Part 2 rph

• Attempts to Amend or Change the 1987 Constitution
• Methods to amend the 1987 Constitution

  • Constituents Assembly
  • Constitutional Convention
  • People's Initiative
• Efforts to amend or change the 1987 Constitution

  1. Presidency of Fidel V. Ramos

  2. Attempt in 1995 by Jose Almonte

  3. Attempt in 1997 by PIRMA

  4. Effort under President Estrada

  5. Attempt by House Speaker Jose de Venecia under President Arroyo

  6. No marked interest under President Aquino III

  7. Supported by President Duterte
• The Supreme Court judged that a people's initiative cannot push through without an enabling law
• Federalism


  A form of government where a central governing authority and constituent political units constitutionally share sovereignty
• Federalism in the Philippines

  • The country will be broken into autonomous regions
  • Each region will have primary responsibility for industry development, public safety, education, healthcare, transportation, and more
  • Each region will take charge of their own finances, development plans, and laws
  • The national government will only handle matters of national interest like foreign policy and defense
• Unitary form of government

  Administrative powers and resources are concentrated in the national government, where mayors and governors rely on allocations provided through a proposed budget approved by the national government
• Pros of federal form of government

  • Regions can custom fit solutions to their distinct contexts
  • Regions have more power over their finances and can directly fund their own development projects
  • Promotes specialization where national government focuses on nationwide concerns and regional governments handle administrative issues
• Cons of federalism


  • Could challenge unity in the country
  • Some regions may not be ready to govern themselves or have lesser resources, leading to uneven development
  • Potential issues with overlapping jurisdiction between national and regional governments
  • Federalism may not be enough to resolve the conflict in Mindanao
  • Costly and time-consuming to dismantle the current system
• President Duterte signed an executive order creating a consultative committee to review the 1987 Constitution
• Agrarian reform is the rectification of the whole system of agriculture, an important aspect of the Philippine economy
• Agrarian reform in the Philippines

  • Focused on the relationship between production and distribution of land among farmers
  • Focused on the political and economic class character of relations of production and distribution in farming and related enterprises, and how these connect to the wider class structure
• Genuine and comprehensive agrarian reform would enable the Philippines to gain more from its agricultural potential and uplift Filipinos in the agricultural sector
• Pueblo agriculture


  Rural communities organized into a pueblo and given land to cultivate, where the King of Spain owned the land and Filipinos were assigned to cultivate it and pay tributes
• Encomienda system


  Land granted to Spanish encomenderos, where Filipinos worked the land and paid tributes to the encomendero, an unfair and abusive system
• Hacienda system


  A new form of land ownership that developed in the 19th century as the Philippines became an exporter of raw materials and importer of goods
• Revolts in the Philippines were often agrarian in nature due to the bitter source of hatred and discontent over the land ownership system introduced by the Spaniards
• The revolutionary government after the Philippine Revolution declared all large landed estates, especially the confiscated friar lands, as government property
• The Americans attempted to put an end to the deplorable conditions of tenant farmers by passing several land policies to increase small landholders and distribute ownership to more Filipino tenants and farmers
• The entrance of the Americans would signal a new era of colonialism and imperialism in the Philippines
• Land policies under the Americans

  • Aimed to increase the small landholders and distribute ownership to a bigger number of Filipino tenants and farmers
  • The Philippine Bill of 1902 provided regulations on the disposal of public lands
  • A private individual may own 16 hectares of land while corporate landholders may have 1,024 hectares
  • The Land Registration Act introduced the Torrens system to address the absence of earlier records of issued land titles and conduct accurate land surveys
  • The homestead program allowed a tenant to enter into an agricultural business by acquiring a farm of at least 16 hectares, but was limited to Northern Luzon and Mindanao
• Landowners did not improve during the American period; in fact, it even worsened, because there was no limit to the size of landholdings people could possess and the accessibility of possession was limited to those who could afford to buy, register, and acquire fixed property titles
• Not all friar lands acquired by the Americans were given to landless peasant farmers. Some lands were sold leased to American and Filipino business interest
• The early land reform program was also implemented without support mechanism- if a landless peasant farmer received land, he only received land, nothing more
• Many were forced to return to tenancy and wealthy Filipino hacienderos purchased or forcefully took over lands from farmers who could not afford to pay their debts
• The system introduced by the Americans enabled more lands to be placed under tenancy, which led to widespread peasant uprisings, such as the Colorum and Sakdal Uprising in Luzon
• Sakdal


  Filipino word meaning to accuse
• Sakdal Uprising


  • A peasant rebellion in Central Luzon that lasted for two days, May 2-3, 1935
  • It was easily crushed by government forces
• Partido Sakdalista


  • Established in 1933
  • Demanded reforms from the government, such as the abolition of taxes and "equal or common ownership of land"
  • Opposed the dominant Nacionalista Party's acceptance of gradual independence from the United States, and instead demanded immediate severance of ties with America
  • Scored three seats in the House of Representatives and several local posts in the 1934 general elections
• Upon being crushed, Ramos fled to Tokyo and the Partido Sakdalista collapsed
• During the years of the Commonwealth government, the situation further worsened as peasant uprising increased and landlord-tenant relationship became more and more desperate
• Quezon's social justice program

  • Focused on the purchase of haciendas, which were to be divided and sold to tenants
  • Created the national rice and Corn Corporation (NARIC) to assign public defenders to assists peasants in court battles for their rights to the land
  • Created the Court of Industrial Relations to exercise jurisdiction over disagreements arising from landowners-tenant relationship
  • Continued the homestead program through the National Land Settlement Administration (NLSA)
• Efforts towards agrarian reform by the Commonwealth failed because of many problems such as budget allocation for the settlement program and widespread peasant uprisings
• World War II put a halt to all interventions to solve these problems as the Japanese occupied the country
• Roxas administration's interventions


  • Passed Republic Act No. 34 to establish a 10:30 sharing arrangement between tenant and landlord, respectively, which reduced the interest of landowners' loans to tenant at six percent or less
  • Attempted to redistribute hacienda lands, but fell prey to the woes of similar attempts since support was given to small farmers who were given lands
• Quirino administration's interventions


  • Established the Land Settlement Development Corporation (LASEDECO) to accelerate and expand the resettlement program for peasants, which later became the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA)
• Magsaysay administration's interventions


  • Passed Republic Act No. 11998 or the Agricultural Tenancy Act to govern the relationship between landholders and tenant farmers, protecting the tenurial rights of tenants and enforced tenancy practices
  • Created the Court of Agricultural Relations to improve tenancy security, fix rentals of tenanted farms, and resolve land disputes
  • Established the Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Financing Administration (ACCFA) to provide warehouse facilities and land assist farmers in marketing their products
  • Established the Agricultural and Industrial bank to provide easier terms in applying for homestead and other farmlands
  • Accelerated the government's resettlement program and distribution of agricultural lands to landless tenants and farmers through NARRA
• Despite a more vigorous effort agrarian reform, the situation for the farmers remained dire since the government lacked funds and provided inadequate support services for the programs
• The landed elite did not fully cooperate and they criticized the programs
• Macapagal administration's Agricultural Land Reform Code (RA 3844)

  • Abolished share tenancy in the Philippines and prescribed program to convert tenant-farmers to lessees and later on owner-cultivators
  • Aimed to free tenants from tenancy and emphasized owner-cultivatorship and farmer independence, equity, productivity improvement, and public land distribution