COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM

(CARP) Latifundia or Cacique system

1. Inquilinato system
LAND REFORM
2. Kasama system
• Refers to all sets of activities and measures that
3. Takipan system
may or should be taken to improve or correct
4. Talindua
the defects or problems in the relations among
5. Terciahan
men with respect to their rights to the land they
till
AGRARIAN REFORM & THE ECONOMY
• Technically defined as an integrated set of
• An effective agrarian reform is a precursor to
measures designed to eliminate obstacles to
successful economy
economic and social development arising out of
• Agrarian reform has several effects to economy in
defects in the agrarian structure
terms of
1. Agricultural productivity
AGRARIAN REFORM
2. Poverty Reduction
• Defined as the rectification of the whole system
3. Income and Living standards
of agriculture
4. Employment
• The redistribution of lands, regardless of crops
5. Investment and capital formation
or fruits produced, to farmers and regular
6. Impartiality on rural population
farmworkers who are landless
• It comprises not only land reform but also the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (RA 6657)
reform and development of complimentary
institutional frameworks, rural education, and
RA 6657
social welfare institutions
• Otherwise known as the “Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Law (CARL)”
AGRARIAN REFORM MEASURES
• The act instituted the Comprehensive Agrarian
Agrarian reform would, therefore, also cover the
Reform Program to promote social justice and
following:
industrialization, providing the mechanism for
1. Public health programs
its implementation, and for other purposes
2. Family planning
3. Education and training of farmers
COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM
4. Reorganization of land reforms agencies
• A response to the people’s clamor and
5. Application of labor laws to agricultural workers
expectations of a more effective land reform
6. Construction of infrastructure facilities such as
program that would supposedly correct the
feeder roads, irrigation systems, etc., and the
many flaws that plagued the previous land
establishment of rural electrification
reform programs
7. Organization of various types of voluntary
• the redistribution of public and private
associations
agricultural lands to farmers and farmworkers
8. Providing employment opportunities to
who are landless, irrespective of tenurial
underemployed or surplus rural labor; and
arrangement
9. Other services of a community development nature
• CARP’s vision is to have an equitable land
ownership with empowered agrarian reform
PHILIPPINE AGRARIAN STRUCTURE
beneficiaries who can effectively manage their
• One of the main defects of our country agrarian
economic and social development to have a
structure was the high proportion of share
better quality of life
tenancy in our country.
• Latifundia or cacique system that the Filipinos
Coverage of CARP
had for decades made the life of Filipino tenants
1. Government owned lands devoted to or
miserable
suitable for agriculture;
 2. Alienable and disposable lands of the public SUPPORT SERVICES
domain devoted to or suitable for agriculture; 1. Irrigation facilities
3. Public domain lands in excess of the specific 2. Infrastructure development and public works
limits as determined by Congress; and projects
4. Private lands devoted to or suitable for 3. Government subsidies for the use of irrigation
agriculture regardless of the agricultural 4. Price support and guarantee for all agricultural
products raised or that can be raised thereon. produces
5. Extending necessary credits to farmers and
COMPENSATION landowners
• Determination of Just Compensation 6. Promoting, developing and extending financial
• Valuation and Mode of Compensation assistance to industries
1. Cash payment under the following terms
and conditions SUPPORT PROGRAMS
● For lands above 50 hectares – 25% cash • Land Bank of the Philippines
● For lands above 24 -50 hectares – 30% cash • DPWH
2. Shares of stock in government-owned or • National Irrigation Administration
controlled corporations
3. Tax credits which can be used against any HISTORY OF AGRARIAN REFORM
tax liability
Agrarian reform is a 100-year history of unfinished
4. Land Bank of the Philippines bonds
reforms after the United States took over the country
from the Spaniards.
SOURCES OF FUNDS
1. Proceeds of the sales of Assets Privatization Trust
Pre-Spanish Period
2. All receipts from assets recovered and from sales of
• There were no owner-cultivators (everyone can
ill-gotten wealth recovered through the Presidential
access the fruits of the soil), only communal
Commission on Good Government
land owned by the barangay which consisted of
3. Proceeds of the disposition of the properties of the
a datu, freemen, serfs and slaves.
government in foreign countries
• Rice was the medium of exchange
4. Portion of amounts accruing to the Philippines from
all sources of official foreign aid grants and
Spanish Period
concessional enterprises, operated by multinational
• The Spaniards replaced this traditional system
corporations and associations, shall be programmed
of land ownership, similar to existing systems
for acquisition and distribution
among several indigenous communities today
and distributed the land (haciendas) to the
LAND REDISTRIBUTION
Spanish military and the clergy or established
• Qualified Beneficiaries
encomiendas (administrative districts).
a. Agricultural lessees and share tenants
b. Regular farmworkers
★ Manuel Roxas (1946-1948)
c. Seasonal farmworkers
d. Other farmworkers What happened to the estates took over by the
e. Actual tillers or occupants of public lands HUKBALAHAP during the Japanese occupation?
f. Collectives or cooperatives of the above • These estates were confiscated and returned to
beneficiaries its owners. Because of this, some of the
g. Others directly working on the land farmer-tenants preferred to join the HUK
• Distribution Limits movement rather than go back and serve their
• Award to Beneficiaries landlords under the same conditions prior to
• Payment by Beneficiaries World War II.
• Transferability of Awarded Lands
What were the key accomplishments during the Roxas • R.A. No. 1160 (1954): Free distribution of
administration? Resettlement and Rehabilitation and
• Republic Act No. 34 was enacted to establish a Agricultural land and an Act establishing the
70-30 sharing arrangement between tenant and National Resettlement and Rehabilitation
landlord. The 70% of the harvest will go to the Administration (NARRA).
person who shouldered the expenses for
planting, harvesting and for the work animals. How did he implement the Agricultural Tenancy Act?
• It also reduced the interest of landowners’ loans • He established the Court of Agricultural
to tenants at not more than 6%. Relations in 1955 to improve tenancy security,
• President Roxas also negotiated for the fix the land rentals on tenanted farms, and to
purchase of 8,000 hectares of lands in Batangas resolve the many land disputes filed by the
owned by the Ayala-Zobel family. These were landowners and peasant organizations.
sold to landless farmers. • He also created the Agricultural Tenancy
Commission to administer problems arising
★ Elpidio Quirino (1948-1953) from tenancy. Through this Commission 28,000
hectares were issued to settlers.
What was the major program of the Quirino
administration regarding agrarian reform?
What were this administration’s key support programs
• Through Executive Order No. 355, the Land
on AR?
Settlement Development Corporation
• Creation of the Agricultural Credit and
(LASEDECO) was established to accelerate and
Cooperative Financing Administration (ACCFA),
expand the peasant resettlement A Bureau of
a government agency formed to provide
Agrarian Reform Information and Education
warehouse facilities and assist farmers market
program of the government. However, due to
their products.
limited post-war resources, the program was
• Organization of Farmers Cooperatives and
not successful.
Marketing Associations (FACOMAs).
• Resettlement program pursued through
★ Ramon Magsaysay (1953-1957)
National Resettlement and Rehabilitation
Did President Magsaysay pursue land reform during his Administration (NARRA) or RA No. 1160 of
term? 1954, established to pursue the government’s
• Yes, President Magsaysay realized the resettlement program and to accelerate free
importance of pursuing a more distribution of agricultural lands to landless
honest-to-goodness land reform program. He tenants and farmers. It particularly aimed to
convinced the elite controlled congress to pass convince members of the HUKBALAHAP
several legislations to improve the land reform movement to return to a peaceful life by giving
situation, to wit: them home lots and farmlands settlement.
• R.A. No. 1400 (1955): Land Reform Act or • Establishment of an Agricultural and Industrial
known as “Land to the Landless” Program which Bank to provide easier terms in applying for
sought improvement in land tenure and homestead and other farmland.
guaranteed the expropriation of all tenanted
landed estates. Did these interventions improve the land ownership
• R.A. No. 1266 (1955): Expropriation of Hacienda and tenancy situation?
del Rosario, situated at Valdefuente, • Out of the targeted 300 haciendas for
Cabanatuan City. distribution, only 41 were distributed after its 7
• R.A. No. 1199 (1954): Agricultural Tenancy Act, years of implementation. This was due to lack of
basically governed the relationship between funds and inadequate support services provided
landholders and tenant-farmers. This law helped for these programs.
protect the tenurial rights of tenant tillers and
enforced fair tenancy practices.
 • Landlords continued to be uncooperative and
critical to the program; and landownership and ★ Ferdinand E. Marcos (1965-1986)
tenancy problems continued.
What was the heart of President Marcos’ Agrarian
Reform Program?
★ Carlos P. Garcia (1957-1961)
• Presidential Decree No. 27 became the heart of
Was there legislation on land reform under this the Marcos reform. It provided for tenanted
administration? lands devoted to rice and corn to pass
• There was no legislation passed in his term, but ownership to the tenants and lowered the
he continued to implement the land reform ceilings for landholdings to 7 hectares. The law
programs of President Magsaysay. stipulated that share tenants who worked from
landholding of over 7 hectares could purchase
★ Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965) the land they tilled, while share tenants on land
less than 7 hectares would become
Why was President Diosdado Macapagal considered
leaseholders.
the “Father of Agrarian Reform”?
• It was during his term that the Agricultural Land How can this Agrarian Reform Program help the
Reform Code or RA No. 3844 was enacted on farmers?
August 8, 1963. This was considered to be the • His agrarian reform program was designed to
most comprehensive piece of agrarian reform uplift the farmers from poverty and ignorance
legislation ever enacted in the country. and to make them useful, dignified, responsible
and progressive partners in nation-building. His
Why was RA No. 3844 considered the most AR program was a package of service extended
comprehensive piece of legislation ever enacted in the to farmers in the form of credit support,
Philippines? infrastructure, farm extension, legal assistance,
• This Act abolished share tenancy in the electrification and development of rural
Philippines. It prescribed a program converting institutions.
the tenant farmers to lessees and eventually
Why was President Marcos’ agrarian reform program
into owner-cultivators;
labeled as “revolutionary” by some sectors?
• It aimed to free tenants from the bondage of
• It was considered revolutionary for two reasons:
tenancy and gave hope to poor Filipino farmers
1. It was pursued under Martial Law and intended
• It emphasized owner-cultivatorship and farmer
to make quick changes without going through
independence, equity, productivity
legislative or technical processes;
improvement and the public distribution of
2. It was the only law in the Philippines ever done
land.
in handwriting.
What happened to the implementation of this Act? What were some of the limitations of his agrarian
• The landed Congress did not provide effort to reform program?
come up with a separate bill to provide funding • Scope of program was limited only to tenanted,
for its implementation. A Bureau of Agrarian privately-owned rice and corn lands;
Reform Information and Education. However, • Monopoly of businessmen in the coconut and
this act was piloted in the provinces of sugar industries. Foreign and local firms were
Pangasinan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija,Pampanga, allowed to use large tracks of land for their
Tarlac, Occidental Mindoro, Camarines Sur and business;
Misamis Oriental. • Declaration of Martial Law leading to the arrest
• It acquired a total of 18,247.06 hectares or of several farmer leaders without due process of
99.29% out of the total scope of 18,377.05 law due to suspension of the Writ of Habias
hectares. The program benefited 7,466 Farmer Corpus.
Beneficiaries. • Implementation of the programs were not
included in the provision of PD 27.
 • Excluding about 3.5 Million landless and tenant justice and Industrialization, providing the
farmers under plantation crops. mechanism for its implementation and for other
★ Corazon C. Aquino (1986-1982) purposes.

Why did Pres. Aquino put AR as cornerstone of her Were there measures to speed up CARP
administration? implementation?
• She believed that “The stewardship of the land • To strengthen CARP and fast track its
that the landlords were said to have neglected implementation, President Aquino issued the
shall now pass, as the law is implemented, to following Executive Orders (EO):
the tillers. That stewardship should weigh as • E.O. No. 405 - gave the Land Bank of the
heavily on the many as it did on the few. The Philippines the primary responsibility for the
same bottom line applies to them: the wisest land valuation function in order for DAR to
use of the land for the greatest generation of concentrate its efforts on the identification of
wealth for themselves and for the entire landholdings and beneficiaries, the distribution
nation”. (Speech during the signing of the of acquired lands, and the other
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Bill, sub-components of the program.
June 10, 1988) • E.O. No. 406 - emphasized that CARP is central
to the government’s efforts to hasten
What AR legislations and issuances passed under her countryside agro-industrial development and
administration? directed the implementing agencies to align
• Proclamation 131 instituted the their respective programs and projects with
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program CARP.
(CARP) as a major program of the government. • This created CARP implementing teams from
It provided for a special fund known as the the national to the municipal levels and gave
Agrarian Reform Fund (ARF) in the amount of 50 priority to 24 strategic operating provinces
Billion pesos to cover the estimated cost of the where the bulk of CARP workload lies.
program for the period 1987-1997. • E.O. No. 407 - directed all government financing
institutions (GFIs) and government owned and
• EO 129-A, reorganized the Department of
controlled corporations (GOCCs) to immediately
Agrarian Reform and expanded in power and
transfer to DAR all their landholdings suitable
operations. (The Record and Legacy of the
for agriculture.
Aquino Administration in AR: Executive
• E.O. No. 448 – pursued the policy that
Summary, Planning Service, DAR) EO 228,
government should lead efforts in placing lands
declared full ownership of the land to qualified
for coverage under CARP. It directed the
farmer-beneficiaries covered by PD 27. It also
immediate turn-over of government
regulated (fixed) the value of remaining rice and
reservations, no longer needed, that are
corn lands for coverage provided for the
suitable for agriculture.
manner of payment by the farmer-beneficiaries
and the mode of compensation (form of
What were the other accomplishments of the Aquino
payment) to the landowners.
administration in the implementation of the agrarian
• EO 229, provided the administrative processes
reform program?
for land registration or LISTASAKA program,
• Grants and budgetary support from official
acquisition of private land and compensation
development assistance (ODA) circles
procedures for landowners. It specified the
• Recognition of agrarian reforms as a worthwhile
structure and functions of units that will
social investment
coordinate and supervise the implementation of
• Improvement of the status of tenant-tillers
the program.
• RA 6657 or Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
What were some of the challenges faced by the
Law (CARL), an act instituting a comprehensive
administration in the implementation of CARP?
agrarian reform program to promote social
 • Failure to address the loopholes of CARP • Distributed 266,000 hectares of land to175,000
particularly for land valuation, retention limits, farmers in the start of his career.
coverage, exemption/exclusion, commercial
farming, and stock distribution • EO 151 - also known as Farmer’s Trust Fund,
• Absence of clear guidelines on land use which allows the voluntary consolidation of
conversion small farm operation into medium and
• Absence of measures to protect the rights of the large-scale integrated enterprise that can access
tribal communities over their ancestral domain long-term capital.
• Major budgetary shortfall of Agrarian Reform
Fund (ARF) ★ Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
• Many changes of leadership in DAR which led to
• landless farmers and farmworkers will receive a
lack of continuity in priority programs
family sized farms and not just compensations
from the owner where they work in
★ Fidel V. Ramos (1992-1998)
• Year 2002:
What did he do for CARP? – DAR was able to distribute 111,772
• When President Fidel V. Ramos formally took hectares to 75,560 agrarian reform
over in 1992, his administration came face to beneficiaries (ARBs), over 11 percent of
face with publics who have lost confidence in the target of 100,000 hectares set by
the agrarian reform program. His administration President Arroyo during her
committed to the vision “Fairer, faster and more state-of-the-nation address.
meaningful implementation of the Agrarian • January to March 2003, DAR distributed 11,095
Reform Program. hectares, higher than the 10,307 hectares and
10,033 hectares distributed during the same
What were his contributions to CARP? period in 2001 and 2002, respectively.
• Republic Act No. 7881, 1995 – Amended certain
provisions of RA 6657 and exempted fishponds • KALAHI Agrarian Reform Zones
and prawns from the coverage of CARP. – which are contiguous agrarian reform
• Republic Act No. 7905, 1995 – Strengthened communities (ARCs) where support
the implementation of the CARP. services for ARBs will be given more
• Executive Order No. 363, 1997 – Limits the type focus and are envisioned to become
of lands that may be converted by setting hubs of agro-industrial development.
conditions under which limits the type of lands
that may be converted by setting conditions • Land Tenure Improvement
under which specific categories of agricultural – DAR will remain vigorous in
land are either absolutely non-negotiable for implementing land acquisition and
conversion or highly restricted for conversion. distribution component of CARP. The
• Republic Act No. 8435, 1997 (Agriculture and DAR will improve land tenure system
Fisheries Modernization Act AFMA) – Plugged through land distribution and leasehold.
the legal loopholes in land use conversion.
• Republic Act 8532, 1998 (Agrarian Reform Fund ★ Benigno Simeon S. Aquino III
Bill) – Provided an additional Php50 billion for
The DAR said that:
CARP and extended its implementation for
● P10 billion of its total budget for next year will
another 10 years.
go to land tenure’s improvement, which include
landowners’ compensation;
★ Joseph Estrada
● P7.3 billion to program beneficiaries’
• Widened the coverage of the Comprehensive development made up of support services in
Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to the landless the form of basic rural infrastructure projects
peasants in the countryside. and skills development program;
 ● P1 billion to agrarian justice delivery.

▪ The 6,000-hectare Hacienda Luisita sugar plantation

is owned by the Cojuangco family, of which
President Benigno Aquino is the leading scion.
When his mother, Corazon Aquino, assumed the
presidency in the aftermath of the Marcos
dictatorship, she was immediately confronted with
demands from working people for concessions,
including for land for the country’s impoverished
peasantry.
▪ The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and
Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) have
asked the Supreme Court (SC) to order the
distribution of 4,915.75 hectares of sugarland to
6,296 original farmer-beneficiaries.

“Government wants Luisita distributed to tenants”

By Edu Punay (The Philippine Star)

REASONS OF SOME FAILURES IN THE PROGRAM

1. The program stopped at the land redistribution
and failed to provide the other companion
measures necessary for success
2. The farmers are not prepared to take over the
responsibilities given to them because they
were not organized and did not have proper
orientation needed for such undertaking
3. There was haphazard planning on the part of
the government officials who were initiating the
program