Agrarian Reform During Corazon Aquino

Nature
President 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 February 22, 1987, three weeks after the resounding ratification of the 1987 Constitution, agrarian workers and farmers marched to the historic Mendiola Street near the Malacaan 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.

Status After Their Term

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.[17] 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.[18] 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.[19] 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,

Remarks

Ramon Magsaysay

To amplify and stabilize the functions of the Economic Development Corps (EDCOR), President Magsaysay worked[2] for the establishment of the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA). This body took over from the EDCOR and helped in the giving some sixty five thousand acres to three thousand indigent families for settlement purposes.[2] Again, it allocated some other twenty five thousand to a little more than one thousand five hundred landless families, who subsequently became farmers.
[2] [2]

President Ramn Magsaysay enacted the following laws as part of his Agrarian Reform Program:

Republic Act No. 1160 of 1954Abolished the LASEDECO and established the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA) to resettle dissidents and landless farmers. It was particularly aimed at rebel returnees providing home lots and farmlands in Palawan and Mindanao.

Republic Act No. 1199 (Agricultural Tenancy Act of 1954) governed the relationship between landowners and tenant farmers by organizing share-tenancy and leasehold system. The law provided the security of tenure of tenants. It also created the Court of Agrarian Relations.

As further aid to the rural people,[2] the President Established the Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Administration (ACCFA). The idea was for this entity to make available rural credits. Records show that it did grant, in this wise, almost ten million dollars. This administration body next devoted its attention to cooperative marketing.[2] Along this line of help to the rural areas, President Magsaysay initiated in all earnestness the artesian wells campaign. A group-movement known as the Liberty Wells Association was formed and in record time managed to

Republic Act No. 1400 (Land Reform Act of 1955) Created the Land Tenure Administration (LTA) which was responsible for the acquisition and distribution of large tenanted rice and corn lands over 200 hectares for individuals and 600 hectares for corporations.

Republic Act No. 821 (Creation of Agricultural Credit Cooperative Financing Administration) Provided small farmers and share tenants loans with low interest rates of six to eight percent

raise a considerable sum for the construction of as many artesian wells as possible. The socio-economic value of the same could not be gainsaid and the people were profuse in their gratitude.[2] Finally, vast irrigation projects, as well as enhancement of the Ambuklao Power plant and other similar ones, went along way towards bringing to reality the rural improvement program advocated by President Magsaysay

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

In 2002, DAR resolved 34,182 legal cases, most of which (22,624) are about CARP implementation. It is 11 percent higher than the target of 30, 793. The DAR Adjudication Board (DARAB) handled 28,935 cases in 2002 and solved 15,919 cases, or 74 percent of the target 21,489 cases. To date, DARAB reported that it has resolved 10,959 cases related to exemption, conversion, and retention rights. Some 4,218 cases related to land valuation, ejection, collection and fixing of rentals, and cancellation of emancipation patents (EPs) or certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) have been resolved. DAR has undertaken the hiring of more legal officers to strengthen the adjudication boards, the implementation of a quota system to speed up adjudication work, and the paralegal training of ARBs to hasten the resolution of cases and clear the backlog.

Implementing the CARP DAR is the principal agency responsible for implementing the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Under this program, the DAR has initiated the projects Gulayan ng Magsasakang Agraryo (GMA), which aims to improve the economic and social conditions of farmers through scientific, environmentfriendly and highly productive vegetable farming; the Diosdado Macapagal Agrarian Scholarship Program, which extends educational assistance to deserving and qualified children of ARBs, in cooperation with the state universities and colleges; and the KALAHI Agrarian Reform Zones, which are contiguous agrarian reform communities (ARCs) where support services for ARBs will be given more focus and are envisioned to become hubs of agro-industrial development

Joseph Esrada

The Estrada administration widened the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to the landless peasants in the country side.[11] The latter's administration distributed more than 266,000 hectares of land to 175,000 landless farmers, including land owned by the traditional rural elite. (Total of 523,000 hectares to 305,000 farmers during his 2nd year as President).[12] On September 1999, he issued Executive Order (EO) 151, also known as Farmer's Trust Fund, which allows the voluntary consolidation of small farm operation into medium and large scale integrated enterprise that can access long-term capital. President Estrada launched the Magkabalikat Para sa Kaunlarang Agraryo or MAGKASAKA

The DAR forged into joint ventures with private investors into agrarian sector to make FBs [13] competitive. In 1999 a huge fund was allocated to [14] agricultural programs. One of which is the "Agrikulturang Maka Masa", through which it achieved an output growth of 6 percent, a record [9] high at the time, thereby lowering the inflation rate from 11 percent in January 1999 to just a little over 3 percent by November of the same year.

Ninoy Aquino

Among the remaining problems in the implementation of Carper, noted the bishops, are the inadequate allocation of Carper funds; the underperformance of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR); and the continued human rights violations being suffered by farmers. To note, the Hacienda Luisita, which is owned by Aquino's family in Tarlac, is one of those that are subjected to the Carper. Aside from the President's action, the bishops also called for the replacement of Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is calling on President Benigno Aquino III to take the lead in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) with its expiration already looming in July 2014. In a letter signed by 78 of the 120 members of CBCP, the bishops said there is a need for Aquino to take a handson approach on the program due to its dismal implementation since the Carp extension with reforms (Carper) law was signed August 2009.