Much like
Mexico and other
Spanish colonies in the Americas, the Spanish settlement in the Philippines revolved around the
encomienda system of
plantations, known as
haciendas. As the 19th century progressed, industrialization and liberalization of trade allowed these encomiendas to expand their
cash crops, establishing a strong
sugar industry in the Philippines, especially in the
Visayan island of
Negros.
American period The United States of America obtained the Spanish claim over the Philippines following the
Spanish–American War in 1898 and conquered the country from the Philippine Republic after the
Philippine–American War in 1902. The
Second Philippine Commission, the Taft Commission, viewed economic development as one of its top three goals. In 1901, 93% of the islands' land area was held by the government and
William Howard Taft,
Governor-General of the Philippines, argued for a liberal policy so that a good portion could be sold off to American investors.
Commonwealth Period During the
American Colonial Period,
tenant farmers complained about the
sharecropping system, as well as by the dramatic increase in population which added economic pressure to the tenant farmers' families. As a result, an
agrarian reform program was initiated by the Commonwealth. However, success of the program was hampered by ongoing clashes between tenants and landowners. An example of these clashes includes one initiated by
Benigno Ramos through his
Sakdalista movement, which advocated tax reductions, land reforms, the breakup of the large estates or
haciendas, and the severing of American ties. The uprising, which occurred in Central Luzon in May 1935, claimed about a hundred lives
Rice Share Tenancy Act of 1933 When the
Philippine Commonwealth was established, President
Manuel L. Quezon implemented the Rice Share Tenancy Act of 1933. The purpose of this act was to regulate the share-tenancy contracts by establishing minimum standards.
Ramon Magsaysay administration To amplify and stabilize the functions of the Economic Development Corps (EDCOR), President
Ramon Magsaysay worked which took over from the EDCOR and helped in the giving of some sixty-five thousand acres to three thousand indigent families for settlement purposes. The code declared that it was State policy • To establish owner-cultivatorship and the economic family-size farm as the basis of Philippine agriculture and, as a consequence, divert landlord capital in agriculture to industrial development; • To achieve a dignified existence for the small farmers free from pernicious institutional restraints and practices; • To create a truly viable social and economic structure in agriculture conducive to greater productivity and higher farm incomes; • To apply all labor laws equally and without discrimination to both industrial and agricultural wage earners; • To provide a more vigorous and systematic land resettlement program and public land distribution; and • To make the small farmers more independent, self-reliant and responsible citizens, and a source of genuine strength in our democratic society. and, in pursuance of those policies, established the following • An agricultural leasehold system to replace all existing share tenancy systems in agriculture; • A declaration of rights for agricultural labor; • An authority for the acquisition and equitable distribution of agricultural land; • An institution to finance the acquisition and distribution of agricultural land; • A machinery to extend credit and similar assistance to agriculture; • A machinery to provide marketing, management, and other technical services to agriculture; • A unified administration for formulating and implementing projects of land reform; • An expanded program of land capability survey, classification, and registration; and • A judicial system to decide issues arising under this Code and other related laws and regulations.
Marcos administration On September 10, 1971, President
Ferdinand E. Marcos signed the Code of Agrarian Reform of the Philippines into law which established the
Department of Agrarian Reform, effectively replacing the Land Authority. In 1978, the DAR was renamed the Ministry of Agrarian Reform. Marcos issued presidential decree number 27, which confiscated rice or corn lands over 7 hectares by the Ministry of Agrarian Reform and gave it to qualified tenants of the landowner. However, many landowners were not paid because of martial law.
Corazon Aquino administration In 1988, under the 1987 Constitution framework, which was signed by then-President Cory Aquino, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law created the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). On July 26, 1987, following the
People Power Revolution, the Ministry of Agrarian Reform was re-organized through Executive Order (EO) No. 129-A. President Corazon Aquino envisioned agrarian and land reform as the centerpiece of her administration's social legislative agenda. However, her family background and social class as a privileged daughter of a wealthy and landed clan became a lightning rod of criticisms against her land reform agenda. On January 22, 1987, less than a month before the ratification of the 1987 Constitution, agrarian workers and farmers marched to the historic Mendiola Street near the
Malacañan Palace to demand genuine land reform from Aquino's administration. However, the march turned violent when Marine forces fired at farmers who tried to go beyond the designated demarcation line set by the police. As a result, 12 farmers were killed and 19 were injured in this incident now known as the
Mendiola massacre. This incident led some prominent members of the Aquino Cabinet to resign their government posts. In response to calls for agrarian reform, President Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order 229 on July 22, 1987, which outlined her land reform program, which included sugar lands. In 1988, with the backing of Aquino, the new
Congress of the Philippines passed
Republic Act No. 6657, more popularly known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. The law paved the way for the redistribution of agricultural lands to tenant-farmers from landowners, who were paid in exchange by the government through
just compensation but were also allowed to retain not more than five hectares of land. However, corporate landowners were also allowed under the law to "voluntarily divest a proportion of their
capital stock, equity or participation in favor of their workers or other qualified beneficiaries", in lieu of turning over their land to the government for redistribution. Despite the flaws in the law, the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in 1989, declaring that the implementation of the comprehensive agrarian reform program (CARP) provided by the said law, was "a revolutionary kind of expropriation". Despite the implementation of CARP, Aquino was not spared from the controversies that eventually centered on
Hacienda Luisita, a 6,453-hectare estate located in the Province of
Tarlac, which she, together with her siblings inherited from her father
Jose Cojuangco (Don Pepe). Critics argued that Aquino bowed to pressure from relatives by allowing stock redistribution under Executive Order 229. Instead of land distribution, Hacienda Luisita reorganized itself into a corporation and distributed stock. As such, ownership of agricultural portions of the hacienda were transferred to the corporation, which in turn, gave its shares of stocks to farmers. On August 23, 2005, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Executive Order No. 456 and renamed the Department of Land Reform back to Department of Agrarian Reform, since "the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law goes beyond just land reform but includes the totality of all factors and support services designed to lift the economic status of the beneficiaries." When President
Noynoy Aquino took office, there was a renewed push to complete the
agrarian reform program. The Department of Agrarian Reform adopted a goal of distributed all CARP-eligible land by the end of Pres. Aquino's term in 2016. As of June 2013, 694,181
hectares remained to be distributed, according to DAR. ==Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program==