Part IV Land Ownership Under the Americans

• Landless Problem


  • The Americans were aware that the main cause of social unrest in the Philippines was landlessness.
  • They attempted to put an end to the deplorable conditions of the tenant farmers by passing several land policies to increase the small landholders and distribute ownership to a  bigger number of Filipino tenants and farmers.
• Philippine Bill of 1901


  It provided regulations on the disposal of public lands where …

  • A private individual may own 16 hectares of land
  • Corporate landholders may have 1,024  hectares
  • Americans were also given rights to own agricultural lands in  the country.
• Land Registration Act (Act No. 496)


  It is a law enacted by the Philippine Commission which introduced the Torrens System to address the  absence of earlier records of issued land titles and conduct accurate land  surveys.
• Homestead Program of 1903


  It allowed a tenant  to enter into an agricultural business by acquiring a farm of at least 16  hectares but the program was limited to areas in Northern Luzon  and Mindanao where colonial penetration had been difficult for Americans,  a problem they inherited from the Spaniards.
• General Impressions


  • Landownership DID NOT improve but worsen because there was no limit to the size of landholdings  people could possess and the accessibility of possession was limited to those  who could afford to buy, register, and acquire fixed property titles.
  • Not  all friar lands acquired by the Americans were given to landless peasant farmers because some lands were sold or leased to American and Filipino business  interest.
  • Early land reform program was implemented without  support mechanisms - if a landless peasant farmer received land, he only  received land, nothing more.
• The Sakdal Uprising


  • On May 2 - 3, 1935, the Sakdalistas staged the historic Sakdal Uprising – a peasant rebellion in Central Luzon that was easily crushed by the government forces but the event tells of the social inequality brought about by issues in land ownership and tenancy in the country.
  • The Filipino word sakdal means ‘to accuse’ is the title of the newspaper helmed by Benigno Ramos, the man who rallied support from Manila and nearby provinces through the publication which led to the establishment of the Partido Sakdalista in 1933.
• Common Government


  • During the years of the Commonwealth government, the situation further worsened as peasant uprisings increased and landlord-tenant relationship became more and more disparate.
  • Pres. Manuel Luis M. Quezon laid down a social justice program focused on the purchase of haciendas which were to be divided and sold to tenants.
• NARIC


  Created by Pres. Quezon, the National Rice and Corn Corporation (NARIC) assigns public defenders to assist peasants in court battles for their rights to the land.
• CIR


  The Court of Industrial Relations was created to exercise jurisdiction over disagreements arising from landowner-tenant relationship.
• NLSA


  The Homestead Program continued through the National Land Settlement Administration (NLSA).
• Agrarian Failure During the Commonwealth


  Efforts toward agrarian reform failed because of many problems such as budget allocation for the settlement program and widespread peasant uprisings in addition to the World War Il that put a halt to all interventions to solve these problems as the Japanese occupied the country.