Gabriel Gomez 2A AgraSoc Homework

What is Agrarian Reform?

Agrarian reform is the program instituted by the government in

order to implement the mandate of the constitution found in section 4
to section 7 article XIIIThe agrarian reform program’s goal is the
redistribution of lands to farmers who are landless regardless of any
agreement regarding tenure. The program is designed also to lift the
status of those who will receive land as well as to create alternatives
that are in consonance with agrarian reform though not necessarily
involving the redistribution of lands such as but not limited to,
production or profit sharing, Labor and administration and the
distribution of shares of stock that will allow the beneficiaries to
receive a just share of the fruits of the land they work.

Agrarian Reform is not a new concept, it has been a goal of the

government since 1935 which incorporated provisions for social
justice and estate distribution to solve tenancy issues. In 1955, the
Land Reform act was passed that provided for expropriation of
tenanted estates and thereafter on August 1963 a agricultural reform
cose was passed to abolish the share tenancy system entirely and
replace it instead with leasehold tenancy, another major development
was the establishment of the Land Bank which was to provide
support in carrying out agrarian reform. However the agricultural
reform code was quite limiting and covered only certain types of
tenant systems and certain kinds of lands depending on what was
being cultivated. However the passage of the Marcos years and the
1987 constitution would see a wider and more inclusive form of
agrarian reform implemented and which behan with EO 229 that
began the program of comprehensive agrarian reform followed finally
by RA 6647 the comprehensive agrarian reform Law of 1988 is the
law that operationalized the constitutional mandate. It expanded the
scope of agrarian reform to include all alienable and disposal lands of
the public domain used or suitable for agriculture and all lands of of
the public domain in excess of the specific limits, all lands owned by
the government devoted or suitable for agriculture and and all lands
suitable for agriculture or devoted to such regardless of the products
raised. This is a clear expansion of the former agrarian reform laws
such as PD 27 which only covered private agricultural lands which
were used for rice corn farming and a lease tenancy system.