The Feudal State of Farming in the Philippines
In the Philippines, only five percent of farmers own forty-five percent of the country's agricultural lands. Seventy percent of farmers remain landless.
Landlessness is the root cause of the poverty and hardship of peasants, said the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), a national peasant movement.
KMP sees the feudal state of Filipino peasants as a result of landlessness, the failure of government land distribution programs, and the escape of landholders from landholder programs. Landlessness
The harvest is most often divided among landlords and tenants in 50-50, 1/3-2/3, and 1/4-3/4 schemes. There are instances however when the harvest is divided 2/3-1/3 with the landlord getting the lion's share. KMP said that this happens particularly in copra farming, were there is a significant amount of unpaid labor.
In regions such as the Southern Tagalog and Eastern Visayas, peasants receive only 21% and 19% of the value of their gross harvest, respectively, due to the massive unpaid labor that they are forced to do.
KMP added that modern forms of slavery still exist. Some tenants are required to help out at the landlord's household for free or to do tasks such as repairs, in exchange for their family's position on the land. Some peasants must also give gifts to the landlord in order to stay on the land that they farm.
Failure of Government-led Land Reform Programs
KMP said that the government-led land reform programs have not resulted in land distribution. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program provided for farmers to be granted Certificate of Land Ownership Awards, Emancipation Patents and Certificate of Land Transfers. However, long-term holders of these documents continue to face the cancellation of these documents from the landlords and the government.
Tens of thousands of hectares of land in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province and lands belonging to Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco in the provinces of Negros, Isabela, Cagayan, Davao Del Sur, Cotabato, and Palawan have still not been distributed to the peasants who tilled it.
Landlords have used schemes such as the Stock Distribution Option (SDO), land conversion, joint-venture, corporative scheme, leasehold and contract-growing to prevent the distribution of land. Under the SDO, farmers were given shares of stock instead of land. However, their shares of stock were tied to the number of days that they worked. As farmers were only allowed to work one to two days a week, the dividends they received was still not enough to feed them.
KMP said that schemes such as as leasehold and joint-venture have ensured that land has remained in the hands of landlords and of agro-corporations such as Dole and Delmonte. A leasehold lasts for 25 years and is renewable for another 25 years. Peasants work the land but do not have any rights or control over it.
Thousands of hectares still belong to big landlords. The Almagro family control 10,000 hectares in the province of Cebu while the Dimaporos own another 10,000 hectares in the province of Lanao Del Norte. Wealthy families like the Santoses, Roxases, Yulos, Tinios and Escuderos continue to control tens of thousands of hectares of land.