CHAPTER 4: SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND CULTURAL ISSUES IN THE PHILIPPINE

HISTORY

EVOLUTION OF THE PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION

Constitution is defined as a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or
other organization is governed.
- The word itself means to be a part of a whole, the coming together of distinct entities into one group,
with the same principles and ideals. These principles define the nature and extent of government.
- The Constitution of the Philippines ( the supreme law of the Republic of the Philippines), has been
effect since 1987.
- There were only three other constitutions that have effectively governed the country:
 The 1935 Commonwealth Constitution
 The 1973 Constitution
 The 1986 Freedom Constitution
- There were earlier constitutions attempted by Filipino in the struggle to break free from the colonial
yoke.

1897: CONSTITUTION OF BIAK-NA-BATO

- It was provisionary constitution of the Philippines Republic during the Philippine Revolution and
promulgated by the Philippine Revolutionary Government on November 1, 1897.
- The constitution, borrowed from Cuba, was written by Isabelo Artacho and Felix Ferrer in Spanish, and
later on, translated into Tagalog.
- The organs of the government under the Constitution were:
 The Supreme Council, which was vested with power of the Republic, headed by the
president and four department secretaries: the interior, foreign affairs, treasury, and war;
 The Consejo Supremo de Gracia Y Justicia (Supreme Council of Grace and Justice),
which was given the authority to make decisions and affirm or disprove the sentences
rendered by the other courts and to dictate rules for the administration of justice;
 The Asamblea de Representantes (Assembly of Representatives), which was to be
convened after the revolution to create a new constitution and to elect a new Council of
Government and Representatives of the people.
- The Constitution of Biak-na-Bato was never fully implemented, since a truce, the Pact of Biak-na-Bato,
was signed between the Spanish and the Philippine Revolutionary Army.

PRIMARY SOURCE: PREAMBLE OF THE BIAK-NA-BATO CONSTITUTION

The separation of the Philippines from the Spanish monarchy and their formation into an independent
state with its own government called the Philippine Republic has been the end sought by the Revolution in the
existing war, begun on the 24th of August, 1896;and, therefore, in its name and by the power delegated by the
Filipino people, interpreting faithfully their desires and ambitions, we the representatives of the Revolution, in
a meeting at Biak-na-Bato, November 1,1897, unanimously adopted the following articles for the constitution
of the State.

1899: MALOLOS CONSTITUTION

After the signing of the truce , the Filipino revolutionary leaders accepted a payment from Spanish and
went to exile in Hong Kong. Upon the defeat of the Spanish to the Americans in the Battle of Manila Bay on
May 1, 1898, the United States Navy transported Aguinaldo back to the Philippines. The newly reformed
pg. 1
Philippine revolutionary forces reverted to the control of Aguinaldo, and the Philippine Declaration of
Independence was issued on June 12, 1898, together with several decrees that formed the First Philippine
Republic.
- The Malolos Congress was elected which selected a commission to draw up a draft constitution on
September 17, 1898 which composed of wealthy and educated men.
- The document they came up with, approved by the Congress on November 29, 1898 and promulgated by
Aguinaldo on January 21, 1899, was titled “The Political Constitution of 1899” and written in Spanish.
- The constitution has 39 articles divided into 14 titles, with eight articles of transitory provisions, and a
final additional article.
- The document patterned after the Spanish Constitution of 1812, with influences from the charters of
Belgium, Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Guatemala, and the French Constitution of 1793.
- According to Felipe Calderon, main author of the constitution, these countries were studied because they
shared similar social, political, ethnological and governance conditions with the Philippines.
- Prior constitutional projects in the Philippines also influenced the Malolos Constitution namely , the
Kartilya and the Sanggunian-Hukuman , the charter of laws and morals of the Katipunan written by
Emilio Jacinto in 1896; the Biak-na-Bato Constitution of 1897 planned by Isabelo Artacho; Mabini’s
Constitutional Program of the Phillippines Republic of 1898; the provisional constitution of Mariano
Ponce in 1898 that followed the Spanish constitutions; and the autonomy projects of Paterno in 1898.

PRIMARY SOURCE: PREAMBLE OF THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF 1899

We, the Representatives of the Filipino People, lawfully convened, in order to establish justice, provide for
common defense, promote the general welfare and insure the benefits of liberty, imploring the aid of the
Sovereign Legislator of the Universe for the attainment of these ends, have voted, decreed, and sanctioned the
following political constitution.
- As a direct challenge to colonial authorities of the Spanish empire, the sovereignty was retroverted to the
people, a legal principle underlying the Philippine Revolution.
- The people delegated governmental functions to civil servants while they retained actual sovereignty.
- The 27 articles of Title IV detail the natural rights and popular sovereignty of Filipinos, the enumeration
of which does not imply the prohibition of any other rights not expressly state. Title III, Article V also
declares that the State recognizes the freedom and equality of all beliefs, as well as the separation of
Church and State. These are direct reactions to features of the Spanish government in the Philippines,
where the friars were dominant agents of the state.
- The form of government, according to Title II, Article 4 is to be popular, representatives, alternative and
responsible and shall exercise three distinct powers—legislative, executive and judicial.
 The legislative power was vested in a unicameral body called the Assembly of Representatives,
members of which are elected for terms of four years. Secretaries of the government were given
seats in the assembly, which meet annually for a period of at least three months. Bills could be
introduced either by the president or by a member of the assembly. Some powers not legislative
in nature were also given to the body, such as the right to select its own officers, right of censure
and interpellation, and the right of impeaching the president, cabinet members, the chief justice
of the Supreme Court, and the solicitor-general. A permanent commission of seven, elected by
the assembly, and granted specific powers by the constitution, was to sit the intervals between
sessions of the assembly.
 Executive power was vested in the president, and elected by a constituent assembly of the
Assembly of Representatives and special representatives. The president will serve a term of four
years without re-election. There was no vice president, and in case of a vacancy, a president was
to be selected by the constituent assembly.
- The 1899 Malolos Constitution was never enforced due to the ongoing was. The Philippines was
effectively a territory of the United States upon the signing of the Treaty of Paris between Spain and the
United States, transferring sovereignty of the Philippines on December 10, 1898.

1935: THE COMMONWEALTH CONSTITUTION

pg. 2
 - It is worth mentioning that after the Treaty of Paris, the Philippines was subject to the power of the
United States of America, effectively the new colonizers of the country. From 1898 to 1901, the
Philippines would be placed under a military government until a civil government would be put into
place.
- Two acts of the United States Congress were passed that may be considered to have qualities of
constitutionality. First was the Philippine Organic Act of 1902, the first organic law for the Philippine
Islands that provided for the creation of a popularly elected Philippine Assembly. The act specified that
legislative power would be vested in a bicameral legislature composed of the Philippine Commission as
the upper house and the Philippine Assembly as lower house. Key provisions of the act included a bill of
rights for Filipinos and the appointment of two non-voting Filipino Resident Commissioners of the
Philippines as representative to the United States House of Representatives. The second act that
functioned as a constitution was the Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916, commonly referred to as "Jones
Law," which modified the structure of the Philippine government through the removal of the Philippine
Commission, replacing it with a Senate that served as the upper house and its members elected by the
Filipino voters, the first truly elected national legislature. It was also this Act that explicitly declared the
purpose of the United States to end their sovereignty over the Philippines and recognize Philippine
independence as soon as a stable government can be established.
- In 1932, with the efforts of the Filipino Independence mission led by Sergio Osmena and Manuel Roxas,
the United States Congress passed the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act with the promise of granting Filipinos’
Independence. The bill was opposed by then Senate President Manuel L. Quezon and consequently,
rejected by the Philippine Senate.
- By 1934, another law , the Tydings-McDuffie Act, also known as the Philippine Independence Act, was
passed by the United States Congress that provided authority and defined mechanisms for the
establishments of a formal constitution by a constitutional convention. The members of the convention
were elected and held their first meeting on July 30, 1934, with Claro M. Recto unanimously elected as
president.
- The constitution was crafted to meet the approval of the United States government, and to ensure that
the United States would live up to its promise to grant independence to the Philippines.
-

PRIMARY SOURCE: PREAMBLE OF THE 1935 COMMONWEALTH

The Filipino people, imploring the aid of Divine Providence, in order to establish a government that shall
embody their ideals, conserve and develop the patrimony of the nation, promote the general welfare, and secure
to themselves and their posterity the blessings of independence under a regime of justice, liberty, and
democracy, do ordain and promulgate this constitution.
- The constitution created the Commonwealth of the Philippines, an administrative body that governed the
Philippines from 1935 to 1946. It is a transitional administration to prepare the country toward its full
achievement of independence. It originally provided for a unicameral National Assembly with a
president and vice president elected to a six- year term without re-election. It was amended in 1940 to
have a bicameral Congress composed of a Senate and a House of Representatives, as well as the creation
of an independent electoral commission, and limited the term of Rights to suffrage were originally
afforded to male citizens of the Philippines who are twenty-one years of age or over and are able to read
and write; this was later on extended to women within two years after the adoption of the constitution.
- While the dominant influence in the constitution was American, it also bears traces of the Malolos
Constitution, the German, Spanish, and Mexican constitutions, constitutions of several South American
countries, and the unwritten English Constitution.
- The draft of the constitution was approved by the constitutional convention on 8 February 1935, and
ratified by then U.S. President Franklin B. Roosevelt on 25 March 1935. Elections were held in
September 1935 and Manuel L. Quezon was elected President of the Commonwealth.
- The Commonwealth was briefly interrupted by the events of the World War II, with the Japanese
occupying the Philippines. Afterward, upon liberation, the Philippines was declared an independent
republic on 4 July 1946.

pg. 3
1973: CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITARIANISM
- In 1965, Ferdinand E. Marcos was elected president, and in 1967, Philippine Congress passed a
resolution calling for a constitutional convention to change the 1935 Constitution. Marcos won the re-
election in 1969, in a bid boosted by campaign overspending and use of government funds. Elections of
the delegates to the constitutional convention were held on 20 November 1970, and the convention
began formally on 1 June 1971, with former President Carlos P. Garcia being elected as convention
president. Unfortunately, he died, and was succeeded by another former president, Diosdado Macapagal.
- Before the convention finished its work, Martial Law was declared. Marcos cited a growing communist
insurgency as reason for the Martial Law, which was provided for in the 1935 Constitution. Some
delegates of the ongoing constitutional convention were placed behind bars and others went into hiding
or were voluntary exiled. With Marcos as dictator, the direction of the convention turned, with accounts
that the president himself dictated some provisions of the constitution, manipulating the document to be
able to hold on to power for as long as he could. On 29 November 1972, the convention approved its
proposed constitution.
- The constitution was supposed to introduce a parliamentary-style government, where legislative power
was vested in a unicameral National Assembly, with members being elected to a six-year term. The
president was to be elected as the symbolic and ceremonial head of state chosen from the members of
the National Assembly. The president would serve a six-year term and could be re-elected to an
unlimited number of terms. Executive power was relegated to the Prime Minister, who was also the head
of government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces who was also to be elected from the
National Assembly.
- President Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 73 setting the date of the plebiscite to ratify or reject
the proposed constitution on 30 November 1973. This plebiscite was postponed later on since Marcos
feared that the public might vote to reject the constitution. Instead of a plebiscite, Citizen Assemblies
were held, from 10-15 January 1973, where the citizens coming together and voting by hand, decided on
whether to ratify the constitution, suspend the convening of the Interim National Assembly, continue
Martial Law, or place a moratorium on elections for a period of at least several years. The President, on
17 January 1973, issued a proclamation announcing that the proposed constitution had been ratified by
an overwhelming vote of the members of the highly irregular Citizen Assemblies.
- The constitution was amended several times. In 1976, Citizen Assemblies, once again, decided to allow
the continuation of Martial Law, as well as approved the amendments: an Interim Batasang Pambansa to
substitute for the Interim National Assembly, the president to also become the Prime Minister and
continue to exercise legislative powers until Martial Law was lifted and authorized the President to
legislate on his own on an emergency basis. An overwhelming majority would ratify further
amendments succeedingly. In 1980, the retirement age of members of the judiciary was extended to 70
years. In 1981, the parliamentary system was formally modified to a French-style, semi-presidential
system where executive power was restored to the president, who was, once again, to be directly elected;
an Executive Committee was to be created, composed of the Prime Minister and 14 others, that served
as the president's Cabinet; and some electoral reforms were instituted. In 1984, the Executive Committee
was abolished and the position of the vice president was restored.
- After all the amendments introduced, the 1973 Constitution was merely a way for the President to keep
executive powers, abolish the Senate, and by any means, never acted as a parliamentary system, instead
functioned as an authoritarian presidential system, with all the real power concentrated in the hands of
the president, with the backing of the constitution.
- The situation in the 1980s had been very turbulent. As Marcos amassed power, discontent has also been
burgeoning. The tide turned swiftly when in August 1983, Benigno Aquino Jr., opposition leader and
regarded as the most credible alternative to President Marcos, was assassinated while under military
escort immediately after his return from exile in the United States. There was widespread suspicion that
the orders to assassinate Aquino came from the top levels of the government and the military. This event
caused the coming together of the non-violent opposition against the Marcos authoritarian regime.
Marcos was then forced to hold "snap" elections a year early, and said elections were marred by
widespread fraud. Marcos declared himself winner despite international condemnation and nationwide
protests. A small group of military rebels attempted to stage a coup, but failed; however, this triggered
what came to be known as the EDSA People Power Revolution of 1986, as people from all walks of life

pg. 4
 spilled onto the streets. Under pressure from the United States of America, who used to support Marcos
and his Martial Law, the Marcos family fled into exile. His opponent in the snap elections, Benigno
Aquino Jr.'s widow, Corazon Aquino, was installed as president on 25 February 1986.

1987: CONSTITUTION AFTER MARTIAL LAW

- President Corazon Aquino's government had three options regarding the constitution: revert to the 1935
Constitution, retain the 1973 Constitution and be granted the power to make reforms, or start anew and
break from the "vestiges of a disgraced dictatorship." They decided to make a new constitution that,
according to the president herself, should be "truly reflective of the aspirations and ideals of the Filipino
people."
- In March 1986, President Aquino proclaimed a transitional constitution to last for a year while a
Constitutional Commission drafted a permanent constitution. This transitional constitution, called the
Freedom Constitution, maintained many provisions of the old one, including in rewritten form the
presidential right to rule by decree. In 1986, a constitutional convention was created, composed of 48
members appointed by President Aquino from varied backgrounds and representations. The convention
drew up a permanent constitution, largely restoring the setup abolished by Marcos in 1972, but with new
ways to keep the president in check, a reaction to the experience of Marcos's rule. The new constitution
was officially adopted on 2 February 1987.
- The Constitution begins with a preamble and eighteen self-contained articles. It established the
Philippines as a "democratic republican State" where "sovereignty resides in the people and all
government authority emanates from them." It allocates governmental powers among the executive,
legislative, and judicial branches of the government.
- The Executive branch is headed by the president and his cabinet, whom he appoints. The president is the
head of the state and the chief executive, but his power is limited by significant checks from the two
other co-equal branches of government, especially during times of emergency. This is put in place to
safeguard the country from the experience of martial law despotism during the presidency of Marcos. In
cases of national emergency, the president may still declare martial law, but not longer than a period of
sixty days. Congress, through a majority vote, can revoke this decision, or extend it for a period that they
determine. The Supreme Court may also review the declaration of martial law and decide if there were
sufficient justifying facts for the act. The president and the vice president are elected at large by a direct
vote, serving a single six-year term.
- The legislative power resides in a Congress divided into two Houses: the Senate and the House of
Representatives. The 24 senators are elected at large by popular vote, and can serve no more than two
consecutive six- year terms. The House is composed of district representatives representing a particular
geographic area and makes up around 80% of the total number of representatives. There are 234
legislative districts in the Philippines that elect their representatives to serve three-year terms. The 1987
Constitution created a party-list system to provide spaces for the participation of under- represented
community sectors or groups. Party-list representatives may fill up not more than 20% of the seats in the
House.
- Aside from the exclusive power of legislation, Congress may also declare war, through a two-thirds vote
in both upper and lower houses. The power of legislation, however, is also subject to an executive check,
as the president retains the power to veto or stop a bill from becoming a law. Congress may only
override this power with a two-thirds vote in both houses.
- The Philippine Court system is vested with the power of the judiciary, and is composed of a Supreme
Court and lower courts as created by law. The Supreme Court is a 15-member court appointed by the
president without the need to be confirmed by Congress. The appointment the president makes,
however, is limited to a list of nominees provided by a constitutionally specified Judicial and Bar
Council. The Supreme Court Justices may hear, on appeal, any cases dealing with the constitutionality of
any law, treaty, or decree of the government, cases where questions of jurisdiction or judicial error are
concerned, or cases where the penalty is sufficiently grave. It may also exercise original jurisdiction over
cases involving government or international officials. The Supreme Court is also in charge of overseeing
the functioning and administration of the lower courts and their personnel.
- The Constitution also established three independent Constitutional Commissions, namely, the Civil
Service Commission, a central agency in charge of government personnel; the Commission on Elections,

pg. 5
 mandated to enforce and administer all election laws and regulations; and the Commission on Audit,
which examines all funds, transactions, and property accounts of the government and its agencies.
- To further promote the ethical and lawful conduct of the government, the Office of the Ombudsman was
created to investigate complaints that pertain to public corruption, unlawful behavior of public officials,
and other public misconduct. The Ombudsman can charge public officials before the Sandiganbayan, a
special court created for this purpose.
- Only the House of Representatives can initiate the impeachment of the president, members of the
Supreme Court, and other constitutionally protected public officials such as the Ombudsman. The Senate
will then try the impeachment case. This is another safeguard to promote moral and ethical conduct in
the government.

ATTEMPTS TO AMEND OR CHANGE THE 1987 CONSTITUTION

- The 1987 Constitution provided for three methods by which the Constitution can be amended, all
requiring ratification by a majority vote in a national referendum. These methods were Constituent
Assembly, Constitutional Convention, and People's Initiative. Using these modes, there were efforts to
amend or change the 1987 Constitution, starting with the presidency of Fidel V. Ramos who succeeded
Corazon Aquino. The first attempt was in 1995, when then Secretary of National Security Council Jose
Almonte drafted a constitution, but it was exposed to the media and it never prospered. The second
effort happened in 1997, when a group called PIRMA hoped to gather signatures from voters to change
the constitution through a people's initiative. Many were against this, including then Senator Miriam
Defensor-Santiago, who brought the issue to court and won-with the Supreme Court judging that a
people's initiative cannot push through without an enabling law.
- The succeeding president, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, formed a study commission to investigate the issues
surrounding charter change focusing on the economic and judiciary provisions of the constitution. This
effort was also blocked by different entities. After President Estrada was replaced by another People
Power and succeeded by his Vice President, Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo, then House Speaker Jose de
Venecia endorsed constitutional change through a Constituent Assembly, which entails a two-thirds vote
of the House to propose amendments or revision to the Constitution. This initiative was also not
successful since the term of President Arroyo was mired in controversy and scandal, including the
possibility of Arroyo extending her term as president, which the Constitution does not allow.
- The administration of the succeeding President Benigno Aquino III had no marked interest in charter
change, except those emanating from different members of Congress, including the Speaker of the
House, Feliciano Belmonte Jr., who attempted to introduce amendments to the Constitution that concern
economic provisions that aim toward liberalization. This effort did not see the light of day.
- In an upsurge of populism, President Rodrigo Duterte won the 2016 presidential elections in a campaign
centering on law and order, proposing to reduce crime by killing tens of thousands of criminals. He is
also a known advocate of federalism, a compound mode of government combining a central or federal
government with regional governments in a single political system This advocacy is in part an influence
of his background, being a local leader in Mindanao that has been mired in poverty and violence for
decades. On 7 December 2016, President Duterte signed an executive order creating a consultative
committee to review the 1987 Constitution.
POLICIES ON AGRARIAN REFORM
Agrarian reform is essentially the rectification of the whole system of agriculture, an important aspect of
the Philippine economy because nearly half of the population is employed in the agricultural sector, and most
citizens live in rural areas. Agrarian reform is centered on the relationship between production and the
distribution of land among farmers. It is also focused on the political and economic class character of the
relations of production and distribution in farming and related enterprises, and how these connect to the wider
class structure. Through genuine and comprehensive agrarian reform, the Philippines would be able to gain
more from its agricultural potential and uplift the Filipinos in the agricultural sector, who have been, for the
longest time, suffering in poverty and discontent.
In our attempt to understand the development of agrarian reform in the Philippines, we turn our attention
to our country's history, especially our colonial past, where we could find the root of the agrarian woes the
country has experienced up to this very day.
pg. 6
 LANDOWNERSHIP IN THE PHILIPPINES UNDER SPAIN
When the Spaniards colonized the country, they brought with them a system of pueblo agriculture,
where rural communities, often dispersed and scattered in nature, were organized into a pueblo and given land
to cultivate.
Families were not allowed to own their land-the King of Spain owned the land, and Filipinos were
assigned to these lands to cultivate them, and they paid their colonial tributes to the Spanish authorities in the
form of agricultural products.
Later on, through the Law of the Indies, the Spanish crown awarded tracts of land to (1) religious orders;
(2) repartamientos for Spanish military as reward for their service; and (3) Spanish encomenderos, those
mandated to manage the encomienda or the lands given to them, where Filipinos worked and paid their tributes
to the encomendero. Filipinos were not given the right to own land, and only worked in them so that they might
have a share of the crops and pay tribute. The encomienda system was an unfair and abusive system as
"compras y vandalas" became the norm for the Filipino farmers working the land-they were made to sell their
products at a very low price or surrender their products to the encomenderos, who resold this at a profit.
Filipinos in the encomienda were also required to render services to their encomenderos that were unrelated to
farming.
From this encomienda system, the hacienda system developed in the beginning of the nineteenth century
as the Spanish government implemented policies that would fast track the entry of the colony into the capitalist
world. The economy was tied to the world market as the Philippines became an exporter of raw materials and
importer of goods. Agricultural exports were demanded and the hacienda system was developed as a new form
of ownership. In the 1860s, Spain enacted a law ordering landholders to register their landholdings, and only
those who knew benefitted from this. Lands were claimed and registered in other people's names, and many
peasant families who were "assigned" to the land in the earlier days of colonization were driven out or forced to
come under the power of these people who claimed rights to the land because they held a title.
This is the primary reason why revolts in the Philippines were often agrarian in nature. Before the
colonization, Filipinos had communal ownership of land. The system introduced by the Spaniards became a
bitter source of hatred and discontent for the Filipinos. Religious orders, the biggest landowners in the
Philippines, also became a main source of abuse and exploitation for the Filipinos, increasing the rent paid by
the Filipinos on a whim.
Filipinos fought the Philippine Revolution in a confluence of motivations, but the greatest desire for
freedom would be the necessity of owning land. Upon the end of the Philippine Revolution, the revolutionary
government would declare all large landed estates, especially the confiscated friar lands as government
property. However, the first Philippine republic was short-lived. The entrance of the Americans would signal a
new era of colonialism and imperialism in the Philippines.

LANDOWNERSHIP IN THE PHILIPPINES UNDER THE AMERICANS

The Americans were aware that the main cause of social unrest in the Philippines was landlessness, and
they attempted to put an end to the deplorable conditions of the tenant farmers by passing several land policies
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. Americans were also given rights to
own agricultural lands in the country. The Philippine Commission also enacted Act No. 496 or the Land
Registration Act, which introduced the Torrens system to address the absence of earlier records of issued land
titles and conduct accurate land surveys. In 1903, the homestead program was introduced, allowing a tenant to
enter into an agricultural business by acquiring a farm of at least 16 hectares. This program, however, was
limited to areas in Northern Luzon and Mindanao, where colonial penetration had been difficult for Americans,
a problem they inherited from the Spaniards.
Landownership 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
pg. 7
Americans were given to landless peasant farmers. Some lands were sold or leased to American and Filipino
business interest. This early land reform program was also implemented without support mechanisms-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.
Peasants and workers found refuge from millenarian movements that gave them hope that change could still
happen through militancy.
During the years of the Commonwealth government, the situation further worsened as peasant uprisings
increased and landlord-tenant relationship became more and more disparate. President Quezon laid down a
social justice program focused on the purchase of haciendas, which were to be divided and sold to tenants. His
administration also created the National Rice and Corn Corporation (NARIC) to assign public defenders to
assist peasants in court battles for their rights to the land, and the Court of Industrial Relations to exercise
jurisdiction over disagreements arising from landowner-tenant relationship. The homestead program also
continued through the National Land Settlement Administration (NLSA). Efforts toward 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.

POST-WAR INTERVENTIONS TOWARD AGRARIAN REFORM

Rehabilitation and rebuilding after the war were focused on providing solutions to the problems of the
past. The administration of President Roxas passed Republic Act No. 34 to establish a 70-30 sharing
arrangement between tenant and landlord, respectively, which reduced the interest of landowners' loans to
tenants at six percent or less. The government also attempted to redistribute hacienda lands, falling prey to the
woes of similar attempts since no support was given to small farmers who were given lands. Under the term of
President Elpidio Quirino, the Land Settlement Development Corporation (LASEDECO) was established to
accelerate and expand the resettlement program for peasants. This agency later on became the National
Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA) under the administration of President Ramon
Magsaysay.
Magsaysay saw the importance of pursuing genuine land reform program and convinced the Congress,
majority of which were landed elites, to pass legislation to improve the land reform situation. Republic Act No.
1199 or the Agricultural Tenancy Act was passed to govern the relationship between landholders and tenant
farmers, protecting the tenurial rights of tenants and enforced tenancy practices. Through this law, the Court of
Agricultural Relations was created in 1955 to improve tenancy security, fix land rentals of tenanted farms, and
resolve land disputes filed by the landowners and peasant organizations. The Agricultural Tenancy Commission
was also established to administer problems created by tenancy. The Agricultural Credit and Cooperative
Financing Administration (ACCFA) was also created mainly to provide warehouse facilities and assist farmers
in marketing their products. The administration spearheaded the establishment of the Agricultural and Industrial
Bank to provide easier terms in applying for homestead and other farmlands.
NARRA accelerated the government's resettlement program and distribution of agricultural lands to
landless tenants and farmers. It also aimed to convince members of the Huks, a movement of rebels in Central
Luzon, to resettle in areas where they could restart their lives as peaceful citizens.
Despite a more vigorous effort toward 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.
A major stride in land reform arrived during the term of President Diosdado Macapagal through the
Agricultural Land Reform Code (Republic Act No. 3844).

Primary Source: Declaration of Policy under RA No. 3844 or Agricultural Land Reform Code
Source: Section 2. Declaration of Policy-It is the policy of the State:

pg. 8
(1) 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;
(2) To achieve a dignified existence for the small farmers free from pernicious institutional restraints and
practices;
(3) To create a truly viable social and economic structure in agriculture conducive to greater productivity and
higher farm incomes;
(4) To apply all labor laws equally and without discrimination to both industrial and agricultural wage earners;
(5) To provide a more vigorous and systematic land resettlement program and public land distribution; and
(6) To make the small farmers more independent, self-reliant and responsible citizens, and a source of genuine
strength in our democratic society.
This Code abolished share tenancy in the Philippines and prescribed a program to convert tenant-farmers
to lessees and later on owner-cultivators. It also aimed to free tenants from tenancy and emphasize owner-
cultivatorship and farmer independence, equity, productivity improvement, and public land distribution. Despite
being one of the most comprehensive pieces of land reform legislation ever passed in the Philippines, Congress
did not make any effort to come up with a separate bill to fund its implementation, despite the fact that it proved
beneficial in the provinces where it was pilot tested.

AGRARIAN REFORM EFFORTS UNDER MARCOS

President Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972, enabling him to essentially wipe out the landlord-
dominated Congress. Through his "technocrats," he was able to expand executive power to start a "fundamental
restructuring" of government, including its efforts in solving the deep structural problems of the countryside.
Presidential Decree No. 27 or the Code of Agrarian Reform of the Philippines became the core of agrarian
reform during Marcos regime.
Primary Source: Presidential Decree No. 27, 21 October 1972
This shall apply to tenant farmers of private agricultural lands primarily devoted to rice and corn under a
system of sharecrop or lease-tenancy, whether classified as landed estate or not;
The tenant farmer, whether in land classified as landed estate or not, shall be deemed owner of a portion
constituting a family-size farm of five (5) hectares if not irrigated and three (3) hectares if irrigated;
In all cases, the landowner may retain an area of not more than seven (7) hectares if such landowner is
cultivating such area or will now cultivate it;
For the purpose of determining the cost of the land to be transferred to the tenant-farmer pursuant to this
Decree, the value of the land shall be equivalent to two and one-half (2 1/2) times the average harvest of
three normal crop years immediately preceding the promulgation of this Decree,
The total cost of the land, including interest at the rate of six (6) per centum per annum, shall be paid by the
tenant in fifteen (15) years of fifteen (15) equal annual amortizations,
In case of default, the amortization due shall be paid by the farmers' cooperative in which the defaulting
tenant-farmer is a member, with the cooperative having a right of recourse against him:
The government shall guaranty such amortizations with shares of stock in government-owned and
government-controlled corporations;
No title to the land owned by the tenant-farmers under this Decree shall be actually issued to a tenant farmer
unless and until the tenant farmer has become a full-fledged member of a duly recognized farmer's
cooperative;
Title to land acquired pursuant to this Decree or the Land Reform Program of the Government shall not be
transferable except by hereditary succession or to the Government in accordance with the provisions of this
Decree, the Code of Agrarian Reforms and other existing laws and regulations;
The Department of Agrarian Reform through its Secretary is hereby empowered to promulgate rules and
regulations for the implementation of this Decree
"Operation Land Transfer" on lands occupied by tenants of more than seven hectares on rice and corn lands
commenced, and through legal compulsion and an improved delivery of support services to small farmers,
agrarian reform seemed to be finally achievable. Under the rice self-sufficiency program "Masagana '99,"
farmers were able to borrow from banks and purchase three-hectare plots of lands and agricultural inputs.
However, the landlord class still found ways to circumvent the law. Because only rice lands were the focus of
agrarian reform, some landlords only needed to change crops to be exempted from the program, such as coconut
and sugar lands. Lands worked by wage labor were also exempt from the program, so the landed elite only had
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to evict their tenants and hired workers instead. Landlessness increased, which made it all the more difficult for
the program to succeed because landless peasants were excluded from the program. Many other methods were
employed by the elite to find a way to maintain their power and dominance, which were worsened by the
corruption of Marcos and his cronies who were also involved in the agricultural sector.

POST-1986 AGRARIAN REFORM

The overthrow of Marcos and the 1987 Constitution resulted in a renewed interest and attention to
agrarian reform as President Corazon Aquino envisioned agrarian reform to be the centerpiece of her
administration's social legislation, which proved difficult because her background betrayed her she came from a
family of a wealthy and landed clan that owned the Hacienda Luisita.
On 22 July 1987, Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order 229, which outlined
her land reform program. In 1988, the Congress passed Republic Act No. 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Law (CARL), which introduced the program with the same name (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program or CARP). It enabled the redistribution of agricultural lands to tenant farmers from landowners, who
were paid in exchange by the government through just compensation and allowed them to retain not more than
five hectares. Corporate landowners were, however, allowed under law to voluntarily divest a proportion of
their capital stock, equity, or participation in favor of their workers or other qualified beneficiaries instead of
turning over their land to the government.
CARP was limited because it accomplished very little during the administration of Aquino. It only
accomplished 22.5% of land distribution in six years owing to the fact that Congress, dominated by the landed
elite, was unwilling to fund the high compensation costs of the program. It was also mired in controversy, since
Aquino seemingly bowed down to the pressure of her relatives by allowing the stock redistribution option.
Hacienda Luisita reorganized itself into a corporation and distributed stocks to farmers.
Under the term of President Ramos, CARP implementation was speeded in order to meet the ten-year
time frame, despite limitations and constraints in funding, logistics, and participation of involved sectors. By
1996, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) distributed only 58.25% of the total area target to be covered
by the program. To address the lacking funding and the dwindling time for the implementation of CARP, Ramos
signed Republic Act No. 8532 in 1998 to amend CARL and extend the program to another ten years.

CARPER AND THE FUTURE OF AGRARIAN REFORM IN THE PHILIPPINES

The new deadline of CARP expired in 2008, leaving 1.2 million farmer beneficiaries and 1.6 million
hectares of agricultural land to be distributed to farmers. In 2009, President Arroyo signed Republic Act No.
9700 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER), the amendatory law
that extended the deadline to five more years. Section 30 of the law also mandates that any case and/or
proceeding involving the implementation of the provisions of CARP, as amended, which may remain pending
on 30 June 2014 shall be allowed to proceed to its finality and executed even beyond such date.
From 2009 to 2014, CARPER has distributed a total of 1 million hectares of land to 900,000 farmer
beneficiaries. After 27 years of land reform and two Aquino administrations, 500,000 hectares of lands remain
undistributed. The DAR and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) are the
government agencies mandated to fulfill CARP and CARPER, but even the combined effort and resources of
the two agencies have proved incapable of fully achieving the goal of agrarian reform in the Philippines. The
same problems have plagued its implementation: the powerful landed elite and the ineffectual bureaucracy of
the Philippine government. Until these two challenges are surmounted, genuine agrarian reform in the
Philippines remains but a dream to Filipino farmers who have been fighting for their right to landownership for
centuries.

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