Offering Guideposts for Reform Efforts Lessons from the Agrarian Reform Program in the Philippines Presented by: Virgilio R. De Los Reyes, Secretary of Agrarian Reform Republic of the Philippines to the Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty Washington DC, March 14-18, 2016

Outline of Presentation Background Roots of agrarian problem and agrarian reform program Lessons Way forward

BACKGROUND ON THE PHILIPPINE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM

Evolution of Philippine Agrarian Reform Antecedents – Break up of lands owned by Catholic religious orders – Distribution of public agricultural lands – Regulation of tenancy – Land ownership limit Two laws governing current agrarian reform program – Presidential Decree 27: Compulsory distribution of tenanted private lands planted to rice and corn – Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (Republic Act 6657) Covered all public and private agri lands Regardless of crop and tenurial arrangement

Land Distribution: Responsible Agencies and Mode of Acquisition and Distribution Distribution of public agricultural lands Gov’t-owned lands proclaimed as agrarian reform areas or turned over to DAR for distribution Settlements Distribution of private agricultural lands Voluntary Voluntary Land Transfer Voluntary Offer to Sell Compulsory Compulsory Acquisition Operation Land Transfer Lands foreclosed by government financial institutions Distribution of public lands declared as alienable and disposable Allocation of select forest lands/areas suitable for agro- forestry to beneficiaries by means of stewardship contracts Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Notes: 1.Land titles distributed by DENR: free patents or homestead patents. 2.Land titles distributed by DAR: Emancipation Patents (or EPs for tenanted rice and corn lands) or Certificate of Land Ownership Award (or CLOA for gov’t-owned lands and private lands other than tenanted rice and corn lands) 3.CLOAs may either be individual or collective Notes: 1.Land titles distributed by DENR: free patents or homestead patents. 2.Land titles distributed by DAR: Emancipation Patents (or EPs for tenanted rice and corn lands) or Certificate of Land Ownership Award (or CLOA for gov’t-owned lands and private lands other than tenanted rice and corn lands) 3.CLOAs may either be individual or collective

Total Area of Land Distributed (as of end 2014) 7,181,393 has. (24.1% of land area and 50.6% of A&D Land) Scope of Agrarian Reform Program 8,756,176 has. (29.4% of Land Area and 61.7% of A&D Land) Agricultural Land 9,671,000 has. (68.1% of A&D Land) Alienable and Disposable (A & D) Land 14,194,675 has. (47.6% of Land Area) Land Area 29,817,000 has. Philippine Surface Area 30,000,000 has.

Property rights regime and agrarian reform Colonial legacies contributed to unequal distribution of land – Regalian doctrine imposed by the Spanish colonial regime resulted in the disenfranchisement of rural poor and indigenous peoples – Registration and titling system imposed by the Americans based on occupancy favored those who have access to courts and surveyors Colonial institutions that perpetuated inequality adopted by Philippine elite after independence. Complex and opaque land rules favor the powerful and impedes distribution of private agricultural lands Outdated delineation of land classification complicates agrarian reform implementation.

LEARNINGS FROM THE PHILIPPINE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM

On the social justice goal of agrarian reform Four types of agrarian land In 1988 when the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law was enacted – Private lands subject to tenancy – Private and public lands used as plantations for corporate plantations – Haciendas in private land – Occupied government-owned lands Social justice goals differ – Restitution of social wrongs for tenant and farmworkers of large private landholdings by asset reform – For farmworkers, ending labor exploitation – Recognition/formalization of land ownership for tillers-occupants of public land 1988 agrarian reform law failed to make distinction resulting in the prioritization of easily distributable public lands and lands under voluntary land transfer scheme – By 2014, 20% of private land in DAR working scope remain undistributed – 450,000 private land for compulsory acquisition remain undistributed – 250,00 0 of these 25 hectares and above

Design of Reform Program Better if Evidence-Based Major flaw in design of Phil agrarian law: lack of accurate data on private agri lands due to: – Fragmented land records. Different agencies – different kinds of records – Many land records not updated or inaccurate – CARP Scope revised a number of times Demographic data not considered. Increase in rural population with no increase in agri land – 31.5 million rural population in 1988 and 9.7 hectares of agri land (1980) – 2010: 54.7 million rural population and 9.67 hectares of agri land

Carefully analyze assumptions and reform models Agri policies assumed that agri development more effective if centrally-planned – Grants for inputs, price floors, tariffs. No exit strategy – Targeting not clear because agri policy lacked poverty focus In the Philippines, the agrarian reform law assumed a fully functioning land administration system. – But land registration system is antiquated and fragmented – Thus difficulty in establishing a landholding database Unconscious assumption of the prevalence of tenancy – So valuation and mechanism for identification of beneficiaries fitted for tenancy Japan, Taiwan, South Korea cited as agrarian reform models – These models are land to the tiller programs covering tenanted lands (not agricultural plantations) – These were implemented under a less than democratic setting

Overlapping laws and complex legal systems can complicate reform program Reform laws in democratic society a product of debate and compromise – Advocates got comprehensive coverage – Landowner lobby got implementation sked that prioritized public lands and voluntary modes of acquisition – Result: non-prioritization of private lands subject to compulsory acquisition. Bureaucracy got used to distributing lands easier to acquire Residual powers of old laws over new ones – resulting in complex, hard-to-navigate system of laws – stickiness of old laws including blind spots Land could be claimed as subject to agrarian reform, indigenous peoples’ lands, protected lands

Need for clear vision for agricultural development and poverty focus Land distribution a necessary but not sufficient condition for alleviating rural poverty Agriculture policy should – Be linked to agrarian reform, trade and industry, and overall economic growth – Focus on smallholder farmers – Take into consideration landless rural workers – Aim towards income increase aside from production increase

Aspects of Implementation Should Not Negate Goals Nor Create Future Problems Collective titles – 46% of awarded lands are collective titles (2 M hectares) – Only half have been subdivided into individual titles – Preliminary validation shows 114,000 hectares are timberland, watershed, creeks, etc. May be more. Validation ongoing. Convenient way to abbreviate land acquisition protocols but not immediately subdivided into individual titles Delay in subdivision resulted in problems Collective titles in public lands defeated purpose of recognizing and formalizing actual tillage of farmers

Understand Absorptive Capacity for Reform Efforts Agrarian reform in last six years implemented while government implemented good governance initiatives – Linking budgeting and planning – Streamlined processes to plug leaks and remove inefficiencies Bureaucracy took some time to adjust – Capacity-building did not immediately accompany good governance reforms – Absorptive capacity of bureaucracy was low and it takes time to implement changes – Some resistance to measures to remove inefficiencies

Ways Forward Immediate and short-term changes needed – Credible and sufficient data should be used for program enhancement, implementation and monitoring and evaluation – Seriously consider changing demographics and behaviour of farmers Long-term changes needed – Land Administration Initially, closer working arrangements of agencies handling land surveys, land distribution, land registration Eventually, may need to merged these three functions into one agency – Agriculture and rural development Agriculture policy with clear poverty reduction goals and bias for smallholder agriculture Measure to improve quality of life of landless rural workers through better jobs

MABUHAY AT MARAMING SALAMAT