Marcos Constitution

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The Agricultural Land Reform Code of 1963, ultimately amended on September 10, 1971 (R. A. 6389) by the Marcos administration to become the Code of Agrarian Reforms (1971 Code), sought to establish owner-cultivatorship or cooperative-cultivatorship among those who lived and worked on the land as tillers. On October 21, 1972, the Marcos regime implemented agrarian reform by way of Presidential Decree (PD) 27 ordering the emancipation of tenants from the bondage of the soil and transferring to them the ownership of the land they till.

Unlike previous land reform programs, this was different for a number of reasons. One, martial law suppressed opposition to the state and targeted oligarchs and landlords, making implementation much easier compared to all other similar programs under different administrations. Two, this agrarian reform program was not only a social reform agenda aimed at curbing agrarian unrest or rebellion in a specific region but also a part of a broader strategy in improving production and addressing food shortages nationwide. Marcos’ land reform program was the offspring of the so-called Green Revolution, a project that addressed the issue of hunger by way of new plant varieties and its attendant technologies. Three, this reform program enjoyed enormous government support in credit and extension services as well as the creation of new institutions.

Presidential Decree No. 27 became the heart of the Marcos reform. It provided for tenanted lands devoted to rice and corn to pass ownership to the tenants, and lowered the ceilings for landholdings to 7 hectares. The law stipulated that share tenants who worked from a landholding of over 7 hectares could purchase the land they tilled, while share tenants on land less than 7 hectares would become leaseholders. Thus, the rationale behind agrarian reform lay not only in solving hunger but more so as a bold attempt at modernizing Philippine society. By introducing so called “miracle-seeds,” the motive behind PD 27 was to “draw farmers into the main-stream of modern economic life.

In hindsight, peasants under the scope of PD 27 proved to be fortunate than those whose crops were outside the coverage of reform. Peasants and farm workers in the coconut and sugar industries suffered the brunt of predatory capitalism and landlord resistance to reforms. Coconut farmers were levied four types of taxes which came to be known as the coco levy fund. These tax farming schemes were so profitable that they were used to acquire corporate shares and then privatized for personal use. Seasonal sugar workers, or sacadas, became the symbol of rural poverty when demand for sugar in the international market plummeted, a dire result of sugar planters’ insistence on mono-cropping. Farm workers’ demands for decent pay were met by resistance and intransigence by the state and landowners who insisted on a tripartite regional wage board instead of the mandated national wage increase.

What were the five major components of President Marcos' Agrarian Reform Program?

• Land Tenure Program

• Institutional Development

• Physical Development

• Agricultural Development; and

• Human Resources

President Marcos' agrarian reform program was labeled as "revolutionary" by some sectors, for this reasons:

• It was pursued under Martial Law and intended to make quick changes without going through legislative or technical processes;

• It was the only law in the Philippines ever done in handwriting.

• Scope of program was limited only to tenanted, privately-owned rice and corn lands;

• Foreign and local firms were allowed to use large tracks of land for their business;

• Declaration of Martial Law leading to the arrest of several farmer leaders without due process of law due to suspension of the Write of Habeas Corpus.

Proclamation No. 1081 on September 21, 1972 ushered the Period of the New Society. Five days after the proclamation of Martial Law, the entire country was proclaimed a land reform area and simultaneously the Agrarian Reform Program was decreed.

President Marcos enacted the following laws:

• Republic Act No. 6389, (Code of Agrarian Reform) and RA No. 6390 of 1971

Created the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Agrarian Reform Special Account Fund. It strengthen the position of farmers and expanded the scope of agrarian reform.

• Presidential Decree No. 2, September 26, 1972

Declared the country under land reform program. It enjoined all agencies and offices of the government to extend full cooperation and assistance to the DAR. It also activated the Agrarian Reform Coordinating Council.

• Presidential Decree No. 27, October 21, 1972

Restricted land reform scope to tenanted rice and corn lands and set the retention limit at 7 hectares.