limit at 7 hectares


  October 21, 1972
• President Corazon C. Aquino signed into law Republic Act No. 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL)


  June 10, 1988
• The CARL was enacted to offer a lawful basis for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program or CARP
• Executive Order No. 228


  1. Declared full ownership to qualified farmer-beneficiaries covered by PD 27

  2. Determined the value remaining unvalued rice and con lands subject of PD 27

  3. Provided for the manner of payment by the FBs and mode of compensation to landowners
• Executive Order No. 229


  Provided mechanism for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)
• Proclamation No. 131


  1. Instituted the CARP as a major program of the government

  2. Provided for a special fund known as the Agrarian Reform Fund (ARF), with an initial amount of Php50 billion to cover the estimated cost of the program from 1987-1992
• Republic Act No. 6657 also known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law instituted a comprehensive agrarian reform program to promote social justice and industrialization providing the mechanism for its implementation and for other purposes
• Executive Order No. 129-A


  Streamlined and expanded the power and operations of the DAR
• Executive Order No. 405


  The Land Bank of the Philippines is held responsible to determine land valuation and compensation for all lands covered by CARP
• Executive Order No. 407


  Accelerated the acquisition and distribution of agricultural lands, pasture lands, fishponds, agro-forestry lands and other lands of the public domain suitable for agriculture
• When President Fidel V. Ramos formally took over in 1992, his administration committed to the vision "Fairer, faster and more meaningful implementation of the Agrarian Reform Program"
• Republic Act No. 7881


  Amended certain provisions of RA 6657 and exempted fishponds and prawns from the coverage of CARP
• Republic Act No. 7905


  Strengthened the implementation of the CARP
• Executive Order No. 363


  Limits the type of lands that may be converted by setting conditions under which specific categories of agricultural land are either absolutely non-negotiable for conversion or highly restricted for conversion
• Republic Act No. 8435 (Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act)


  Plugged the legal loopholes in land use conversion
• Republic Act 8532 (Agrarian Reform Fund Bill)


  Provided an additional Php50 billion for CARP and extended its implementation for another 10 years
• Executive Order NO. 151 (Farmer's Trust Fund)


  Allowed the voluntary consolidation of small farm operation into medium and large scale integrated enterprise that can access long-term capital