agrarian dispute

• Conquistador


  Spanish conqueror
• Caballeria


  Small tract of land included in a land grant
• Canon


  Annual rent paid by the inquilino
• Cavan


  A measure equal to 75 liters
• Hacienda


  Large estates that were used for raising livestock and agricultural production
• Inquilino


  A tenant who rented land from the friars and subleased the land to sharecroppers
• Principales


  Ruling elite class
• Sharecropper (kasamá)


  An individual who rented the land from an inquilino and worked the land
• Sitio de ganado mayor


  A large tract of land included in a land grant
• Land acquisition by religious orders


  1. Lands donated by Spaniards seeking spiritual benefits

  2. Estates heavily mortgaged to the ecclesiastics were eventually purchased

  3. Filipino principales contributed through donations and sales
• Religious estates in the Tagalog region constituted approximately 40 percent of the provinces of Bulacan, Tondo (presently Rizal), Cavite, and Laguna by the nineteenth century
• Haciendas in the 16th and 17th centuries


  • Primarily served as cattle ranches as well as farms of subsistence crops
  • Rice and sugar later served as main commodities produced and became important sources of income for the religious orders especially during the 19th century
• Agrarian relations in the haciendas


  1. 16th and 17th centuries: Lay brother administrators at the top and cultivating tenants below

  2. Mid-18th century: Inquilinato system emerged with landlords at the top, inquilinos in the middle, and sharecroppers at the bottom
• The change in the social structure and land tenure practices would eventually render the haciendas as sites of contestation among the Spanish religious hacenderos, the inquilinos, and the sharecroppers
• When the Philippine Revolution broke out in 1896, the abuses in the friar estates were often identified as one of the main causes that instigated the revolt
• Hacienda de Calamba


  • Owned by several Spanish laymen until 1759 when it was donated to the Jesuits
  • Confiscated by the government in 1767 when the Jesuits were expelled
  • Sold to a Spanish layman in 1803 and then purchased by the Dominicans in 1833
• Rizal's family became one of the principal inquilinos in the Hacienda de Calamba, renting approximately 380 hectares of land
• Conflict in Hacienda de Calamba

  1. 1883: Friars collecting rents without issuing receipts

  2. 1885: Tenants failed to pay rent due to increased rent and low sugar prices

  3. 1887: Tenants submitted a report with a petition authored by José Rizal listing grievances against the hacienda owners

  4. 1891: Friars began evicting tenants who refused to pay rent, including Rizal's family
• The experience of his family's exile affected Rizal deeply and the increasing despair he felt from the event would be reflected in his second novel, El Filibusterismo
• The government has been accused of failing to protect the rights of farmers.
• Farmers have protested against the three farm laws passed by Parliament, claiming that they will lead to the dismantling of the minimum support price system.
• Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar stated that the new laws are not meant to replace MSP but rather give farmers more options.