2. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
o Known as R.A. 6657 signed by President Cory Aquino
o The welfare of the landless farmers and farm workers will receive the
highest consideration to promote social justice and to move the nation
toward sound rural development and industrialization, and the establishment
of owner cultivatorship of economic sized farms as the basis of Philippine
agriculture.
o A more equitable distribution of land, with due regards to the rights of
landowners to just compensation and to the ecological needs of the nation,
undertaken to provide farms and farm workers with the opportunity to
enhance their dignity and improve the quality of their lives through greater
productivity of agriculture lands.
o In the 70’s, the Philippines has one of the highest farm tenancy rates in Asia.
3. The Land reform before 1972
A Rice Share Tenancy Act was passed in
1933 but the legislation was circumvented by
Landlords interest and was never
implemented. Republic Acts 1911 and 1400
in 1954 and 1955 established a formula for
crop sharing, promoted the resettlement of
the public lands, and provided for the
expropriation of land estates to provide
family size farms for endless tenants.
In 1963 the Agricultural Land Reform Code
(RA 3844) shifted the emphasis away from
expropriation and resettlement to a two
stage conversion of share croppers.
Leaseholders
Leaseholders into owner operators
5. Operation Land Transfer
Department of agrarian reform, consists of
issuing and distributing certificates of land
transfer and transferring titles to former
tenants.
The certificate is not deed or title to the land
but merely verifies that the tenant is the
tiller of the land he claims to be cultivating.
Although the intention in 1972 was to transfer
titles for all 1.5million hectares, in 1974 the
government indicated that tenanted holding
of 7 or fewer hectares would be exempted
from the land transfer.
Administrative difficulties have arisen primarily
as the result of the long delay in issuing
rules and regulations for the DAR field
teams.
The emphasis of the 1972 reforms on the
transfer of ownership highlights the problem
of incomplete records of land titles and land
6. Coverage of CARP
o The comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 shall cover,
regardless of the arrangement of tenure and commodity produced,
all public and private agriculture lands as provided in Proclamation
No. 131 and Executive Order No. 229, including other lands of the
public domain suitable for agricultureThe following lands are
covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program :
All alienable and disposable lands of the public domain devoted to or suitable for
agriculture.
All land of the public domain in excess of the specific limits as determined by
Congress in the preceding paragraph;
All other lands owned by the government devoted to or suitable for agriculture;
and
All private lands devoted to or suitable for agriculture regardless of the
agricultural products raised or that can be raised thereon.
7. Schedule of Implementation
o The distribution of all
lands covered by this
Act shall be
implemented and
complete within ten
years from the
effectivity of this code.
8. Retention of Limits
Except as otherwise provided in this Act, no person may own or retain,
directly or indirectly, any public or private agricultural land, the size of
which shall vary according to factors governing viable sized farm, such
as commodity produced, terrain, infrastructure, and soil fertility as
determine by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) created
here under, but in no case shall retention by the land owner exceed 5
hectares. 3 hectares may be awarded to the child of the land owner,
subject to the following qualifications:That he is at least 15 years of age.
That he is actually tilling the land or directly managing the farm.
10. Ancestral Lands
o Ancestral Lands of each indigenous cultural commodity
shall include, but not be limited to, lands in the actual,
continuous and open possession, and occupation of the
community and its members: provided, that the Torrens
Systems shall be respected.
o Ancestral lands shall be protected to insure their economic,
social, and cultural well being.
11. Commercial farming
o Commercial farms, which are private
agricultural lands devoted to
commercial livestock, poultry and
swine raising, and aquaculture
including saltbeds, fishponds and
prawn ponds, fruit farms, orchards,
vegetable and cut-flower farms, and
cacao, coffee and rubber plantations
shall be subject to immediate
compulsory acquisition and distribution
after ten (10) years from the effectivity
of this Act.
13. Definitions
o For the purpose of this Act, here are some definitions used:
o Agrarian reform means the redistribution of lands, regardless of crops or fruits
produced, to farmers and regular farmworkers who are landless.
o Agriculture, Agriculture Enterprise, or Agricultural Activity means the cultivation of
the soil, planting of crops, growing of fruit trees, raising of livestock, poultry or
fish, including the harvesting of such farm products, and other farm activities,
and practices performed by a farmer in conjunction with such farming operations
done by persons whether natural or juridical.
14.
15. o Agricultural Land refers to land devoted to agricultural activity as defined in this
Act and not classified as mineral, forest, residential, commercial, or industrial
land.
o Idle or Abandoned Land refers to any agricultural land not cultivated, tilled or
developed to produce any crop nor devoted to any specific economic purpose
continuously for a period of 3 years immediately prior to the receipt of notice of
acquisition by the government as provided under this Act, but does not include
land that has become permanently or regularly devoted to non-agricultural
purposes.
o Farmers, refer to a natural person whose primary livelihood is cultivation of land
or the production of agricultural crops, either by himself, or primarily with the
assistance of his immediate farm household, whether the land is owned by him,
or by another person under a leasehold or share tenancy agreement or
arrangement with the owner thereof.
o Farm worker is a natural person who renders service for value as an employee
or laborer in an agricultural enterprise or farm regardless of whether his
compensation is paid on a daily, weekly, monthly or “pakyaw” basis.
o Regular farm worker is a natural person who is employed on a permanent basis
by an agricultural enterprise or farm.
17. Valuation and Mode of Compensation
o The compensation shall be paid in one of the following modes, at the option
of the landowner.
o Cash payment, under the following terms and conitions:
o For Lands above 50 hectares – 25% cash, the balance to be paid in government
financial instruments.
o For Lands above 24 hectares – 30% cash, the balance to be paid in government
financial instruments.
o Shares of stock in government-owned or controlled corporations, LBP
preferred shares, physical assets or other qualified investments in
accordance with guidelines set by the PARC;
o Tax credits which can be used against any tax liability;
o Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) bonds.
19. Qualified Beneficiaries
o The lands covered by the CARP shall be distributed as
much as possible to landless residents of the same
barangay, or in the absence thereof, landless residents of
the same municipality on the following order of priority:
o Agricultural lessees and share tenants;
o Regular farmworkers;
o Seasonal farmworkers;
o Other farmworkers;
o Actual tillers or occupants of public land;
o Collectives or cooperatives of the above beneficiaries; and
o Others directly working on the land.
20. Distribution of Limits
o No qualified beneficiaries may
own more than 3 hectares of
agricultural land.
21. o To ensure availability of funds and resources to implement and support CARP, Sec. 63 of
the law provides the following funding and resources:
o The initial amount needed to implement this act for the period of 10 years upon
approval hereof shall be funded from the agrarian reform fund created under Sections
20 and 21 of Executive Order No. 229. Additional amounts are hereby authorized to
be appropriated when needed to augment the Agrarian Reform Fund in order to fully
implement the provisions of this act.
o Source of funding or appropriations shall include the following:
o Proceed of the sales of the assets Privatization Trust;
o All receipts from assets recovered and from sales of ill-gotten wealth recovered
through the Presidential Commission on Good Government;
o Proceeds of the disposition of the properties of the government in foreign countries;
o Portions of amount accruing to the Philippines from all sources of official foreign aid
grants and concessional enterprises, operated by multinational corporations and
associations.
o Other government funds not otherwise appropriated; and
o All funds appropriated to implement the provisions of this act shall be considered
continuing appropriations during the period of its implementation.
Funding the Agrarian Reform Law
22. A Look at the Future
o Over the next 10 years, the major programs and projects of CARP will largely
concentrate on the acceleration and completion of activities particularly under
the operation land transfer and resettlement.
o The National Economic and Development Authority’s (NEDA’s) Five Year
Development Plan for 1987 to 1992 targets for operation land transfer around
1.4 million Emancipation Patents or titles covering farm and home lots including
idle and abandoned lands and foreclosed properties to be issued to 687,000
farmers over the next 6 years.
o The landed estate activity is envisioned to cover the issuance of 40 thousand
orders of awards/certificates of land transfer for 22 thousand beneficiaries
involving an area of 31 thousand hectares.
o The resettlement activity is envisaged to cover some 28,000 homestead patents
to be issued to the same number of beneficiaries during the period 1987-1992.
o Under land surveys, a total area of 3,375,000 hectares is projected to be
subjected to cover 334,500 hectares, mostly in settlements and landed estates.
o The comprehensive agrarian reform program is really comprehensive in scope.
o Agrarian reform and industrialization are related and complementary.