Institute of Philippine Culture Ateneo de Manila University

MORE EMPIRICAL STUDIES ON PHILIPPINE RICEFARMING AND TEN ANCY

Editors: Antonio l. Ledesma, S.l. - Perla Q. Makil Virginia A. Miralao

SECONOUiew fromlhe Paddy

Editors: Antonio J. Ledesma, S.l. Perla Q. Makil Virginia A. Miralao

INSTITUTE OF PHILIPPINE CULTURE Areneo de Manila University 1983 The INSTITUTE OF PHILIPPINE CULTURE is a university research organization engaged in social science studies of Philippine society and culture. Utilizing a basic-applicable approach, it combines a theoretical orientation drawn usually from the social sciences, and a commitment to results that aim at an improvement in the life quality of the masses. As a nonstock, nonprofit, private educa­ tional institution, it supports its research activities with funds derived from grants or contracts. It in­ sists on freedom to investigate what it wishes, to publish what it finds, and to name the sources of its support. Given its academic character, the IPC pro­ vides for established and young scholars,facilities and conditions conducive to research, as well as channels for the subsequent publication of its results.

For more information, write to: The Publications Editor Institute of Philippine Culture Ateneo de Manila University P.O. Box 154, Metro Manila 2801 Philippines

Copyright 1983 by the Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University. All rights reserved. First printing, 1983. CONTENTS

Foreword / iv I. Historical background The Development of Post-War Philippine Land Reform: Political and Sociological Explanations DA VID WURFEL / 1

II. Before-and-after studies Agrarian Reform, Productivity, and Equity: Two Studies JOHN J. CARROLL, S.J. / 15

Green Revolution for Whom? (An Inquiry into its Beneficiaries in a Central Luzon Village, Philippines) HIROMITSU UMEHARA / 24

Profiles of Agrarian Reform in a Nueva Ecija Village BENEDICT J. TRIA KERKVLIET / 41

Recent Changes in a Laguna Rice Village: A New Generation of Changes? MASAO KIKUCHI/59

III. Other uplands Farm Households on Rice and Sugar Lands: Margen's Village Economy in Transition GERMELINO M. BAUTISTA, WILLIAM C. THIESENHUSEN and DAVID J. KING / 73

Social Dynamics of Coconut Farming in Two Southern Tagalog Villages LUZVIMINDA CORNISTA / 93

A Case Study of the Implementation and Impact of Operation Land Transfer in a Farming Village: 1972-1979 CORAZON C. PANGANIBAN / 110

IV. Bottom-up approaches Organizing in a Peasant Community: The Malabon-Kaingin Experience LARRY M. ZURITA / 118

Participatory Research for Community-Based Agrarian Reform: A Mindanao Experiment ANTONIO J. LEDESMA, S.J. / 131

V. Appendix Bibliography on the Philippine Agrarian Reform and Related Areas FRANK HIRTZ / 140 FOREWORD

During the first quarter of 1972, the Institute of Philippine Culture published Viewfrom the Paddy as a collection of empirical studies on Philippine rice farming and tenancy. At that time, much interest was focused on Central Luzon where a Congress-legislated land reform pro­ gram dating back to 1963 and 1971 was being implemented. In particular, the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Bulacan were intensively studied by field researchers as pilot areas for land reform implementation and also for the adoption ofthe new rice technology. As a compact col­ lection ofstudies on the topic, Viewfrom the Paddy received favorable reviewsfrom both local and international circles for its empirically-grounded presentation of the main issues in Philip­ pine agrarian reform and rice farming at the beginning of the 70s. Little did the contributors to this first volume realize that the agrarian reform program would receive heightened impetus as the major redistributional policy ofgovernment, with the proclamation of martial law and the extension of agrarian reform to the entire country. With the signing of Presidential Decree No. 27 on 21 October 1972the architects of the New Society promised to accelerate agrarian reform under Operation Land Transfer and subsequently under Operation Leasehold. Ten years have passed since P.O. 27. Over the past years, many changes have indeed taken place in the countryside. It is this eventful decade that is examined by A Second Viewfrom the Paddy. In keeping with the format of the first View, this collection is made up mostly of field surveys and case studies undertaken by researchers working independently of each other. A number of these social scientists have been following up their earlier studies in different research sites. A dominant theme that runs through most of their observations is the combined impact of institutional and technological changes on particular rural households as well as on entire farming communities. In contrast to the earlier volume, this Second View goes beyond Central Luzon and discusses rural conditions in other areas of the archipelago-the Southern Tagalog and Bicol regions, Eastern Visayas, and Western Mindanao. Many of the studies are exploratory in nature and raise more questions than provide answers to the problems discussed. Each con­ tributor to this volume was left free to highlight his own findings. It is for the reader to draw his own general conclusions. Although several government officials were invited to contribute to this volume, no one was able to do so. Official views on the unqualified success of agrarian reform are nonetheless easily available from other sources. This collection of field-level studies thus serves as a com­ plement to official statements on the progress ofagrarian reform by focusing on actual condi­ tions at the micro level. It reminds the reader of the notable difference between the normative and empirical approaches in agrarian reform studies-adistinction earlier stressed by the editor of the first View. In this light, the present volume dwells more on the implementation of agrarian reform rather than on its legislation. The volume also serves as a useful complement to current textbooks on agrarian reform which usually stress the existing laws and regulations while understating the obstacles to implementation. Each article in this collection can be read as a complete study in itself. However, for topical continuity, we also grouped them across time and space perspectives, ending with some theoretical considerations. Foreword

Part I begins with David Wurfel's article providing an overviewof land reform legislations since the Magsaysay administration and a historical context for the current agrarian reform program. Before-and-after studies are then presented to evaluate the impact ofagrarian reform from two points in time. John Carroll, S.J., summarizes two IPC research projects on agrarian reform implementation-the first study by Josephine Angsico in Plaridel, Bulacan, after 11 years, and the second, by Ricardo San Andres and Jeanne Frances Illo in the Bicol River Basin over a 3-year period. In the following articles, two foreign observers, Hiromitsu Umehara and Benedict Kerkvliet, update their observations after revisiting their research sites in Guimba and Talavera, Nueva Ecija. Part II includes other findings on land tenure problems beyond Central Luzon and in other crop areas. Most of these studies involve meticulous daily record-keeping by local households. Masao Kikuchi discusses rapidly changing conditions in a rice-growing village caught within the industrializing orbit of Metro Manila. In Leyte, a multi-cropped villagegrow­ ing rice and sugar cane is the subject of the intensive study initiated by David King and com­ pleted by Germelino Bautista and William Thiesenhusen. Luzviminda Cornista's pioneering study highlights the complexity of land tenure and labor arrangements in two coconut-growing villagesin the Southern Tagalog region. The last article in this section by Corazon Panganiban brings the reader back to Nueva Ecija in a village setting where OLT implementation has been less than a complete success. Looking to the years ahead, Part III discusses alternative ways for implementing and ex­ tending agrarian reform: the community organizing approach as chronicled by Larry Zurita in the course of his C-O work among agrarian reform beneficiaries in Malabon-Kaingin (Nueva Ecija); and participatory research summarized by Antonio Ledesma, S.J. from his experience with basic Christian communities and local researchers in Siay (Zamboanga del Sur). In the appendix, Frank Hirtz has compiled an updated and selected bibliography on agrarian reform in the Philippines. This will prove indispensable to scholars and policy-makers alike who would like to pursue their readings further on this crucial area of national develop­ ment. Going over the articles, the reader will soon realize that this Second View from the Paddy does not remain within the parameters of the current agrarian reform program. It rather raises several key issues-e-e.g., the increasing marginalization of landless workers vis-a-vis beneficiaries of the program; the need for extending agrarian reform to coconut, sugar, and other crop areas; and the disconcerting discrepancy itself between what official figures tell us at the macro level and what researchers find out at the field level. Indeed, the question has often been raised on the need for reforms within the reform. This was again suggested recently by Shane K. Roti in her work titled The Failure ofLand Reform, 1972-1982. All this is part of the continuing debate on the lasting impact of agrarian reform after its first decade and the challenges that lie ahead for the rest of the 80's. We acknowledge Father Carroll's valuable contribution to the editing of this volume while he was IPC research associate August-December 1981. We also thank the Agricultural Development Council and the Ford Foundation for fun­ ding this volume's publication. Finally, for his quiet advancement of the social sciencesas instruments for national plann­ ing, we wish to dedicate this volume to the editor of the first Viewfrom the Paddy, the late Fr. Frank Lynch, S.J. Through his guidance, the present editors have learned to appreciate the value ofempirical research, which may yet prove to be the most realistic approach for assessing the impact of agrarian reform in the Philippine countryside.

The Editors January 1983

Part I: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

THE DEVELOPMENT OF POST-WAR PHILIPPINE LAND REFORM: POLITICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS

DAVlD WURFEL

Introduction ment. Despite all the permutations in Philip­ pine policy over more than 30 years, these The history of Philippine agrarian policy basic elements of land reform have remained since independence is a sadly monotonous constant: government purchase of tenanted one for the scholar, a bitterly disappointing land and its resale to tenants. one for the hopeful tenant cultivator. It is a Philippine land reform has been further story of repeated initiative from the center of restricted over the years to grain crops­ government that did not result in anywhere rice and corn-for domestic consumption. near the announced change in the country­ Export crops have consistently been exemp­ side. Explanations for this series of ineffec­ ted, the official argument being that land tual reforms have varied from insincerity reform might disrupt production and thus and corruption to lack of peasant interest in jeopardize foreign exchange earnings. getting ownership of the land. The most con­ Perhaps a more important reason, however, vincing analysis, however, seems to relate to was that large landowners in sugar, the political and economic interests of the coconuts, and tobacco were politically too top decision makers, those initiating policy powerful to be touched. The scope and and supervising its implementations, and to nature of the reforms that were implemented the socioeconomic characteristics of the posed no threat to the interests of the agrarian systems being reformed. The cumu­ political elite, but were, in fact, perceived as lative political consequences of agrarian strengthening their position. The changes in policy also find both political and socio­ the content of reform from the 1940s to the economic explanations. 1970s indicated the waning influence of rice Agrarian reform is a complex of policies and corn landlords within that elite. designed to transform rural society in the direction of greater equality of wealth and LandReform Under Roxasand power among groups and classes, and Quirino (1946-/953) greater equality of opportunity for in­ dividuals. Where agrarian reform has fol­ Agrarian policy initiatives had for the lowed a successful revolution it has usually most part begun in the 1930sunder President involved the uncompensated redistribution Quezon who was sensitive to the peasant of land. A much more modest attempt at unrest in Central Luzon and wanted to ap­ transformation may be the creation of pear to meet some of its demands, without cooperatives in which small cultivators are too seriously discomforting his landlord given greater opportunities than their large friends and allies. (His national political competitors. But the type of reform on organization depended on local leaders who which we will focus here is the redistribution were usually either landlords or their pro­ of tenanted land with compensation to the teges.) Components of that policy included original owner, land for which the bene­ regulatiorr of tenancy relations, organized ficiary of reform must repay the govern- land settlement in Mindanao for the landless 2 Wurje/: Post-War Philippine Land Reform

of Luzon and Cebu, the long-standing an­ sharecroppers. The tenants who were ti-usury law, issuance of free patents to allocated lots for purchase often had farms homesteaders on cultivable public land, and of 10to 50 hectares, whilethe average sizeof a "landed estates policy" which provided a cultivator's plot was under 3 hectares.3 funds for the negotiated purchase of large Many of the cultivating tenants who were holdings for resale to the tenants. J fortunate enough to acquire purchase rights Before World War II, the Rural Progress could not afford to keep them. Despite the Administration (RPA) had purchased tenant explicit rules against transfer, such rights homesites on four estates and the agricul­ had become a saleable commodity. Poor tural land of two more; the area of the six tenants deeply in debt surrendered their totaled to little more than 6,000 hectares. rights to creditors. The same processes that The RPA had also leased the huge 27,000 resulted in concentration of land ownership hectare Buenavista Estate with future pros­ in the Philippines generally operated within pect of redistribution. But disputes about the government estates. Thus, large portions tenant rights abounded and none had of the estates under RPA administration become amortizing owners. The American continued to be cultivated by share tenants "liberation" of Manila was terribly destruc­ with no prospect of becoming owners. The tive of government offices, so that landed "landed estates policy" had simplydisplaced estate records after the war were either some large landlords to create many chaotic or nonexistent. medium sized ones. And since the RPA, a Nevertheless, the acquisition of estates government agency, becamedirectlyinvolved by the RPA resumed in 1947,so that by 1950 in the burgeoning disputes over land rights, another 19 had been purchased amounting that traditional source of peasant anger and to over 10,000 hectares in addition to the frustration more quickly than before pro­ vast Buenavista Estate. Over ¥.t of this area duced political unrest. Not surprisingly the was owned by some official or agency of the Bell Mission to the Philippines appointed by Catholic Church. Most ofthe land acquired President Truman in 1950 concluded that was in Central Luzon where the Huk "the land problem remainsthe same or worse rebellion made many villages unsafe for than four years ago." landlords or their agents; much of the area The Bell Mission Report was, in fact, ex­ was uncultivated. Some of the estates were pected by many to be the impetus for the purchased from persons whose legal owner­ next stage of land reform. It recommended ship was in question. Clearly the landed that "a broad program should be in­ estates policy was not "land reform" augurated of acquiring large estates at fair primarily designed to transform tenants into value for resale in small holdings to tillers of owner-cultivators, but was a social service the soil." At the same time the report recom­ agency for landlords with shaky titles or mended expanded programs of agricultural poor profit ratios. Landlords who were op­ credit, organized land settlement on virgin posed to appropriation were usually able to land, and the improved administration of stop it in the courts. In fact, it was RPA land registration and homesteading on policy to discourage tenant petitions for public land. Each of these other recommen­ estate purchases by the impossible require­ dations, less threatening to elite interests, ment that petitioners deposit an amount was backed with some U.S. aid, but not land equivalent to the assessed value of the land redistribution. The U.S. land reform advisor in question on the date the petition was ap­ drew up a detailed proposal, but it was proved) The RPA was starved for funds, blasted by leading Filipino congressmen,and receiving no post-war appropriation; they not even supported by the U.S. aid mission. operated largely with borrowed funds. Even In fact, in 1950 the Rural Progress Ad­ when landed estates were purchased, the ministration was abolished and its functions cultivating tenant was not likely to be the transferred to a newly created Landed main beneficiary. Many of the estates had Estates Divisionof the Bureau of Lands. No cash tenants who in turn sublet to cultivating new estates were purchased throughout the Second View from the Paddy 3 remainder of the Quirino administration, implementing agencies. The Inter-Depart­ and redistribution policy on RPA-acquired mental Committee on Land Tenure, ap­ estates dropped even the pretense of pointed by the President in March 1954, preference for the tiller. The simulation of worked at unusual speed and produced a land reform was suspended in the early draft of the land reform bill by 6 May which 1950s. was immediately introduced into the House This was the same period in which the of Representatives. At about the same time, Huk rebellion peaked and then was put however, legislation to improve landlord­ down. The Liberal Party's political elite tenant relations was introduced and this under Quirino certainly did not view land received priority attention. No action was reform as a cure for peasant unrest, though a taken on land reform in the 1954regular ses­ number of opposition figures did make the sion, and it did not even appear on the agen­ connection. Liberals were, in fact, even less da of the special session of that year. interested in land reform in J953, when the In his 1955 State of the Nation message Huks had been largely defeated, than in Magsaysay did reiterate his desire for new 1950 when the rebellion Was at its height. land reform legislation. But just as the Presi­ The election of Ramon Magsaysay as presi­ dent announced that he would take land dent in 1953 made some difference in this reform seriously, so did its opponents. At regard, however. every stage of the legislative processlandlord interests attacked both directly and with sub­ LandReform Under Magsaysay tle indirection. Magsaysay was neither so and Garcia (1954-61) persistent nor so skillful. He never issued a public statement in favor of any portion of Magsaysay had brought his campaign the bill. His only significant effort was to directly to the peasantry in a manner unpre­ call a special session with the "land tenure cedented. After he was elected, severalof his bill" as highest priority. Nevertheless, the advisors understood the importance of tak­ bill was almost scuttled at the conference ing concrete action to meet peasant com­ committee stage. The final legislative pro­ plaints and thus reduce unrest. Since the duct was so inadequate that Atty. Fernando "landed estates policy" remained in the Santiago, one of the authors of the first Bureau of Lands, the aggressivenew Under­ draft, sent a memo to the President recom­ secretary of Agriculture, Jaime Ferrer, had mending that he veto it and ask for a simple an important role, as did some of the pro­ appropriation instead.s Congressman Casas tenant young officersin the Tenancy Division of La Union tried to amend the bill's title at of the Judge Advocate General's Office. In the last minute, so that it would read­ two instances, in San Luis, Pampanga and ironically but accurately-"An act defining San Pedro Tunasan, Laguna, within a few a landlord tenure policy • . ."6 RepublicAct months of Magsaysay's assuming the 1400, signed by the President in September, presidency, the Executive Office took in­ had only one improvement over preexisting itiativedirectly to acquire landed estates. The legislation, a modest appropriation and Landed Estates Division began a number of authorization of a bond issue. negotiations and expropriations, and within The power of expropriation was more the estates they already administered, restricted than it had been under Common­ dramatically increased the rate of redistribu­ wealth legislation. It was limited to that por­ tion, givingclear preference for the first time tion of individual landholdings in excess of to cultivating occupants of the land. All this 300 contiguous hectares, and corporate activity clearly raised the expectation of holdings of more than 600, though there tenants. During FY 1955 the Bureau of were no such restrictions on negotiated pur­ Lands received 116 petitions for the ex­ chase. Petitions signed by a majority of propriation of landed estates covering more tenants in the whole estate were required to than 113,000 heetares.s initiate an expropriation, or negotiations. But those expectations could not be ade­ The .Land Tenure Authority (LTA) quately met without new legislation and new established by the Act to implement this 4 Wurfel: Post-War Philippine Land Reform policy, did not begin to actually function un-, of the officials committed to land reform left til January 1956; Magsaysay had named a the Administration. In the next two fiscal defeated Congressman to head it. In large years only 6 estates were acquired, and cor­ part, perhaps, because of the administrative ruption in the process became more reshuffle resulting from the closing of the widespread.12 Landed Estates Division in the Bureau of During the time of President Garcia there Lands and transfer of its personnel to LTA, was "what amounts to a stalemate between the pace of activities slowed down in early landlords and their allies in Congress and in 1956: only one estate with 187 tenants was the executive departments, and the elements purchased. Within the same 6 months peti­ favoring land reform."13 The hopes of ac­ tions from tenants came in at a rate of one a complishment raised in 1954 had again been day.? Aspirations had clearly been raised by dashed. Though other agrarian programs the new Act, but were not being fulfilled. may have somewhat improved the bargain­ (Yet not all such petitions could be regarded ing position of the tenant vis-a-vis the as indicative of pure tenant aspirations; landlord, only an insignificant portion of the there were many cases in which tenants were nation's tenant farmers were on the way to manipulated by landlords who wanted to sell becoming owners. The land acquired for re­ unproductive, partially idle or improperly distribution by the LTA in the first 5 years of titled land.) its existence amounted to less than 10 per­ Strangely enough, landlords sometimes cent of the area of landed estates over 150 seemed to favor expropriation over hectares in the five provinces of Central negotiated sale. They had friends in court. Luzon alone! 14 The price set by courts in expropriation pro­ At the rate of progress maintained under ceedings were sometimes nearly double those Magsaysay and Garcia it would have taken of negotiated settlements, disadvantaging approximately 700 years to repurchase and the tenant who had to repurchase the land at redistribute the 1.8 million hectares of the same price. (Landlords were paid in cash tenanted agricultural land in the and/or negotiable bonds.)8 Rights of repur­ Philippines.U chase remained confusing with LTA policy often failing to protect the actual cultivator.? Land Reform in the 196Os: Only on estates where cultivating tenants Macapaga! and Marcos were well. organized could they be assured of priority in land redistribution, and most The defeat of President Garcia in the were not. Even when lots were allocated, and 1961 election was not, therefore, a great loss before they were fully paid for, the transfer to the cause of land reform. Nor did it ap­ of rights for cash - especially to nonculti­ pear to be any particular gain. It was hardly vators-was rampant.l'' Nor could tenants mentioned in the campaign, nor was it re­ on sugar estates expect to benefit from LTA ferred to at the inauguration of the victor, programs in any way; there was an informal Diosdado Macapagal. Though a congress­ understanding that petitions for the ex­ man in the 1950s, Macapagal had not par­ propriation of sugar land would not be acted ticipated in the land reform debate in 1954or upon favorably.U 1955, and had not even voted on the bill that Despite confusions in implementation, became R.A. 1400.16 the LTA increased the pace of land acquisi­ But in January 1963 President Maca­ tion several times over in FY 1957; seven pagal appointed a special committee on land estates were purchased. The rising number reform, headed by Acting Secretary of of investigations in 1957 resulted in the ac­ Labor Bernadino Abes, to draft what even­ quisition of 18 estates in FY 1958 encom­ tually came to be known as the Agricultural passing over 14,000 hectares with more than Land Reform Code of 1963. It was intro­ 5,200 tenants. But in March 1957 President duced into Congress in March and adopted Magsaysay died, succeeded by his Vice-Pres­ by both houses in July. What had led the ident, Carlos P. Garcia. Within a year many President to issue an emotional call in his Second Viewfrom the Paddy 5

State of the Nation Address: "We must give incentive for landlords' acceptance of the tenants liberty from economic peonage, in government purchase and redistribution was which they have long languished"? In part it thus lost. seemed to be the arguments of his top The Code had several advantages over economic advisor, Sixto Roxas, that land previous legislation, especially the authoriza­ reform was a necessary component of a tion for the Land Authority to acquire strategy for rapid economic development, estates of more than 75 hectares, whether permitting, for instance, the transfer of owned by individuals or corporations, capital in land to industry. It was also ap­ removing the term "contiguous." parent to many that Macapagal intended to However, the earlier absence ofany effective create mass support among tenants, thus in­ restraints on landlord evasion by transform­ suring his reelection.!? Nor was he unrespon­ ing land use or transferring ownership to sive to the views of American advisors. family members remained. And while in Macapagal was not the popular leader 1955 sugar and coconut were excluded from Magsaysay was, coming into office on a land reform by tacit agreement, in 1963 this wave of proreform sentiment. But Maca­ exclusion was made legislatively specific, pagal was a much more skillful strategist, with fruits and other crops added to the list. using successfully what influence he had to Furthermore, the provision that the National gain early passage, even though the Senate Land Reform Council needed to declare all was not under his party's control. He had government agencies dealing with land appointed Federation of Free Farmers' reform fully operative in a region before im­ leader Jeremias Montemayor and Philip­ plementation could begin was, while logical pines Free Press editor Teodoro Locsin to from one standpoint, an additional juncture his special committee, thus helping to pro­ at which landlord pressure and bureaucratic vide some active support for his legislation in wrangling could delay any action. the press and from tenant groups. And when Perhaps the greatest tragedy, however, the legislation had not yet been passed by was that after President Macapagal had Senate at the end of the regular session, he shown considerable political sophistication called seven special sessions of a few days in getting the Code enacted, he was lax in each until it was adopted, helping to direct pushing its implementation. It. was a tactics from Malacanang. dramatic example of the politics of sym­ The Land Reform Code of 1963 was the bolism that has so permeated Philippine most comprehensive piece of legislation ever public affairs. It was as if Macapagal, hav­ enacted in the Philippines on the subject. It ing signed an important document, found reorganized and strengthened land settle­ little compulsion to act on it. The new agen­ ment, small farmer credit, the dissemination cies established by the code were not fully of new agricultural technology, legal assis­ operative until March 1964.18 As late as 1966 tance to tenants and small farmers, and no agricultural land had yet been purchased created a structure for better coordination of under the terms of the Code! 19 Even under all these functions, as well as dealing with the provisions of previous legislation in the 2 land reform more narrowly defined. A Land years following enactment of the Code only Authority was created to take over most of 1,610 hectares were purchased, or less than the activities of the LTA and a Land Bank the annual average under Magsaysay and was established to handle the financial Garcia.Z" A few months before the aspect of land acquisition. November 1965 election Macapagal pan­ Though the initial bill was somewhat icked, and made vigorous efforts to imple­ weakened before final passage, the ment the Code.21 But it was too late to turn emasculation was nowhere nearly as great as the political tide against him. in 1955. The most serious excision was the President Marcos came to office, like his chapter on land taxation which would have immediate predecessor, without any record imposed a progressive tax based on assess­ of interest in land reform. The fact that ment of potential productivity and could machinery for implementation was estab­ have greatly improved collection. A major lished by his defeated rival may have caused 6 Wurfel: Post-War Philippine Land Reform him to be even less enthused. Certainly the agencies.j-' On 5 Mayas a consequence of commitment of funds was modest. None those hearings, omnibus bills were intro­ other than Conrado Estrella, appointed chair­ duced to promote land reform in both the man of the Land Reform Council by Marcos Senate and the House, but the problems and and later secretary of the Department of costs which became associated with the idea Agrarian Reform, called attention in early of selling military land scuttled that plan. 1972 to the fact that in 1965 the total ap­ For the first time in Philippine history propriation for an land reform agencies was legislative initiative on land reform did not P156 million, but that "out of this amount come from the President, but resulted in only ... 20 percent was released.This trend large part from popular clamor heeded by has continued through the years. The pro­ Congress. portion of the amount released against ap­ The Senate bill was favored by peasant propriations ranged from 20 to 30 percent." organizations since it incorporated their "In 1971 only ... 24 percent [was] released demands for a loweringofthe retention limit from an appropriation ofP182 million."22As to 24 hectares and a prohibition on the crea­ of September 1971 landreform.had not even tion of subdivisions or the "resumption of been "proclaimed" in more than 236 of the personal cultivation" (through wage nation's 1,506cities and municipalities (vary­ laborers) as justification for the ejection of ing in size from a country to a township). tenants, and thus avoidance of land reform. Agricultural land purchase and redistribution (Both were widespread practices since 1955.) had fallen to a low level: during the first 4 They were less enthusiastic about the yearsofthe Marcos presidency approximately Estrella-favored bill to create a Department 2,600 hectares had been purchased by the of Agrarian Reform. But the regular session Land Authority and another 1,500 by the ended without any land reform related bills Land Bank, or about 1,000hectares per year. being passed. The first and second special Though slightlyabove the pace of activity in sessions saw little progress either, and before Macapagal's last 2 years in office, this was the third special session was caned a meeting only Y:! of the annual average during the of Congressional leaders with the President Magsaysay/Gareia years. agreed to strike land reform from the agen­ The way in which Mr. Marcos won da. 24 It was decided to suspend action on reelection in 1969 with charges of massive land reform while a special committee con­ fraud, inducement and intimidation, trig­ ducted an in-depth study, submitting its gered a political reaction that had a pro­ report to the regular session beginning in found impact on the national attention to January 1971. Peasant and student groups and perception of land reform. It marked were angry.25 Jeremias Montemayor, Pres­ the beginning of a new stage in the history of ident of the Federation of Free Farmers, Philippine agrarian reform. questioned the sincerity of President Marcos for saying that land reform would become LandReform Since 1971 the "epicenter" of all government activities. Soon after the January regular session The raucous demonstrations that accom­ began sitting, debate on land reform was panied President Marcos' second inaugura­ again suspended to refer the matter to tion marked the tenor of the times. Students another subcommittee, chaired by Senator were aroused and were making common Salvador Laurel. The peasant-favored cause with tenants and trade unionists. The Senate Bill 478 was amended, omitting the only positive response in the President's lowered retention of 24 hectares. Despite 2 State of the Nation address was a proposal days of demonstrations at Malacanang in to sell military camps near Manila to May by 5,000 farmer-members of the generate funds for land reform. Later special Cooperative League of the Philippines, committees in both chambers of Congress demanding to see the President, the regular conducted hearings which heard represen­ session ended without land reform legisla­ tatives of peasant groups and land reform, tion having been certified as urgent. 26 Both Second View from the Paddy 7

peasant leaders and progressive legislators began."30 From then on debate on land increasingly blamed the President for inac­ reform, especially in the House, was more tion. constructive. Two bills had been enacted, With the calling of the first special ses­ R.A. 6389 and R.A. 6390, when the fifth sion of 1971 there was launched a unique special session ended on 5 September. form of political action, the "live-in Unlike every experience in the past, the picket." On 1 June hundreds of small final version of the first piece of 1971 land farmers, supported by students, priests, reform legislation was in some ways more nuns, and urban trade unions, encamped in favorable to the tenant than the first. Cer­ front of the Congress building to insist on ef­ tainly lowering the retention limit to 24 hec­ fective reform legislation. At the beginning tares and preventing landlords from claim­ of the second special session, when ing "personal cultivation" or subdivision as legislative action on land reform was still far an excuse for ejectment of tenants would not from complete, the demonstration had have survived the legislative process without already lasted for 2 monrhs.I? Peasant intense peasant pressure. Furthermore, the organizations, especially the Free Farmers, piecemeal approach was ended and the brought in buses and jeeps loaded with whole country was declared a land reform tenants from villages as far as 200 kilometers area. R.A. 6390, the funding bill, was more away. During each legislative day small disappointing, providing appropriation for groups badgered individual Congressmen only P50 million, no higher than the funding demanding to know how they would vote on level in the previous few years, and much less each article ofeach pending land reform bill, than the original Senate bill. It was, in fact, and why, and explaining the importance of the President's intervention which tipped the the reforms proposed. Members of Con­ scale for the much more modest figures in the gress had increasing difficulty in handling House version)! Only the provision in R.A. this unprecedented pressure. In the early 6389 creating a Department of Agrarian days of the second special session they began Reform (DAR) received consistent Ad­ to question the legality of such action; ministration backing. debates on land reform were even suspend­ There are two major conclusions to be ed, to reinforce the demand that drawn from this legislative history. The demonstrators abandon their round-the­ more general one was articulated by both clock picket. 28 But the picketers only gained conservative solons and radical peasant greater mass support. Representatives of the leaders: the democratic process works, the Philippine Public School Teachers Federa­ people may peaceably assemble to redress tion joined the demonstration. The their grievances. More specifically, genuine 87,OOO-member Philippine Federation of progress toward land reform was possible Labor threatened to strike nationwide if through Congress if small farmers were farmer demonstrators were evicted from the organized. Neither of these conclusions was Congress building.P? Finally on 9 August consistent with the contentions in September House Speaker Villareal announced that the and October 1972 that only through the set­ leadership had decided to withdraw their de­ ting aside of Congress and presidential rule mand for the pickets' removal and to resume by decree could genuine land reform be ac­ debate on land reform. Said a spokesman complished. The evidence of peasant for the Philippine Congress of Trade mobilization in 1971 and the implications it Unions, "this proved that democracy, if had for the future of the Philippine political given a chance, can still work in this system, were undoubtedly factors that country." One observant Congressman helped President Marcos decide to reduce threw light on the motivation for the turn­ mass participation through Martial law. (A about when he commented, "those who fuller explanation for the abrupt transition would evict the demonstrators would be do­ in September 1972to authoritarian rule must ing exactly what the Russian aristocracy ... be found elsewhere, however.) did just before the October revolution 8 ",urfel: Pos~- War Philippine Land Reform

Presidential Decree No. 27 in sugar, coconut and other export crops were excluded from its coverage in any case, In the early years of martial law agrarian it is probably fair to say that in the long run reform was given great prominence. One none of these goals were accomplished. In month after its declaration the President the first few years of martial law, however, issued Presidential Decree No. 27 for "the agrarian policy did help create support for emancipation of the tiller from the bondage Marcos in the countryside, blunted foreign of the soil." And on the first anniver­ criticism of his regime, and put the landed sary of P.D. 27 he went so far as to say: elite on the political defensive. "Land reform is the only gauge for the suc­ In principle P.D. 27 was a great improve­ cess or failure of the New Society. If land ment over previous legislation because all reform fails, there is no New Society."32 rice and corn tenants whose landlords owned In the decree's preamble President Mar­ more than 7 hectares were to be sold the land cos hinted at one of the motivations for this they tilled at a price 2 Y2 times the average emphasis: "Inasmuch as the old concept of annual production; they were given 15 years land ownership by a few has spawned valid to pay the Land Bank at 6 percent interest. and legitimate grievances that gave rise to No tenant initiative was required. When the violent conflict and social tension, the tenant fully paid, and only then, he would redress of such ... grievances ... receive a title transferable exclusively to his [becomes)one ofthe fundamental objectives heirs. (Landlords were to be paid 10 percent of the New Society ..." The fear of in cash and 90 percent in Land Bank bonds.) agrarian unrest, and Communist leadership In the meantime the eligible tenant would thereof, was certainly the explanation for the receive a "Certificate of Land Transfer" fact that only 2 weeks after martial law had (CLT) identifying his cultivated area and been declared, Dr. Roy Prostermann, of the promising him the right to purchase the University of Washington, author of the land. 1970land reform in Vietnam (and the subse­ The number of tenants to benefit from quent program in EI Salvador) arrived in the this decree quickly became a controversial .Philippines with a draft decree in his pocket. question. In the first month the Department (His draft influenced but did not determine ofAgrarian Reform (which had already been the final document.) About the same time, created before martial law) announced that Executive Secretary Alejandro Melchor was over 1 million tenants tilled 1.44 million hec­ in Washington trying to justify martial law tares of rice and corn land. But research in on the grounds that it was necessary for the 1975 established that 57 percent of tenants quick implementation of broad social farmed land owned by persons with less than reforms. But for the President himself, land 7 hectares. Subsequently DAR announced reform's most important political function that based on its own "field identification," was to strike a blow at the "oligarchy," its goal was to service more than those wealthy elite who had formed the core 390,000tenants on 730,000hectares, or little of his political opposition. Not surprisingly more than Y3 ofall rice and corn tenants. By the Aquino estates wereamong the first to be 1980, DAR claimed to have "issued" CLTs expropriated. The subsequent pattern of im­ to 90 percent of the targeted tenants, but plementation helped to confirm this inter­ best estimates are that nearly half of those pretation. The President simply lost his printed in Manila never actually reached the originally keen interest after the owners with hands of the cultivator. more than 100 hectares had been dispos­ CLT holders were still being asked to pay sessed. rent to their landlords. Not until the price of In sum, the political purpose of land the land was fixed and the tenant began to reform and its ancillary policieswas to create pay installments to the Land Bank was he an mass support for the New Society and its "amortizing owner." Only 86,500, or 22 leader, legitimize him abroad, and under­ percent of the target, had reached that stage; mine support for alternative leadership on and oJ that number only 1,667 had com­ both the tight and the left. Sincegreat estates pleted payments early and become full Second View from the Paddy 9 owners.33 Most amortizing owners were evade the reform may have been at least delinquent.34 equally frustrated. Delay in fixing the price, and delinquency The slow pace of implementation was in amortization resulted from the fact that in­ due partly to a chronic bureaucratic com­ stead of setting land price on the basis of pro­ plaint, lack of personnel because of lack of duction as the decree provided, landlords budget. Even though there was a real in­ were allowed to negotiate with tenants and crease in funds (even after compensating for DAR field officials sometimesaided the land­ inflation) for agrarian reform between FY lord, already the stronger party. On other oc­ 1973 and FY 1977, the priority for the casions, to be sure, when DAR officials stood Ministry of Agrarian Reform within the up for tenant rights under the law, they were total national budget continued to verbally threatened or judicially harrassed by slide, however. In 1973 it was 0.8 percent of landlords. Many DAR officials had court the total, in 1977 only 0.7 percent and in 1981 cases initiated against them for merely doing down to 0.5 percent)? More serious, their duty.35 Landlord foot-dragging could however, was the delay, and even retreat, in postpone a pricing agreement indefinitely. the face of landlord pressure by top decision Thus by 1977, the average price per hectare makers. Nor was this the result of inatten­ being paid by the tenant of nearly P7,000 was tion by the President; Minister of Agrarian 44 percent higher than it would have been if it Reform Conrado Estrella, who remained in had been based on the average yield as office from before the declaration until after reported by the Ministry of Agriculture.F' the lifting of martial law, boasted ofeasy ac­ Since Land Bank bonds could be sold for cess to President Marcos to consult on prob­ cash by landlords, at a discount to be sure, in lems within the ministry. There was appa­ order to make other investments, or could be rently a feelingin Malacanang that more was invested in approved projects at face value, to be gained politically by easing the pressure the loss of land usually did not involve a on landlords (especially those with less than significant loss of wealth. By 1980, 5,860 24 hectares) than by pushing through to the landowners had been paid by the Land Bank full extent of the law. Foreign analysts, an average of PZO?,347 each. however, were more inclined to conclude The net result of land redistribution was to that half measures were worse than none at put more than 86,000 tenants on the road to all, I.e., that incomplete reform ownership (with only 2 percent completing raised expectations and thus intensified the the process);whilethis was lessthan 9 percent frustration of those who did not benefit. of a very conservative estimate of all rice and Revolutionary political organization in the corn tenants, it was, nevertheless, a greater countryside by 1981 would seem to have jus­ accomplishment than in any previous admi­ tified that conclusion. Some prime land nistration. However, since the announcement reform areas had become bases for the Com­ and the early stages of implementation gave munist-led New People's Army (NPA). the vast majority of all tenants a feeling that In any case, government spokesmen did they personally were going to benefit, the not bother themselves with trying to explain consequence was that for every farmer who shortcomings; they proclaimed complete was grateful to the government for having success. The government-owned Philippine achieveda new status, and perhaps improved News Agency release on the eve of the 8th income, there were many resentful that their anniversary of P.D. 27 stated: "359,000 hopes had been frustrated. Probably the farmers now own the land they till via the is­ thousands of tenants who first received suance of 501,364 certificates of land title CLTs, and then had them recalled - either (sic]. The figures represent 82 percent of the because of simple bureaucratic confusion or total target.',38 The previously subtle at­ becauseoflandlord intervention - were most tempt to equate CLTs with titles had lost its upset. Though the thousands more who were subtlety. Some foreign publications used the illegally ejected from their tenant holdings in language of the release, thus perpetuating 1972-74 by foresighted landlords wishing to the gross.inaccuracy. Even AID officials in 10 ;Wurjel: P~l. War Philippine Land Reform

Washington bought this line, though their on the same committee) to present his ideas Philippine specialists knew otherwise. The in the dra(ting process. But peasant mobili­ AID presentation to the House Foreign Af­ zation was insignificant; thus it was only the fairs sub-Committee on Asia and Pacific Af­ perceptions of the political elite about possi­ fairs hearings in Washington in March 1981 ble future peasant reactions that affected reported flatly that "88 percent of eligible policy. And those perceptions were impor­ families had received land titles" under tant to decision makers primarily as they Philippine agrarian reform. 39 entered into broader calculations of self in­ terest, i.e., how elite interests are influenced by peasant reaction. Conclusion Insofar as peasant protests were violent, and constituted a threat to system stability, To look at the sweepof policy over more they stimulated concern within the elite, than 30 years raises the very basic question though without legislative consequence at whether "conservative land reform" is pos­ least until the 1920s.41 As early as 1933, sible, i.e., whether the announced goals, to however, the Rice Share Tenancy Act may transform cultivators into owners, can be ac­ be seen to be a kind of response to the complished by any regime dominated by furious Tayug uprising ofJanuary 1931.The men of great private wealth. Does its more extensivepeasant mobilization in Cen­ achievement either require a period of tral Luzon of the late 1930s frightened Presi­ foreign domination, as in Japan, or a prior dent Quezon into launching the landed sociopolitical revolution, as in China? Or, estates policy, though the more short-sighted posed another way, does the goal of peasant members of the National Assembly effec­ ownership require rapid industrialization as tively hamstrang other agrarian reform the context for agrarian change, as in Japan? measures. Ultimately, "Quezon's desire And is the only alternative agrarian revolu­ simultaneouslyto placate both landlords and tion that ultimately denies the principle of tenants... pleasedneither, and in 1941 rural cultivator ownership anyway, as in China? class conflict was more acute than ever.,,42 Perhaps farmer ownersare a transitory breed This characterization of the 1930s aptly fits, in any case; both Japan and Westernsocieties as we shall see, the interactions in later stages that were long based on peasant ownership of land reform policy. are seeingthe rise of the corporate farm. The Roxas Administration, the first after These questions lead us into the broad independence, was closely linked, as had field of comparative history, fascinating, but been Quezon, to.the landed elite of Central sometimes speculative. The questions which Luzon. Its response to the rising Huk Rebel­ are more directly related to the historical lion was the "mailed fist," thus contributing survey of Philippine land reform policy here to mobilization of the peasantry by the left. presented are: Why was this type of policy ,Roxas' Vice-President and successor, enacted? Why was implementation so Elpidio Quirino, was himselffrom the Ilocos consistently frustrated? And what are the region and was therefore less closely tied to political consequences of such programs? the great landowners of the Philippines' It is abundantly clear that until 1971 peas­ "ricebowl." He saw some political advan­ ant demands had no direct effect on policies tage in wooing the dissidents, called for a enacted. Thus heroic rhetoric, e.g., "The cease-fire, granted amnesty to the Huks and evolution of the various land reform legisla­ seated Taruc in Congress. But the ac­ tions since 1905 is the story of accumulated cumulated distrust was too great; militants piecemealconcessions bitterly fought for by on both sides sabotaged the cease-fire and the Filipino peasantry," sometimes lacks the guerrilla movement was resumed. Under historical accuracy.40 The presence of the U.S. prodding, Quirino did attempt, Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) however, to mount some agrarian reform president on Maeapagal's special com­ programs except for land reform. The Har­ mittee gave an opportunity for a peasant die Report from the U.S. aid mission, which leader (balanced by an influential landlord proposed a sweeping land redistribution, second Viewfrom the Paddy JJ was branded as "communist" by vehement the commitment, the leadership and the allies congressmen, undoubtedly speaking for the to put direct pressure on Congress for reform.. landed elite. Land reform had to wait until The reaction of Marcos to the land after the election of Magsaysay. reform debate of 1971 is curious. He was In the Magsaysay Administration the certainly not displeased with the prospect of elite composition again changed, bringing in a new administrative structure, the Depart­ younger, and more middle class elements, ment of Agrarian Reform, which would dedicated to solve the underlying problems allow him to make new appointments. But that caused unrest. Magsaysay himself had his negative approach to other peasant aroused the expectation of reform among demands reflected either a serious the masses. But Magsaysay was, in politics, a miscalculation of the changing political tactical neophyte. And the landed interests realities or a hidden agenda. One could in Congress were still strong. Since he almost imagine that there was a desire to see delayed more than a year in pushing land land reform efforts in the "Old Society" reform legislation, the threat of the Huk frustrated, while plans for the unveiling of Rebellion had drifted into the hazy past for the "New" were being quietly laid dawn. most parliamentarians - they lost interest in His discomfort with the "oligarchy" was forestalling unrest. "Community develop­ already apparent, thus his posing as the ment" was a more comfortable concept, champion of land reform might have seemed without implications of class conflict; it was appropriate. But that role was saved until thus a high priority program. Garcia, who after the declaration of martial law. And became president on Magsaysay's death, was when the purposes of land reform after 1972 fortunate to inherit a relatively tranquil seemed to enjoy short-term success, the pro­ society, which could afford an interlude of gram was allowed to languish. old fashioned politics. Tai has quite rightly pointed out that Macapagal had indeed grown up a poor political elites initiate land reform "to gain boy, but he had been coopted by the landed political legitimacy, i.e., to strengthen Pampanga elite. His sudden conversion to popular support for a new political order or the virtues of agrarian reform in 1963is thus to safeguard an existing regime against all the more surprising. Certainly he was res­ threatened political changes...44 The first pectful of American advice, and like every case may fit land reform after martial law, other Filipino politician adored the prospect and the latter is typical of the earlier ex­ of new agencies to fill with his appointees, amples. Tai continues, "Elites are sensitive and the Agricultural Land Reform Code to the danger that in initiating reform they created several of them. But his reaching out may immediately encounter the opposition for mass support on the land reform issue of the landed class but only slowly gain the was a harbinger of change in the Philippine support of the peasants." Conceivably, they system, a harbinger of trends that many may lose the loyalty of the former before thought had died with Magsaysay. But gaining that of the latter. In fact, this sen­ Macapagal started too late in the building of sitivity is sometimes developed only after the a new mass base to succeed. reform process has begun, thus inclining the With Marcos during his first term, as same leadership which initiated it to leave it with Garcia, there was litde interest shown in half finished. (This seemed particularly ap­ land reform. There were no new agencies to parent in the Philippines in the late 19708.) staff and Central Luzon was comparatively The incomplete reform is also a function quiet. The quiet was deceptive, however, and of the nature of the Philippine political elite. by the end of the 1960sa new rebellion had It is in Tai's classification a "conciliatory been launched by the New People's Army. elite,"45 one in which landlord interests are The landed elite was not as influential in strong enough that they must be conciliated. Congress as it once was and peasant organi­ Conciliatory elites, he says, "are generally zations were larger and more politically more committed to passing some kind oflaw skilled than ever.43 For the first time they had than to (ighting for its effective implementa- 12 Wurfel: Post-War Philippine Land Reform tion. "46 He also recognizes that it is in coun­ decision-making process. That sharing took tries where land reform has made the least place for the first time in 1971. When power progress, as in the Philippines, that the was concentrated in 1972, independent pea­ greatest threats to stability persist.f" sant organizations were crushed. By the late Land reform exacerbates class conflict in 1970s even those groups that had been rural communities, especially when landlord domesticated by martial law tried to bring to evasion causes suffering for peasants, e.g., the President and Secretary Estrella the com­ eviction to make way for mechanization and plaints of small farmers, but their message wage labor, inappropriately termed "per­ fell on deaf ears. They had no legitimacy sonal cultivation" in Philippine within the decision-making process; they parlance. If such a period of conflict is only were powerless. a brief transition to full peasant ownership it The critique of a close observer of the is not destabilizing to the whole political Philippine program, one who follows the system. But when it continues indefinitely Huntington school of thought, reveals a and is exploited by sophisticated radical similar inconsistency. He points out that leadership, the consequences can be land reform has been handicapped since devastating. The spread of guerrilla warfare 1972 because the relationship between cen­ in land reform areas in the 1980s is such a tral authority and the peasantry has been one consequence. of central dominance.s? He emphasizes the The lack of follow through in land value of greater local initiative, then in the reform may have explanations other than the next paragraph recommends that wider use character ofa "conciliatory elite." It may be might be made of the military in implement­ the result of the rampant "ritualism" that ing land reform! One wonders what such characterizes so much of Philippine politics, analysts mean by "local initiative." The the belief that appearance is reality, that to military constitute the greatest single con­ make a declaration is to create a condition. straint on autonomous peasant political ac­ This style is so pervasive that many leaders tivity, especially in relation to agrarian ques­ may not even be conscious of the lack of tions. substance to their declarations. The final point that must be made in the The acceptance of ritual may also result attempt to understand the inconclusive cha­ from the clogging of communication chan­ racter of Philippine land reform relates to nels in an authoritarian regime, where the the differences between central and local opportunity for bad news to reach the top is elites. While it is true that in the last decade very limited. In a centralized system of deci­ landed elements in the national political elite sion making, when the reality is not fully have declined in influence, permitting ever known at the center, there can be no rec­ stronger legislation in 1963, 1971 and 1972, tification of errors. Authoritarianism does changes in local elites have been much not provide efficient feedback. Yet many slower. Despite the highly centralized cha­ authors have extolled the advantages of racter of Philippine public administration highly centralized regimes for implementing since the Spanish times, local political land reform. Samuel Huntington has been leaders expected to be able to intervene in one of these. He adds, however, that in addi­ administrative matters to protect their own tion to concentration of power in an elite interests, and did so with impunity. Further­ committed to reform there must be "the more, at the provincial and municipal level mobilization of the peasantry and their civil servants were often relatives or recom­ organized participation in the implementa­ mendees of local politicians. And even tion" ofreform.48 That is an intriguing com­ though local politicians from the 1950s or bination, with a severe internal contradic­ 1960s had become a distinct category from tion. the landlords, they were usually closely A concentration of power is not compati­ linked. The habits of nearly three generations ble with freedom of organization, which is of electoral politics died hard after 1972, so based on the assumption that various in­ that local political leaders did not easily ac­ terests in society have a right to share in the cept the supremacy of the bureaucracy, conti- Second Viewfrom the Paddy /3 nuing to manipulate into their own ends. Manuel Castaneda, A Report on Philippine Land Thus the failure to implement land reform Tenure Problems and Recommended Solutions was often the gap between central policy and Thereof (Manila: Land Tenure Administration, local practice, which could not be effectively 1960) pp. 24-25. 13Harold Koone and Lewis Gleeck, "Land corrected from the center. A mix of both Reform in the Philippines," AID Spring Review authoritarian and democratic elements com­ \June 1970), p. 76. bined to frustrate the implementation of 4Castaneda, OPt cit., p. 4. reform. 15Don Ferry, "The Constitutional and Social Ifland reform is to be fully implemented, Aspects of Land Reform," in Gerardo Sicat, ed., there must be a cleansing of the bureaucracy The Philippine Economy in the 19608 (Quezon of those who do not support it, along with City: U.P., 1964) p. 128, much greater autonomy for peasant organi­ 16Diana E. Sabater, "Congress and Land Reform zation and an adequately funded, clearly in the Philippines," unpublished MS, Honolulu, committed central authority. It is difficult to 1977, p. 10, based on a research of the Congres­ foresee when these conditions may prevail. sional Record. 17See Koone and Gleeck, OPt cit., p. 70. Though his goal was not achieved, he did win in tenant­ dominated Central Luzon. Notes 18Executive Order No. 75, March 19, 1964. 19The Philippine Land Reform Program: A Country Statement (Dillman, Q.C.: Land DAVID WURFEL holds a Ph.D. in government Authority, 1966), p. 33. and Asian studies from the Cornell University. He 20Benjamin Gozen, "Land Reform: Tool in Fight has conducted extensive research on land reform Against Poverty" Manila Times, Aug. 2, 1965. in South Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, 2lSabater, op. cit., p. 85. and reports his findings on the subject in various 22Hernan V. Gonzales II, "Big Job on Small periodicals and a compilation entitled, Govern­ Budget," Manila Times, March 23, 1972. ment and Politics in Southeast Asia. Wurfel has, 23Edward Kiunisala, "Land Reform at Last," at one time or another, served on the faculties of Philippine Free Press, August 28, 1971, p, 2. the University of Missouri, University of Michi­ 24Manila Times, August 31, 1970. gan, International Christian University in Tokyo 25Edward Kiunisala, "Lip Service to Land and the University of Singapore. Reform," Philippine Free Press, September 12, 1970. 26MT, May 20, 1971. ISee D. Wurfel, Philippine Agrarian Policy: 27Manila Times, August 3, 1971. 1946-1961 (Unpublished MS, 1962), eh. V. 28MT, August 4, 1971. 2Resolution No. 42, Nov. 14, 1946. 29MT, August 8, 1971. 3See BahayPare Estate Investigating Committee, 30MT, August 10, 1971. "Findings," July 24, 1954; Presidential Commit­ 31MT, August 24, 1971. tee created to look into the conditions of the 32Philippine Daily Express, September 22, 1973. Buenavista Estate, "Report," Aug. 20,1954, and 33BT, October 21, 1980, p, 10. others. 34Rolf Hanisch, "Decision-Making Process and 4Bureau of Lands, Annual Report, 1955, p. 53. Problems of Implementation of the Land Reform 5Wurfel,op. cit., p. 317. in the Philippines," Asia Quarterly, (1978, no. I), 6House, Congressional Record, July 8, 1955, p. f· 29. 3599. 5Hanisch, op cit., pp. 21-22. 7LTA, Annual Report, 1956, p. 17. 36See Germelino Bautista, Philippine Rural Anti­ 8See Manila Times, July 10, 1956; also Official Poverty Programs (Quezon City: Institute of Gazette (August 15, 1956), p. ccelxvii. Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University, 9Note especially the case of Hacienda 1978), pp. 27-28. Dinalupihan. MT, May 10, June 29, July 16, 37See Presidential Budget Message, FYI975, p. 1956, and author's field notes. 8A; Philippine Development, August 15, 1979, 10see LTA Resolution #12, March 24, 1956. pp. 13-16; and BT, September 2, 1980, p. 2. IlWurfel, op cit., p. 331. Agrarian reform seemed to get priority, instead, 12Land Tenure Administration, Annual Report, when announcing reversion of appropriations to FY 1959, (Manila, Sept. 25,.1959), pp. 10()..101; the general fund. See reversion order for P.157 14 Wurfei: Post-War Philippine Land Reform million in June 1977, in which P65.million came 43See Wurfel, "Elites of Wealth and Elites of from DAR. (Presidential letter of Instructions Power, The Changing Dynamic: A Philippine' No. 548.) Case Study," in SE Asian Affairs, /979 38BT, October 19, 1980. (Singapore: ISEAS, 1979),233-45. 39Statement of Frederick Schreck, Acting Assis­ 44Hung-chao Tai, Land Reform and Politics: A tant Administrator, Bureau of Asia, AID, March Comparative Analysis (Berkeley: University of 31, 1981. California Press, 1974), p, 56. 4OBlondie Po, Land Reform (Unpublished MS, 45Ibid., p. 9Off. 1978). 46lbid., p. 128. 41See Jim Richardson, "Does Grass-roots Action 47/bid., p. 441. Lead to Agrarian Reform?", Philippine 48Political Order in Changing Societies (New Sociological Review, Vol. 20(1-2), 1972, pp, Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), p, 383. 144-45. 49William Overholt, "Land Reform in the Philip­ 42Ibid., p. 149. pines," Asian Survey, XVI: 5 (May 1976), p. 449. Part II: BEFORE-AND-AFTER-STUDIES

AGRARIAN REFORM, PRODUCTIVITY AND EQUITY: TWO STUDIES

JOHN J. CARROLL, S.J.

In this paper I shall attempt to sum­ from the introduction of modern rice marize and compare the findings of two em­ technology together with improved irriga­ pirical, "before and after" studies of land tion facilities, farm to market roads, and reform in particular areas of the Philippines: agricultural financing; increased municipal one conducted in the municipality of Pla­ revenues and new financial institutions. ridel, Bulacan (Angsico 1978); and the other The agrarian reform program in Plaridel in the Bicol River Basin of southeastern passed through two main phases (pp.54-87), Luzon (San Andres and Illo 1978). These both of which were oriented toward changes studies have been available until now only in in the system of land tenure plus technical the mimeographed format of final IPC and financial assistance to farmers - which research reports; it is felt that they deserve hopefully would help them to increase their wider circulation in more succinct form, and productivity, improve their incomes and that a comparison between the findings of standard of living, and achieve independence the two may constitute a modest contribu­ from their landlords. In the period 1964 to tion toward a more generalized under­ 1972 the focus was on the conversion of standing of the land reform process. Passing share tenants into leaseholders; but im­ reference will be made to one other IPC plementation was hampered by the clum­ study as well: Tenants, Lessees, Owners, by siness of the legal machinery, landlord op­ Mangahas, Miralao, and de los Reyes, an position, fear on the part of tenants, and earlier "before and after" study in Nueva understaffing of the administrative Ecija. machinery. As a result, share tenancy, although technically abolished, continued to Plaridel, Bulaean be widely practiced in fact. Meanwhile, as a consequence of the introduction of the new Plaridel is in a certain sense a privileged high-yielding varieties together with site for the study of land reform, since it was technical and credit assistance to farmers, chosen as a pilot area for the implementation rice productivity increased considerably. The of the Agricultural Land Reform Code of cooperatives, however, which would have 1963 and surveys were carried out at the time provided procurement and marketing ser­ which provide a baseline for the measure­ vices to the farmers, failed to materialize. ment of change in the municipality. And in Presidential Decree No. 27, issued in fact there was considerable socioeconomic 1972, reoriented the agrarian reform pro­ change in the succeeding 11years, as the first gram - in principle at least - toward land part of this study demonstrates: a movement ownership on the part of the actual tillers; of manpower out of agriculture and into leasehold was to be maintained only on land­ manufacturing, commerce and the service holdings no larger than 7 hectares. And once industries - often located elsewhere in the again, supporting institutions were to be province of Bulacan or in Metro Manila; in­ developed for arranging the transfer of land, creased agricultural productivity resulting determining its value and the system of pay- 16 Carroll;Agrarian Reform, Productivity and Equity ment to the former landlord and amortiza­ among the latter for purposes of analysis. It tion on the part of the former tenant, is on these two groups - the "shifters" who establishing cooperatives and providing had moved from share tenancy to leasehold technical and financial assistance. The and the "nonshifters" who had remained as report notes (pp. 87-103) that implementa­ share tenants - that the main analysis is tion in Bulacan was again slow, partly as a focused. In accordance with the logic of a consequence of legal conflicts between land­ pretest-posttest design with a nonequivalent owners and tenants; by June of 1976, only control group, comparisons between the two about 17 percent of eligible tenants had groups are used to separate out the effects of received Land Transfer Certificates. Mean­ tenurial change from those resulting from while efforts were made to finally eliminate general socioeconomic forces operating in the share tenancy by insisting on written and area (pp. 1-17). registered leasehold agreements covering That there was in fact a general improve­ landholdings 7 hectares and less in size. The ment in socioeconomic conditions is con­ Masagana 99 program of agricultural credit firmed by the increase in the proportion of reached a high point for Plaridel in 1974, respondents' houses built of strong materials with the number of loans released by the from 2 percent in CY 1962/63 to 61 percent Rural Bank of Plaridel slightly greater than in CY 1974/75, of those using electricity for the total number of tenants in the municipa­ lighting from 16 percent to 73 percent, and lity; after 1974 the number of loans and the by the decline in the proportion of homes rate of repayment both decreased. Produc­ without toilets from 33 percent to 13 percent tivity increased, particularly among farmers (Table 38, p. 111). Likewise, average rice availing themselves of the Masagana 99 production for wet and dry season crops loans, but in the later years for which data combined rose from 86 to 115 cavans per are available (1974-76) it too seems to have hectare, attributable in part to the extension dropped back again somewhat. Participa­ of irrigation services to practically all of the tion in the Samahang Nayon was low, al­ farms included in the study and in part to the though the Plaridel Federation ofSamahang use of the high-yieldingvarieties and modern Nayon aided in the establishment of a inputs (p. 121). marketing cooperative and rural bank. A disconcerting finding, however, is that Against this background, the research at­ despite the increase in production and in tempts to answer the question: What has household labor dedicated to the farm, the happened to the farmers - the main actors net value of production per hectare appears in the drama - as a consequence of these to have decreased in real terms between CY programs? And in particular: how valid is 1962/63 and CY 1974/75 (Table 30, p. 125). the underlying theory that tenurial change The reported decrease amounts to 32 percent plus back-up assistance leads to greater pro­ if imputed labor costs are included in the ductivity and thence to greater welfare for calculations and 8 percent if they are not; it the farmer? The research design took advan­ is attributed to the fact that the cost of tage of the fact that a baseline study had modern inputs increased much more rapidly been carried out before the initiation of the than did the value of production. The find­ first program, in CY 1962/63 - reportedly ing is disconcerting not only because it sug­ covering all 1,432 farmers in Plaridel; 575 of gests - as other data have suggested - that the interview schedules were retrieved in the Filipino rice farmer is the victim as well usable form, and 437 of the same farmers ­ as the hero of the Green Revolution, but also or their heirs - were located and resurveyed because it is not immediately reconcilable in CY 1974-75. Of these, 283 were found to with the data cited above on improved hous­ have shifted from share tenancy to leasehold ing conditions, nor with the author's find­ status while 53 remained as share tenants; ings that household income increased by 11 only 17 had received Certificates of Land percent in real terms, farm income by 16per­ Transfer, but 13 of these identified cent (p. 138), and the value in real terms of themselves as lessees and were included household assets increased by 88 percent Second View from the Paddy /7

(p.157). Possibly the increased farm income available by the program - may have con­ is attributable to farm products other than tributed to the shifters' greater productivity. rice, e.g., pig and poultry production. Alter­ But again there seems to be reason to natively the discrepancy may be explained by question whether the shifters' greater energy weaknesses in the data base for CY 1963/64: and productivity have been adequately in 116 out of 403 cases, imputed labor costs rewarded. If we accept the income figures as could not be ascertained for that year (Table valid, we find that the shifters had lower 30, p. 125); and in 86 of 403 cases for the average farm incomes and family incomes same year, total household income could not than nonshifters both in CY 1962/63 and CY be computed (Table A8, p. 186). 1974/75, although the differences were not In attempting to specify the possible rela­ statistically significant (Table 37, p. 141). In tionship of increased productivity to tenurial the earlier period the greater per hectare pro­ change, the author notes that in CY 1962-63 ductivity of the future shifter was compen­ the levels of production of future shifters' sated for by the slightly larger farms of the and fpture nonshifters' farms did not differ nonshifters; in the latter period mainly by significantly; but by CY 1974/75 the shifters the latters' increased nonfarm income. Thus, were obtaining harvests per hectare which the nonshifter, by dedicating more of his were significantly larger - at the .05 level ­ time to nonfarm occupations, has been able than those of the nonshifters (p.128). Fur­ - on the average - to increase his economic ther analysis indicates that in CY 1974/75 advantage over the shifter who has given the shifters had invested more heavily than more of his time to the farm and has con­ the nonshifters in labor, seeds, and tributed more to the solution of the nation's chemicals; and it was in fact these inputs rice problems. which were the main determinants of output Further questions about the social conse­ (pp. 129-35). Thus, according to the author quences of the program appear to be raised (pp. 134-35), by the author's figures on income distribu­ tion. The Gini ratio for the Plaridel farming The above findings suggest that tenure households studied rose from .385 in or tenurial change operates in an ob­ 1962/63 to .438 elevenyears later, and sig­ lique manner: shifters more than non­ nificant increases in household income over shifters have the motivation to invest in this period were found only in the wealthier greater amounts of production inputs, 50 percent of households, while the poorest the incentive probably, coming from 20 percent suffered a drastic decline in real security of tenure and the bigger share income (p, 144). Moreover, it was only in the of the farm produce that accrues to upper part of the income scale that increases them as a result of reduced rentals. in farm income and increasing percentages of total income derived from the farm were A point on which the author does not in­ found, whereas the poorer households ­ sist sufficiently perhaps, is that the shifters and in particular the poorer shifters' appear to have been more energetic even households - were relying much more on before the program came into being: nonfarm income than they had in the past although their production per hectare in CY (pp. 152-54). The author believes that the 1962/63 was not significantly greater at the worsening of the general income distribution .05 level than that of the nonshifters, it does was due principally to the shifters who make seem to have been higher by some 2.6 cavans up a majority of the population studied (p. and labor input costs were significantly 172). higher (p. 129 and Table 33, p. 133). To the present writer this suggests that the agrarian That nonshifters experienced a worsen­ reform program may have "-selected" the ing income distribution does not more energetic farmers for leasehold conver­ detract from the similarly inequitable sion and this -together with the added in­ distribution of incomes among shifters centive and the modern inputs made who are the supposed beneficiaries of 18 Carroll: Agrarian Reform, Productivity and Equity

agrarian reform. The average farm in­ ty is neutral" (p, 86, emphasis in the come and total household income of original). The authors went on to rule out the richest shifters were 19and 12times even the "oblique" effect which was to be higher, respectively, than those of their affirmed by Angsico (p. 87). poorer counterparts. Prior to the pro­ Average production of rice per hectare gram, average farm income was only is roughly the same for all tenure three times greater and total household groups. Similarly, average application income nine times greater. rates of inputs per hectare of rice, And thus she concludes that (p. 173): whether fertilizer, new varieties, or ... the agrarian reform program does labor, are the same for all tenure not appear to serve equity goals - the groups . . . . The sources of increased issue taken within a tenant versus te­ agricultural productivity are diffusion nant perspective. Income increases, of new seeds, varieties [sic], fertilizers, whether resulting from increased pro­ etc. Changes in land tenure neither ductivity or reduced rentals, were true substitute for these nor make it -any only of the richer farmers. easier for them to come about. Here, it may be noted, the author ap­ The conflict here may be resolved per­ pears to be taking issue, indirectly, with the haps by noting the different settings and conclusions of an earlier study (Mangahas, time-frames of the two studies, and in par­ Miralao, and de los Reyes 1976), in which ticular the fact that the earlier study was con­ under a subhead which reads "Tenure ducted before any major effects of P.D. 27 change does improve equity," it is argued as and the associated programs such as Masa­ follows (p. 89). gana 99 could reasonably have been ex­ pected. It should be noted also that, accord­ The tenant's net income from the farm ing to Angsico, the effect of tenure on pro­ is determined by the contractual para­ ductivity is small when compared with the meters as well as by the farm's produc­ effect of labor and modern production in­ tivity. It has been shown, however, puts; moreover it is largely mediated through that farm productivity does not differ these other factors and is distinguishable by tenure; the differences in farm in­ from them only through refined statistical comes between various tenure groups analysis (Angsico, p. 134). are due mainly to the sizedifferences in share rentals, lease rentals, or amor­ tizations which they pay. The Bicol River Basin In fact' the analysis conducted by these I shall now attempt to compare these authors had disclosed that - in Nueva Ecija conclusions of Angsico with some of the between CY 1969170 and CY 1972173 - the findings of San Andres and Illo for the Bicol only consistent income advantage found River Basin (San Andres and Illo 1978). among the different tenure groups was that This, too, is a "before and after" study as held by owner-cultivators over share tenants, has been noted above, although it was car­ lessees, and amortizing owners. Differences ried out within a shorter time frame - 1974 in income among the nonowning groups to 1977.It covers the cities of Naga and Iriga were lessconsistent and seemed to be related and 31 municipalities of Camarines Sur - a to other factors. In any case, this earlier much larger area than the municipality of study did not analyze the possibly changing Plaridel in Bulacan. It is also a much poorer patterns of income distribution within tenure area, judging from reported household in­ groups, the "tenant versus tenant perspec­ comes and the types of homes in which res­ tive" taken by Angsico. pondents lived. Average household income A more direct contrast in the findings of reported in this study was P2,834 for 1974 the two studies is presented by the conclu­ (Table A17, p.93); Angsico's respondents, sion of Mangahas, Miralao, and de los Reyes on the other hand, reported an average in­ that "theeffect ofland tenure on productivi- come for CY 1974-1975 of P4,823 (Angsico, Second View from the Paddy 19

Table 8A, p. 186). Only 5 percent of using chemicals and fertilizers declined bet­ respondents in the Bicol resurvey of 1977 ween 1974 and 1977 - from 85 to 76 for che­ had homes of strong materials (Table A2, p. micals and from 45 to 42 for fertilizer. On 77), whereas the CY 1974-1975 resurvey the other hand, the intensity of application found 61 percent of respondents in Plaridel of fertilizer appears to have increased con­ living in such homes (Angsico, Table 26, p. siderably among those who continued to use 1l1). it - and particularly among those who had The Bicol River Basin appears also to be shifted to amortizing ownership (p. 24 and an area in which land tenure reform got off Table A7, p. 82). to a later start and perhaps was pushed less Rice production rose between 1974 and vigorously than in PlarideI. The 1977 re­ 1977 from 34.45 to 44.81 cavans per hectare. survey of 332 farmers who in 1974 had been These levels are stilI far below those share tenants and eligible for either Cer­ registered in Plaridel, but a 30 percent in­ tificates of Land Tenure or leasehold con­ crease in 3 years' time indicates that some version revealed that in the later year only 66 real changes have taken place. And one of or 20 percent were listed by the Department these changes appears, at first glance, to of Agrarian Reform as amortizing owners have been the shift on the part of many of and identified themselves as such; only 10 the farmers to leasehold or amortizing or 3 percent were listed as leaseholders ownership. The shifters in fact had larger in­ and so considered themselves; 142 or 43 per­ creases in productivity than the nonshifters cent perceived no change in their status as (Table 14, p. 34): the largest increases being share tenants although they were considered registered by those who had shifted from by the Department of Agrarian Reform as share tenancy to leasehold, followed by the lessees, and 114 or 34 percent did not fit into new amortizing owners, and then by the any of these categories - in many cases nonshifters. because the farmer worked different plots of It should be noted, however, that future land with different tenure statuses (pp. amortizing owners were producing higher 8-11). These findings contrast sharply with yields than future nonshifters as early as those of Angsico in Bulacan, where a large 1974 (p. 33); which again suggests that land majority of former share tenants were found tenure reform may tend to select those far­ to have converted to leasehold and only a mers "most likely to succeed." Moreover, small minority had received Certificates of an analysis of variance and covariance con­ Land Transfer (Angsico, pp. 105-107). And ducted on palay production per hectare for they would seem to render suspect any 1977 indicates once again that the factors general conclusions based on data from the which most powerfully influence productivi­ 10 "lonely" leaseholders. ty are technical: the amount of labor, fer­ As was noted in Plaridel, there seems to tilizer and chemicals which are used. But ir­ have been an increase in household income rigation, tenure class, and the farmer's among the Bicol respondents: in terms of education have an impact also; and these six 1974 prices the average reported increase factors together account for 42 percent of over 3 years was P400 or 14 percent, al­ the variance in productivity (p. 35 and Table though the difference was not found to be 15, p. 36). Most of the difference between statistically significant (p.42). There was also the output of shifters' and nonshifters' an increase in the percentage of cropland ir­ farms seems to stem from associated factors: rigated, from 37 in 1974 to 50 in 1977, which the data suggest that "as a group shifters are compensated in part for a reduction in the irrigated-farm cultivators with either total area cultivated (pp. 20-22). The high­ elementary or some secondary education yielding varieties of rice are in general use, while the nonshifters are tillers of nonir­ and about three-fourths of the farmers in rigated land and possess no formal 1977 were using chemical pesticides and education" (p.37). And again "production weedicides, but less than half were using fer­ inputs show the greatest impact on yield and tilizers: in fact, the percentages of farmers their effects underlie the yield variation 20 Carroll: Agrarian Rf?jorm,.Productivity and Equity

brought about by education, irrigation, or percent; and only that of the 10 leaseholders tenure status" (loc. cit.v. But all in all, the increased substantially, by Pl,119 or 97 per­ data seem to the present writer more in ac­ cent. The increases in household income for cord with Angsico's theory of an oblique but the amortizers and the nonshifters came real effect of tenure change on productivity from nonfarm and off-farm employment than with the position that its effect is and not from the increased productivity of neutral (see above p.17).1t is true, as San An­ their own farms. The relevant data are found dres and Illo state (p. 67), that rice produc­ in Table A18, pp. 94-95 of the text. tion "cannot be enhanced simply by tenurial Analyses of variance and covariance improvement." But tenurial improvement done on 1977 farm and household income does appear as one element of a total may throw some light on this situation. It package which has enhanced rice produc­ appears that the most important explanatory tion; and it would seem rash to affirm that variables affecting farm income are effective the effect would have been the same had that crop area and palay production per hectare; element been missing. landlord share (or lease or amortization) by We turn now to the consequences of this itself does not appear as an important fac­ package for the welfare of the farmer and his tor, although tenure status does have some family. And we note, first of all, that the importance (p. 44). As determinants of farm operator on the average received a household income, significant factors are larger share of the produce - both relatively palay production, the number of household and absolutely - in 1977 than he had in members employed away from the farm, and 1974. For those who had shifted from share tenure status (Table 19, p.48). It was noted tenancy to leasehold or amortizing owner­ also that households with irrigated farms ship the difference was greatest: from 22.8 tend to have lower household income than cavans or 61 percent of the harvest in 1974to those with rainfed farms, and the authors 34.7 cavans or 71 percent in 1977. But even suggest that this "might primarily stem from the nonshifters had an increase: from 17.6 the low incomes realized by nonshifters till­ cavans or 54 percent to 24.3 cavans or 59 ing irrigated lands and using the necessary .percent. Correspondingly, the amount which material and labor inputs" (p. 47). This was sold by the operator increased for all observation may be taken in conjunction tenure groups both absolutely and relatively, with a decline between 1974and 1977 in the the shifters again having the greater increase. percentage of farmers using fertilizers and And finally, the amount that went as land­ chemicals, noted above (p. 19), and with lord's share, rental, or amortization de-­ Angsico's findings on decreased profits from creased from 22 percent of the harvest to 11 rice production also noted above (p, 16). To percent for shifters, and from 25 percent to 21 reconcile it with the findings on the positive percent for nonshifters. The data are found in relationship between productivity and in­ Table 17, p. 41 of the text. come, one might hypothesize that - with Thus it would appear that tenurial the price structures operating from 1974 to change has improved equity, i.e., has raised 1977 - it was necessary to increase produc­ the incomes of the farm operators, as Ma­ tion sharply and economically and that the ngahas, Miralao, and de los Reyes had average amortizer and nonshifter was simply found that it did among the farmers included not able to pull it off. How the leaseholders in their study - and precisely because of the were able to do so would be an interesting differences among tenure groups in the study in itself. amount paid as land rent (see above, p. 17). The foregoing discussion suggests in­ Yet once again we come up against a discon­ creasing inequality in income distribution: certing fact: despite the increases in produc­ the more energetic or more fortunate take tion and in operator's share, the average advantage of the opportunities offered by farm income of amortizers declined by PI at the agrarian reform program and improve constant prices between 1974and 1977; that their situation while others fall behind ­ of nonshifters increased by only P16 or 1.5 similar to what was observed in Plaridel (see Second Viewfrom the Paddy 21 above, p. 17). At first glance, however, this slightly to the "happy" side of the mid­ seems not to be the case in Bicol: the Gini point. They were happier about their organi­ ratio for the incomes of farmers included in zational participation (3.28), their job the survey decreased from .51 to .48 between (3.50), their children's education (3.65), and 1974 and 1977, while the share of total their houses (3.67); they were less happy household income going to the poorer half about their own income (3.87), their own of the sample households increased from 24 education (4.29), and especially about prices percent to 26 percent (p. 50). But, aside from (5.39). Shifters were less happy about life in the fact that the Gini ratio in Bicol for 1977 general (3.81) than nonshifters (3.58). The was still considerably higher than Plaridel in data are found in Table 25, p. 62, and Table 1974/75, it is to be noted that the overall 26, p. 64. decline in inequality is produced by the non­ Three years later, as the same tables shifters and by the "others" (those who, show, the farmers as a group were somewhat mainly because they were farming more than less happy with life in general (3.82), and the one parcel with different tenure ar­ difference was significant at the .10 level (p. rangements, could not be classified in either 63). They were still happiest about their of the main categories). The shifters were on organizational participation, although this the average better off financially than the had slipped somewhat from 3.28 to 3.52; nonshifters in 1974, and increased their ad­ their satisfaction with their houses had im­ vantage over the.Iatter between 1974 and proved and this now ranked second, at 3.54; 1977; but at the same time the income next came their job at 3.59 and their distribution among the shifters became more children's schooling at 3.60; satisfaction unequal as the highest income group among with income had remained about the same, them increased its advantage over the others. at 3.88; they were still relatively dissatisfied The nonshifters had a smaller increase in with their own education (4.22), and espe­ average income but a more equal distribu­ cially with prices (4.89) although this last tion, while the "others" suffered a decrease dissatisfaction was less intense than in 1974. in average income but a considerable reduc­ Shifters were still less satisfied with life in tion in the level of inequality. (The relevant general than the nonshifters, although the data may be found on pp. 50-58, particularly dissatisfaction of the latter had increased Table 23, p. 56.) Thus it would appear that more markedly. In terms of statistical sig­ agrarian reform has not only selected the nificance, only the amortizers' increased more capable and better-off farmers (from an satisfaction with their houses, the nonshifters' admittedly poverty-stricken population), but increased dissatisfaction with organizational has provided them with opportunities and participation and life in general, and the non­ challengesfrom whichsome were able to pro­ shifters' and "others" decreased dissatisfac­ fit and others not) tion with pricesreached the .05 level. Shifters The final set of data which we shall in 1977 were more happy about their tenure discuss refers to "Perceived Quality of Life" status and about extension services in the (PQL) and has no parallel in the Angsico community than were the nonshifters (p. 63). study. The respondents in 1974 and in 1977 were asked to rate their lives in general and Concluding Reflections various aspects oftheir liveson a seven-point scale ranging from 1("very happy" about it) Ifthe farmers of Plaridel and ofBicolare to 7 ("very unhappy" about it). In addition, typical of Filipino farmers in general, it can the 1977 schedule included items on tenure be said that the productivity goals of the status and on extension activities in the com­ agrarian reform program have been realized munity. to a considerable degree, but not primarily The 1974 findings indicated that the res­ as a consequence of tenurial change. The pondents as a whole were "fairly happy" ac­ greater productivity has come about through cording to the authors: on life in general they the application of modern inputs - much as scored themselves on the average at 3.70 or one would expect it to. It is possible also that 22 Carroll: 'Agrarian Reform, Productivity and Equity the program of tenurial reform has selected Given the relationship between economic the more energetic and capable farmers, and development and rising levels of inequality that the generally higher productivity of the which has been observed in many parts of land reform beneficiaries is attributable in the world, these results may not seem sur­ part to this selection process. However, the prising. What is surprising - not to say greater productivity of the beneficiaries does disheartening - is that they seem to be seem to be a fact and the present writer associated with a program which had been would not discount too readily the possible expected to reduce inequality by raising the effects of tenurial change on motivation. At incomes of the poorer segments of the rural the same time, it should be noted that the population. amortizers of San Andres and IlIo are no Even more discouraging are the indica­ more productive than the lessees; in fact they tions that increased productivity may have appear to be less productive. Which suggests been associated with declining incomes from that ownership as such may not be the key rice production - indications which have motive; secure tenure for example may be been confirmed recently by the Secretary of equally as effective. Agriculture himself, who spoke of reduced With regard to the equity goals of the hectarage being planted to rice by farmers program, the picture is less encouraging ­ caught in a squeeze between the price of fer­ although blurred somewhat by the different tilizers and that which they receive for their meanings which can be given to the word palay (Bulletin Today, 1 .October 1981). It "equity." Mangahas, Miralao, and de los begins to look as though the rice farmer is Reyes had found that the household income being exploited by the rest of the nation ­ of owners was consistently higher than that and indeed of the world. This may account of the nonowning groups, and attributed this in part for the general decline in satisfaction to the owner's claim on the total product of noted by San Andres and IlIo among the the farm. The other two studies did not in­ Bicol farmers. One wonders, in fact, clude full owners among their respondents. whether it may also be related to the rapid Angsico found that lessees, after 11 years of growth of dissident activity reported in agrarian reform, were stilI no better off as a Bicol. group than the share tenants who had not The authors of the two reports under I shifted to leasehold; moreover she found in­ consideration conclude with rather dis­ creasing inequality of income among the couraging analyses of the prospects for the farmers of Plaridel, and particularly among land reform beneficiary, particularly the those who had shifted. San Andres and IlIo amortizer (Angsico, pp. 174-176; San An­ found that the lessees and amortizers were dres and IlIo, p. 73). More recent data con­ better off than the nonshifters, but they had firm this analysis: at 1979 prices, for exam­ been better off on the average even before ple, it appears that the amortization due on the reform - in contrast with Angsico's rainfed rice land, plus other costs paid out in shifters who had not been as well off as the cash or kind but not including the operator's nonshifters beforehand. Moreover, the own labor, plus the rice requirements of the lessees in the San Andres and IlIo study were operator's family, would be greater than the a very small group, the amortizers' increased total output of the land (Cuijpers 1981: income came almost entirely from sources Table 11, p. 15). Thus one is led to the con­ other than their farms, and the income clusion that something more than "tinkering distribution of shifters became more unequal with" the present program, and for more over time. All in all, the present writer would than optimistic press releases, is required. conclude that the agrarian reform program The problem must be analysed anew, in the has not improved equity - in the sense of light of the most recent data and experience; equality of income - among farmers; but by goals and priorities must be more clearly "shaking up the system" it has provided op­ defined, and the appropriate strategies pur­ portunities for some to move ahead while sued with vigor and determination. others fell behind. There has been little There is stilI much that we do not know "upliftment of the masses." about the situation and that calls for addi- Second View from the Paddy 23 tional research: witness the findings in these Visiting Professor in the Cornell University two studies on increasing inequality among Southeast Asia Program during 1982. He is pre­ shifters; or the still-obscure relationship bet­ sently the Acting Director of the Institute of ween tenurial change and increased produc­ Philippine Culture. tivity. But perhaps a final word on goals and priorities will not be out of place here. It is lit should be noted that the authors themselves possible that one of the main difficulties of suggesta different explanation for the increased in­ the present program is that it attempts to equality among the incomes of shifters: that some reconcile diverse and sometimes conflicting of them may have been paying their amortizations interests: the nation's interest in increased and some not (p. 71). I find this explanation not en­ rice production, "moderate" prices, and less tirely consistent with the authors' finding that inequality and social tension in the country­ amortization payments (as wellas landlords' shares side; the operator's interest in secure posses­ and leasehold payments) are not a "reliable ex­ planatory variable" determining farm income (p. sion of the land he tills and a "reasonable" 44). return for his labor; the owner's interest in a "reasonable" rental or compensation for his References land. Moreover, at least one other signifi­ cant interest is largely overlooked in the pro­ Angsico, Josephine C., with Normando de Leon gram: the landless worker's need for and Jeanne Frances 1. 1lI0 employment and some form of security. Ex­ 1978 Socioeconomic changes after eleven perience seems to suggest that these objec­ years of agrarian reform: A resurvey tives cannot all be realized, or realized with of Plaridel (Bulacan) farmers. Quezon equal efficacy, at the same time. Hence the City: Institute of Philippine Culture, need to establish some priorities among Ateneo de Manila University. them, and to determine what trade-offs are Mimeographed. acceptable. And here we are in the area of Bulletin Today policy choices, involving competing values 1981 Bulletin Today I October 108(1): 1,8 as well as interests and considerations of political acceptability. And one would like to Cuijpers, Joep hope that the underlying value questions will 1981 Palay production and growing im­ poverishment. Manila: Expanded be taken seriously. Assistance to the Agrarian Reform Programme. Notes Mangahas, Mahar, Virginia A. Miralao, and Romana P. de los Reyes JOHN J. CARROLL, S.J., holds a Ph.D. in 1976 Tenants, lessees, owners: Welfare im­ sociology from Cornell University. He is author plications of tenure change. Quezon of two books, The Filipino Manufacturing En­ City: Ateneo de Manila University trepreneur(1%5) and Changing Patterns ofSocial Press. Structure in the Philippines (1968) and co-author of Philippine Institutions (1971). In addition, he San Andres, Ricardo R., and Jeanne Frances 1. IlIo has contributed some thirty major articles for 1978 Beyond share tenancy: A publication in leading local and international socioeconomic study of the effects of per~odicals, among them, Philippine Studies, agrarian reform programs in the Bicol Philippine SociologicalReview, Philippine Statis­ River Basin, Camarines Sur, 1974 and tician, Solidarity, Pro Mundi Vita (Belgium), 1977. Quezon City: Social Survey America (U.S.A.), The Month (England) and Research Unit (Naga City), Institute Etudes (France). of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Father Carroll taught at the Ateneo de Manila Manila University. Mimeographed. School of Arts and Sciences and was at one time, a member of the Ateneo de Manila Board of Trustees. He is a former Dean and currently Full Professor of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Pontifical Gre@rian University in Rome and was GREEN REVOLUTION FOR WHOM? (An Inquiry into its Beneficiaries in a Central Luzon Village, Philippines)

HIROMITSU UMEHARA

BackgroundInformation were the real beneficiaries of the current technological innovations. Hence, an at­ In the mid-1960s when the Philippine tempt is made to identify the beneficiaries of government launched the dissemination the Green Revolution based on a field study scheme for the new fertilizer-responsive, that investigated the diffusion process of the high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of rice, there HYVs and subsequent changes, effects of was a mixture of pessimistic and optimistic HYV technology on farm management and views about its massive extension, citing changes in product distribution process. Im­ such constraints as the land tenure system, plications of the findings are then discussed. inadequate irrigated ricelands and the The investigation proceeded on the assump­ technological gap between the HYVsand tion that even a case study makes a useful traditional rice varieties. This mixed view and effective inquiry not only because it notwithstanding, the HYVs were surprising­ generates manageable information but also ly adopted by the Filipino farmers at a rapid because the Green Revolution effects are on­ rate such that by the mid-70s the total area ly discernible in areas where the HYV diffu­ planted to this "miracle" rice covered nearly sion actually took place. two-thirds of the country's total ricelands. The setting of the inquiry wasa small rice­ As a consequence, significant changes have growing "barrio" (village) in Central been observed with respect to the produc­ Luzon, the Philippine's largest basin and tion, farm practices, mechanization and "rice granary" at the same time. The village, other aspects of rice culture in the Philip­ called "Barrio San Andres," is located some pines.! 150 kilometers north of Manila and is one of One of the important objectives em­ the 64 villages in the town of Guimba, pro­ phatically advocated by the architects of the vince of Nueva Ecija. The first field study "Green Revolution" is the improvement of made by the author in San Andres was in the livelihood of the peasants through in­ 1970 which he repeated three times until creased income from higher rice yields as 1978. During the first field study, the HYV well as from the employment effects of HYV diffusion was just beginning) By the time diffusion. Within a very short period of the village was revisited in October 1977 time, various reports and literature discussed through January 1978, the HYVs had almost the impact of the Green Revolution pro­ totally replaced the traditional rice varieties. viding empirical evidences to show the This latter period is the time frame of this in­ changing patterns of the various aspects of quiry. peasant economy such as the peasant's Figure 1 shows the site of the study village behavior, the landholding system, harvest from an inset of the map of the Philippines labor arrangements, social stratification and indicating some useful reference points. so on. 2 A major concern in this paper is to review the hypothesis that the farmer-cultivators Second View from the Paddy 25

SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN CHINA SEA

N 4

LEGEND:

Major National Highways (A figure in the circle indicates the number of each highway) ,I 11 II , Manila-North Railroad Provincial boundary MZZ/4 150 meters and over above sea level o Provincial Capital D Poblacion (Municipal Capital) x The Survey Barrio

Figure 1. Maps of tbe Central Plain of Luzon and tbe Pbilippines sbowing tbe study viDage. 26 Umehara: Green Revolution for WhOln?

The Study Village and the date and time of the coming of the Absentee Landlordism threshing machine (tilyadora) as directed by the landlord and as stipulated 'by the con­ The distribution of farm households in the tract.f village, by occupation and farm size, are Similar restrictions in the tenancy contract shown in Tables I and 2. As might be ex­ empower the landlord to control irrigation. pected, the largest single occupation is farm­ At the time of the study, there were eight ing which is represented by about 80 percent water reservoirs and an irrigation canal net­ of the total households. Farm labor as an oc­ work that covered about one-third of the cupation was about 16 percent of the total total riceland of the hacienda. The number of households. It will be shown in maintenance and construction of irrigation the table that the proportion of farm canals and pump stations were all under­ households tended to decline in comparison taken at the expense and responsibility of the with those of farm laborer households which landlord. Of course, irrigation fees were was increasing at a rapid rate. charged and collected from the tenant­ Much of Central Luzon is noted for large farmers. landed estates locally known as hacienda. It should be sufficiently clear at this point The study village is located in one of the that the control of threshing and irrigation largest haciendas which encompassed about 4,000 hectares of contiguous ricelands, with Table 1. Changes in household composition, by major 14 villages tenanted by approximately 2,000 occupation category, between 1970 and 1977 households. The entire holdings of the villager-farmers were the property of the ha­ cienda owner (hacendero) who resided January 1970 December 1977 elsewhere in an urban center. He entrusted Occupation Number Percent Number Percent the management of the hacienda to the farm administrator (encargado) and his staff, Farmer 81 83.5 98 78.4 mostly overseers (katiwala) and other Farm laborer 9 9.3 20 16.0 employees (empleado). One interesting Mechanic I 1.0 Employee 3 2.4 feature regarding farm management in the Mat weaver 1.0 I 0.8 hacienda is that the landlord controls Driver 1.0 I 0.8 threshing and irrigation operations and General store tenants are not permitted by the tenancy operator I 1.0 contract to thresh the paddy harvest alone. No occupation 3 3.1 2 1.6 Instead, they are informed by the overseer of Total 97 100.0 125 100.0

Table 2. Changes in number of households and farm area, by farm size, between 1970 and 1977

Number of Households Farm Area (ha.) Farm Size (ha.) 1970 1977 1970 1977

Landless 9 (10.0) 20 (17.0) 0.99 or less 8 ( 8.9) 8 ( 6.8) 4.75 ( 2.1) 4.35 ( 1.8) 1.00-1.99 28 (3I.l) 39 (33.0) 37.45 (16.9) 53.05 (21.8) 2.00-2.99 24 (26.7) 21 (17.8) 50.00 (22.5) 49.00 (20.1) 3.00-3.99 5 ( 5.6) I3 (11.0) 15.25 ( 6.9) 40.50 (16.6) 4.00-4.99 6 ( 6.7) 8 ( 6.8) 25.50 (11.5) 34.66 (14.2) 5.00-6.99 4 ( 4.4) 5 ( 4.2) 23.00 (10.4) 26.25 (10.8) 7.00-9.99 2 ( 2.2) 4 ( 3.4) 16.00 ( 7.2) 35.84 (14.7) 10 or more 4 ( 4.4) 50.00 (22.5) Total 90 (100.0) 1I8 (100.0) 221.65 (100.0) 243.68 (100.0)

Note: Figures in parentheses are percentages. Second View from the Paddy 27 strengthens the hold of the landlord over his Another relevant observation that tenants even as the primary objective of this deserves mention is the fact that the popular arrangement is to stabilize the crop and en­ varieties of HYVs seem to be extremely sure the collection of lease rentals (buwis) short-lived unlike most of the traditional and other collectibles from the tenants. On ones that persisted for some 10 years. For in­ the part of the tenants, these restrictions stance, the IR series (lR-20, IR-26, and mean undue and unnecessary intervention IR-30) planted in the wet season of 1977 on the part of the landlord. The former are were not popular in the succeeding years as aware that under such circumstances they do IR-28 and IR-36 replaced them (Table 3). It not enjoy independence in the decision­ is even surprising that the latest HYV, IR-40, making process relative to farm manage­ was introduced at all in the village. The short ment. On the other hand, the arrangement popularity of the HYVs seems to be due to places the landlord at a vantage position as their susceptibility to pests and diseases and he is able to draw precise information on the seed supply condition. It is therefore under­ production performance and share of the standable that the farmers in this study tenants. Therefore, the landlord can, and village changed those rice varieties that were does increase unilaterally the lease rental prone to the attack of pests and diseases. that his tenants should pay him. Besides, registered seed growers continued to Control ofirrigation by the landlord carries multiply new certified seeds every year.> The a significant meaning for him considering combination of frequent occurrence of pests that there is relatively less precipitation in and diseases and the constant supply of new Central Luzon and, therefore, drought seeds forced the farmers to change their almost always threatens the area. varieties almost every year. The diffusion of HYVs in the village was inevitably accompanied by significant HYVDiffusion and Subsequent changes in rice cultural practices. For one Technological Changes thing, agronomic and modern cultural methods are parts of the HYV component. A marked change that has occurred in the In the study village as elsewhere, farmers study village during the first several years of buy certified seeds from the dealers of the 1970s was the complete abandonment of agricultural inputs, specifically, the seed the traditional varieties in favor of the growers, unlike in the past when the farmers newly-introduced HYVs. As shown in Table used to grow their own self-selected seeds 3, local ordinary varieties such as BE-3, from previous harvests. Straight-row plant­ Intan, Ramadia, and Tjere Mas were still ing, instead of the traditional random plant­ overwhelmingly popular in the wet season ing, and heavy application of chemical fer­ (panahon) of 1970 even though the HYVs tilizers and insecticides are common prac­ were already being tried by some progressive tices that accompanied the HYV diffusion. farmers. Seven years later, most of the once­ The growing dependence of farm opera­ popular traditional varieties had disappeared tions on mechanical power is another signifi­ and the HYVs such as IR-20, IR-26, and cant change that accompanied the advent of IR-30 took their place. Although Table 3 the HYVs. This was evidencedby the increased does not indicate the exact year when the number of farm machineries such as power HYVs became dominant in the village, it can tillers and their accessories, irrigation pump be inferred that it could not be earlier than sets and sprayers. Between 1970and 1977, 42 1974. This is because when the author irrigation pump sets and five power tillers revisited the study site in March 1974, the were purchased by the farmers in the study farmers expressed their dissatisfaction over area whereas only two pump sets and one the HYVs in terms of susceptibility to pests tractor were in operation in 1970. Conse­ and diseases compared with the resistance of quently, land preparation by tractors the traditional varieties. gradually replaced the use of animal power 28 Umehara: Green Revolution for Whom?

Table 3. Distribution of rice varieties. by season.

1969 1970 1977 1978 Variety Dry Wet Wet Dry Wet

Ordinary Asocena 5 3 Aprica BE-3 32 Bikol -1 Binato 4 Intan 13 Kennedy* 4 Malagkit** Milagrosa 1 Ramadia 36 Raminad 10 Siman* 1 Squad 2 Tjere Mas 21

HYV C - 4 12 4 5 2 IR - 5 2 12 IR - 6 2 IR - 8 3 IR-12 2 IR - 20 53 4 4 IR - 22 I IR - 26 21 3 3 IR -28 5 19 56 IR - 29** 1 7 IR - 30 12 9 12 IR- 32 11 IR - 34 1 IR - 36 20 58 IR - 38 6 IR - 40 3 IR - 1514 2 IR - 1541 4 1 IR - 1561 4 2 75 days* 2 4 90 days* 4 Wagwag-aga 4 BPI-R-2 1 Total 15 145 13i 59 174

*Relatively new variety introduced at the time of the study and were then named arbitrarily. hence not officially registered names. **Malagkit (glutinous) is a traditional variety and IR-29 is an HYV and somewhat glutinous also. As shown in Table 4, the ratio reversed from on hired labor in the farm operations. Table 8:2 in favor of animal power for plowing to 4 indicates that the rate of dependence on 3:7 in favor of mechanical plowing. For paid labor increased in all farm chores ex­ threshing, however, there was a reverse shift cept hauling. Noteworthy in this context was from mechanical to manual operations the striking increase in paid plowing which is which was a temporary trend caused by indicative of the farmers' dependence on agrarian reform implementation.f farm contractors who, owning large farm Also noticeable in the advent of the HYVs machineries such as the tractor and the was the rising dependence of farm operators mechanical rice thresher, contract farm Second View from the Paddy 29

Table 4. Percentage change in labor use pattern, by major farm chore*

1970 Crop Year (wet) 1978 Crop Year (wet)

Farm Chore Paid*** Unpaid** Paid** Unpaid***

Plowing 27.1 72.9 73.1 26.9 Mechanical 12.5 6.8 58.3 12.1 Work animal 14.6 66.1 14.8 14.9 Harrowing 15.6 84.4 38.2 61.8 Mechanical 6.8 12.i Work animal 15.6 77.6 38.2 49.7 Planting 85.18 14.2 93.3 6.7 Reaping 67.5 32.5 73.9 26.1 Threshing 100.0 99.2 0.8 Mechanical 100.0 50.4 Manual 48.8 0.8 Hauling 66.8 33.2 18.7 81.3 Mechanical 66.8 15.5 9.1 Work animal 33.2 68.2 Manual 3.2 4.1

*Percent distribution between paid and unpaid labor is expressed in terms of area for plowing, harrowing, and planting and volume of products for reaping, threshing, and hauling. **Represents hired labor under various agreements such as "upahan", "pakyaw" and"hunusan." ***Represents either family of exchange labor (suyuan).

chores such as mechanized plowing or the hold of the landlord over the tenants, threshing. Table 4 also shows that the resulting in the relative stabilization of farmers' dependence on farm contractors tenancy rights and recovery of the tenants' for plowing was 44 percent and for threshing independence in farm management. Par­ 50 percent. ticularly significant was the landlord's In the Philippines, it has long been suspension of rendering irrigation and recognized that the most fundamental factor threshing servicesas an indication of his pro­ preventing the improvement of rice produc­ test against the reform program. Also tion is the prevailing land tenure system. In significant was the fact that the government fact, landlordism was singled out in the effort led to the suspension of land rent in­ mid-1960s as one of the constraints for HYV creases which heretofore was at the diffusion. Despite the fact that the study landlord's discretion. It is believed that these village was dominated by absentee landlord­ subtle effects emanated from the agrarian ism, on one hand, and small tenant reform implementation which provided the farmers, on the other, HYV diffusion was basic condition for the tenants to introduce surprisingly rapid. Two factors have in­ the HYVs and their associated technology. fluenced this development. One is the effect This seems to explain the rapid spread of the of the government's agrarian reform project HYVs in the study village after 1973 or 1974 which has been continuously implemented when the land reform effects emerged. since 1972. Some of the notable side effects The expanded agricultural credit in the in the study area of the land reform were Philippines, particularly through the noticeable although the actual transfer of "Masagana 99" production loan and the land ownership from the landlord to the World Bank-Central Bank farm mechaniza­ tenants was never accomplished (at least in tion loan program, was another factor that the study area up to 1978). Nevertheless, the hastened the HYV diffusion. Some large .land reform program has somewhat relaxed farmers in the village were able to avail 30 Umehara: Green Revolution for Whom? themselves of the" Masagana 99" loan when Yield Improvement it became available in 1973. By 1976, the number of farmer-borrowers of this loan in­ In view of the fact that the HYVs and creased and in the 1978 crop year, 83 of the related technology were partly introduced in 98 farmers in the study village used this loan the crop year 1970, it will be relevant to (Table 5). The total loan value amounted to assume that no less than 30 percent of the P188,147 in a single year which covered 78 yield improvement took place in the village percent of the current cost for the wet season between the mid-60s and late 1970. In fact, crop in that year. In short, more than 80 per­ rice yield in San Andres increased from 1.76 cent of the farmers depended upon govern­ mt/ha (metric tons per hectare) in the crop ment loan programs which represented near­ year 1970 wet season to 2.21 mt/ha in the ly 80 percent of the total farm expenses for crop year 1977-78 which represented 25.6 seeds, fertilizer and chemicals, irrigation, percent improvement within an 8-year land preparation, transplanting, harvesting period. This yield change, however, was only and threshing. for a single year and which is very much sub­ The situation was similar with respect to ject to yearly fluctuation. In order to make a the introduction of irrigation pump sets and valid comparison, the average yield in the power tillers. All of the farmers who pur­ village should be compared with those of a chased these farm machines after 1970 relied wider area. Figure 2 shows a year-to-year on the farm mechanization loan program of yield average for the province of Nueva Eci­ the government. From these facts, it can be ja: (i) the average paddy yield shows an up­ said that the farm credit policy played a very ward trend since late 1960 (from 1.72 mt in important role in enabling the small peasants 1965-67 to 2.38 mt in 1976-78 or an increase to adopt capital-intensive HYV of 38 percent); (ii) the provincial yield technologies. average fluctuated so much since late 1960s; (iii) the average yield in the study village was Effects ofHYV Technology consistently a little below the provincial data on Farm Management even as the trend was similar for both the study village and the province as a whole; The HYV technology has two distinct (iv) the crop year 1970 and 78 were both characteristics: high yield potential and relatively good years. equally high capital requirement. The impact This yield increment within a little over 10 of HYV technology on farm management, years is indeed amazing when compared, for with special reference to the changes in yield, instance, with the experience in modern cost and return to the operator is examined Japan where it took nearly half a century for here. the national average yields of 2.5 mt/ha in

Table 5. Distribution of farmer-borrowers and value of loans released, "Masagana 99," 1978

Item Crop Year 1974-76 Crop Year 1978

Number of farmer- borrowers 89 83 Area financed (ha) 161 153 Loans released (P) 194,417 188,147 Loans repaid (P) 103,534 74,899 Outstanding loan (P) 90,534 133,248 Rate of repayment (%) 53.25 39.81

Source: Individual records of the Bureau of Agricultural Extension Field Office in Guimba, Nueva Ecija, as of January 23, 1978. Second View from the Paddy 31

3.0 i (t1ha)

x Wet season average in the village o Dry season average in the village o

2.0 ~------I+-::::"""""'T-----::::::;;c:::=:;;;"'~------i

Village trend

1.0_~------t------j------j .l__l__I_I 1965 1970 1975 1978

Figure 2: Paddy yield trends in Nueva Ecija, 1965-78. Source: Production records at the BAEx Branch. Cabanatuan City 32 Umehara: Green Revolution for Whom?

Table 6. Farm household distribution, by yield level paddy when the rains come and toward the and crop season. end of the season the rice plants mature for harvest. This explains why late maturing, or­ Yield Number of Households dinary varieties (150-180 days) were formerly (cavans/ha)* 1977 dry season 1978 wet season dominant even in the study village. When the HYVs are planted in the traditional manner, however, the plants start flowering and 200 or more I 199-150 I maturing at the height of the rainy season 149-100 6 during which typhoons and heavy rains and 99- 80 5 2 subsequent floods generally occur. When 79- 70 5 7 strong winds come during the flowering of 69- 60 9 9 59- 50 10 28 the rice plants, yields are very much reduced. 49- 40 4 20 Moreover, when heavy rains cause the plants 39- 30 3 14 to lodge and the panicles are submerged the 29- 20 4 13 yield is again adversely affected. As a conse­ 19- 10 I 4 9-or less I quence, it is quite common to see that strik­ ingly good harvests and miserably poor Total 49 98 harvests occur side by side resulting in the current low levels of paddy yields. *Cavan is a unit of paddy weight equivalent officially to 50 kg/sack or bag. In this village, however, one cavan still weighed the traditional 44 or 46 kg/bag. The Costs of Production highest and lowest yields were 220 and 18 cavans for the dry season, and 89 and 3 cavans for the wet season. As the dominant rice varieties planted in the crop year of 1970 in the study village the late 1860s to increase to 3.5 mt/ha in were still the traditional ones, the production the 1910s and another 40 years to increase to costs for rice farming in those days reflected 4.5 mt/ha in the early 1950s. the traditional pattern. As shown in Table 7, Nevertheless, the current yield level is still total production cost was estimated at about far below the projected potential which is ex­ 65 percent of paddy production in which pected to be 9 or 10 mt/ha. Besides, it was land rent constituted the largest single item frequently reported in recent years that representing 21 percent. The interest charges yields attained in individual farms reached as borne by farmers were also a large item high as 7 mt/ha or 8 mt/ha, and, occasional­ because usurious rates of interest were not ly, over 10 mt/ha. In fact, the highest yield unusual.8 Another important cost item was recorded in the study village in the 1977 dry fertilizer and chemicals which together season crop year was 220 cavans or more represented nearly 10 percent of the total. than 10 mt/ha based on the actual yield of The substantial increase in production 2.53 mt (55 cavans) harvested from a 0.25 of cost is the natural consequence of the in­ agricultural chemicals in recent years. Since troduction of the capital-intensive package 1972 when the outbreak of the "tungro" of rice technology. The more the HYVs dif­ disease caused by a virus attached the rice fuse, the more agricultural farm inputs are plants in Central Luzon, various pests and consumed. As mentioned earlier, the heavy diseases repeatedly occurred and caused con­ application of fertilizer and chemicals and siderable damage to the crops. the growing dependence of farm work on Early maturation and non-seasonality are mechanical power and hired labor were two distinctive physiological features of the noticeable features observed between 1970 HYVs which enables the farmers to under­ and 1978in San Andres. As a result, produc­ take multiple cropping activities. These tion costs increased tremendously and took a physiological characteristics, however, work very large part of the paddy production. The adversely in non-irrigated areas where the costs amounted to 75 percent of the total crop season corresponds to the rainy months. harvest in 1977-78 against 40 percent in .Traditionally, farmers start seeding the 1970. Second Viewfrom the Paddy 33

Table 7. Estimated production costs and returns, by tenure crop year 1970 wet season

Item Total Leasehold Share (cavan, 070)

Number of farms 75 73 JJ Area planted (ha) 206.45 185.95 20.50 Paddy production 8,358.00 (100.0) 7,750.85 (100.0) 607.15 000.0) Total cost:a 5,421.38 ( 64.9) 4,948.39 ( 63.8) 502.11 ( 82.7) Seedsb 165.16 ( 2.0) 148.76 16.40 Fertilizer? 743.87 ( 8.9) 668.52 75.35 Chemicalsd 74.38 ( 0.9) 66.85 7.53 Irrigation" 154.95 ( 1.9) 154.95 Land preparationf 233.88 ( 2.8) 233.88 Pulling seedlingsg ttO.75 ( 1.3) 97.94 12.81 Plantingh 276.87 ( 3.3) 244.84 32.03 Harvesting: "Hunusan"! "Upahan"! 260.84 3.1) 248.81 12.03 "Tilyadora"k 334.32 4.0) 310.Q3 24.28 Hauling l 69.80 0.8) 64.77 5.03 Interest'" 603.17 7.2) 561.65 41.52 Mtscellaneous" 619.34 7.4) 557.84 61.50 Capital cost? Land rentP 1,774.05 (21.2) 1,589.55 213.63 Total returns'I 2,936.62 (35.1) 2,802.46 (36.2) 105.04 (17.3) Average yield/ha 40.48 41.68 29.62 Average cost/ha 26.26 26.61 24.49

aAll costs were converted to cavan equivalent based on the then prevailing paddy price of tH'ilcavan. bOne cavan paddy seeds plants an average of 1.25 ha. CRatio between urea 12-24-12 used was assumed to be two bags; dTen percent of fertilizer cost was assumed as cost of chemicals. e2.5 cavans paddy were collected as irrigation feelha and 1/3 of the entire area was assurp,ed to be irrigated. P60/ha for tractors plowing (25.75 ha); P30/ha for animal power plowing (30.25 ha) and P40/ha for anvral power harrowing (32.25 ha). S,IO/ha. P25/ha. INot practised. JP30/ ha. k4 cavansllOO cavans threshed. mlnterest rate assumed to be 25 percent/year. For fertilizer, however, two cavans paddy were the usual payments for a bag of fertilizer purchased on credit. n3 cavans/ha, °Negligible. P9 cavans/ha, Total land rent does not refer to the amount paid by the leaseholders and share tenants but instead to the amount collected by the hacien­ da. qTotal return to operators.

Among the cost items that expanded their pump sets. It is obvious, therefore, that the share of the total, the largest was for fer­ cost increase was brought about by the larger tilizer and chemicals for which the farmers consumption of agricultural inputs and spent an equivalent of23 percent of the total dependence on farm machines for farming harvest, In comparison, only 10 percent of operations. the total harvest was spent for fertilizers in On the contrary, the share of land rent in 1970.Capital cost which consisted of annual the total cost decreased from 21 percent to installment for power tillers and irrigation 15 percent as shown in Tables 7 and 8. This pump sets represented 7 percent of the total is due to the fact that the lease rental in the in 1977-78. In 1970, none of this capital cost hacienda under study remained unchanged was incurred. Tractor plowing by contrac­ inspite of the yield increases since the late tors became popular, including irrigation ex­ 1960s. Due to the marked increase in pro­ penditures which consisted of fuel for the ductiou cost, the total cost/ha for rice farm- 34 Umehara: Green Revolution for Whom?

Table 8. Estimated costs and returns, by crop season.

Total 1978 Wet Season 1977 Dry Season Item (cavan, 010)

Number of farms 98 98 49 Area planted (ha) 262.83 277.84 34.99 Paddy production 12,611.00 (100.0) 10,649.00 (100.0) 1,962.00 (100.0) Total cost: a 11,244.29 ( 89.2) 9,872.16 ( 92.7) 1,372.13 ( 69.9) Seedsb 262.83 ( 2.1) 227.84 34.99 Fertilizer- 2,052.33 ( 16.3) 1,714.71 337.62 Chemicalsd 861.98 ( 6.8) 720.18 141.80 Irrigation'[ 546.10 ( 4.3) 157.48 388.62 Land preparationl 925.86 ( 7.3) 916.73 9.13 Pulling seedlingse 127.14 ( 1.0) ll5.54 11.60 Planting'! 619.05 ( 4.9) 561.03 58.02 Harvesting: "Hunusan"! 508.45 ( 4.0) 419.43 89.02 "Upahari"! 297.22 ( 2.4) 297.22 "Tilyadora"k 268.50 ( 2.1) 268.50 Haulingl 54.02 ( 0.4) 54.02 Interest'" 1,138.50 ( 9.0) 942.14 196.36 Miscellaneous" 788.49 ( 6.3) 683.52 104.97 Capital cost? 878.26 ( 7.0) 878.26 Land rentf' 1,915.56 ( 15.2) 1,915.56 Total return'I 1,366.71 (10.84) 776.84 ( 7.3) 589.87 ( 30.1) Average yie1d/ha 47.98 46.74 56.07 Average cost/ha 42.78 43.32 39.22

aAII costs were converted into cavans based on the prevailing price of paddy at 1'46/tavan paddy soon after harvest of the 1978 wet crop season. The cost of seeds was assumed to be equivalent to I cavan paddy because about a fourth of the seeds used was purchased for about P65/cavan. cThe ratio between urea and 16-20-0 is assumed to be 2-3 bags. dExpenditures for chemicals were assumed to be 42 percent of fertilizer cost. elncludes crude oil and rent for use of the irrigation pump set. f1"250/ha for tractor/hand tractor plowing; P6O/ha for plowing; and P80/ha harrowing using animal Rower. gP25/ha. hPl25/ha for straight-row transplanting and PlO5/ha for random transplant­ ing. 'Sharing rate varied between 1/8 and 1/9 for combined reaping and threshing or only 1/10 for threshing alone. JP130/ha. k5 cavans/IOO cavans threshed. IPI25/ha. mlnterest rate assumed to be 20 percent /annum, n3 cavans/ha. '1Jased on the assumption that each of the 5 hand tractors costs PI2,OOO and each of the pump sets (43 units) cost 1"8,000 and Io-year depreciation period. P9 cavans/ha. qTotal return to operator. ing in 1977-78 soared to nearly 90 percent the 1970 wet crop season. In 1977-78, compared with 65 percent in 1970. however, the equivalent return to operator was only a tenth of their harvest. Decrease in Returns to Operator Despite the decrease in the rate of return to operator, there is a likelihood that this The substantial cost increases in produc­ measure of profit will increase in absolute tion resulted in a decrease of the rate of terms as long as the yield improvement is return to operator which is the residual after large enough to compensate for the cost of deducting the cost of production and land production which, however, was not the rent. As estimated in Table 7, the farmers case. As a consequence, the return to were able to realize 35 percent of their operator in the study village even decreased harvest as the return to the operator during in absolute terms as shown in Tables 7 and 8. Second View from the Paddy 35

And this considerably depressed the It will not be easy to make an accurate ac­ economic conditions of the majority of the counting of all the debts of the farm families farmers, especially those whose landholdings in the study village although one can be sure were relatively small even as some of them that the outstanding indebtedness in 1978 far had supplementary incomes from other exceeds that of 1970. sources. Such a situation is best represented by a huge accumulation by the farmers of Abandonment of Farming farm debts and abandonment of farming by some of them in recent years. In light of the foregoing financial situa­ tion, it is not surprising that some of the Farm Debts farmers gave up farming altogether to join the farm labor group in order to eke out a The largest debt incurred by the farmers living from farm wages. A number of cases was in the rental arrears to the landlord. In­ were found in the study area although only formation from the farm administrator and two farmers who abandoned farming were farmer-respondents reveal that an average confirmed in this village at the time of this arrear was equivalent to 30-40 cavans/ha in study. Common to these cases was the fact December 1977 which means that the that they were mostly small farmers farmers were 3 or 4 years behind. In total, cultivating relatively marginal ricelands, this amounts to about 8,000 cavans paddy or hence they were marginal farmers. Their nearly 400,000 metric tons for the entire reasons for abandoning farming were mostly village. Since the tenancy system in the either lack of cash to start land preparation hacienda is lease rental instead of sharecrop­ or fear of risking what little they had from ping, a certain amount of arrears constantly the current situation of rice farming. These existed. According to the hacienda record of reasons are more than understandable 1965, some 1,000 cavans of paddy presented because the farmers cannot even plant rice overdue rent in San Andres Village alone. In without a small amount of cash to spend. comparison, the current amount of overdue Even though they and their families can rents has grown eight times larger. The manage transplanting themselves, additional agrarian reform implementation in this area outlays were necessary for the purchase of coincided with the rapid accumulation of farm inputs, fuel for the irrigation pumps rent arrears. and other miscellaneous but necessary ex­ The second largest item of overdue farm penditures. Even for the relatively large and debts pertains to the loans obtained under well-off farmers, recovery of these outlays the "Masagana 99" loan program for which would be very difficult to do once the rice the government has released nearly P380,000 crop fails. For this reason, it is not difficult to the farmers in the study village. As of to find farmers mortgaging their tenancy January 1978only about half of that amount right to others (sangla) a sure step to los­ has been repaid (Table 5). It is estimated that ing their right to cultivate the tenanted land. the outstanding balance, including the in­ As more farmers are likely to be in this tight terest that should have been earned is situation, the repercussions of the Green equivalent to 5,000 cavans of paddy. When Revolution and HYV diffusion clearly hurt, these overdue loans are added to the land rather than help, the small farmers who rent arrears, the aggregate amount already form the bulk of the farming population and exceeds the total paddy production for a for whom the Green Revolution was intend­ year of the entire village. Add to this the fact ed in the first place. that the farmers had other indebtedness such as the overdue installments for the govern­ The Real Beneficiaries ment mechanization loan, overdue loans for of the Green Revolution purchasing work animals (water buffalo) from the local rural bank, and a host of In light of the foregoing, nothing much miscellaneous other indebtedness to mer­ has actually improved with respect to the chants and usurers in the neighboring towns. farm household economy even as rice yields 36 Umehara: Green Revolution for Whom?

increased somewhat as a result of increases such construction materials have for in total production. In contrast, a huge ac­ sometime now been easily available, e.g., cumulation of rent arrears, rampant cases of lumber, hollow (cement) block, galvanized delinquency in the repayment of government iron sheets for roofing and steel bars for and private loans, and abandonment of reinforcement. As a matter of fact, the light farming became a commonplace after the materials, e.g., bamboo, nipa shingles and HYV diffusion in San Andres. rattan which were plentiful in the years gone When the peasant's life is viewed in a by have become rare and, therefore, more broader context, some changes are no doubt expensive in recent years due to depletion of discernible and which on the surface would resources. seem to indicate an improvement of his liv­ Even the acquisition of farm machineries ing conditions over time. There have been in­ is no longer a reliable parameter for asset ac­ creases in the number of better homes; ac­ cumulation in the face of widespread delin­ quisition of a cooking stove (one case); pur­ quency in installment payments for these chase of a motorcycle (three cases); purchase machineries which were invariably pur­ of power tillers (five cases) and irrigation chased on credit. Of course, it is true that a pump set (42 cases). However, these acquisi­ few families in the study village improved tions are superficial and require a careful their living conditions over the last decade. evaluation because conditions of resource But the hard fact remains that the majority availability and market situations also of them experienced a deterioration in living change over time. In rural Philippines, for conditions after the HYV diffusion. instance, a house constructed of durable Who, then, are the real beneficiariesofthe materials has long been a status symbol. But Green Revolution? This question was hardly

Table 9. Estimated changes in the pattern of distribution of production, 1970-1978

(Unit: cavan) Item 1970 (A) 1978 (8)

Number of farm households 78 98 Area planted (ha) 206.4 262.8 Paddy yieldlha 40.5 48.0 Total paddy production 8,358.0 (100.0) 12,611.0 (100.0) Distribution: Farmoperator! 3,239.1 (38.7) 1,965.1 ( 15.6) Labore~ 1,061.4 (12.7) 1,946.1 ( 15.4) Landlor(j3 2,469.8 (29.6) 1,915.6 ( 15.2) Dealer/contrac~rl money-Iende 1,286.1 (15.4) 5,2925 ( 42.0) Banks5 301.6 ( 3.6) 1,491.8 ( 11.8)

Note: The formulas used in the estimation of the data were as follows. The small alphabetical symbols correspond to those cited in Tables 7 and 8. IOperator's share (A) = b + f (income from contract plowing with the use of work animal) + q (B) = 112 b + e (rental for pump) + f (income from tractor use) + q 2Laborer's share (A) = g + h + i + j + 2/3n (B) = g + h + i + j + 1/2n 3Landlord's share (A, = e + k + 1I3n + 2/31 + P (B) = P 4Dealers' share (A) = c + d + f (tractor contract plowing) + 112m (B) = 1/2b + c + d + e (fuel) + f + k + I (income from truck hauling) + m (total - "M-99" loan) 5Bank's share (A) = 112m (B) = m ("Masagana 99" loan) + 0 Second View from the Paddy 37 asked and, therefore, unanswered in much (PNB) which channelled the "Masagana 99" of the literature now available on the sub­ loans to the farmers and the Development ject. In order to provide a valid answer to Bank of the Philippines (DBP) which this important question, it is necessary to dispensed with the agricultural mechaniza­ reexamine the changing pattern of product tion loans from the World Bank. distribution in the study village. Table 9 The dealers and contractors, of course, shows the distribution of goods and services belong to the more affluent families in the among five different categories which repre­ community. The rural banks are quasi­ sent the suppliers of basic production fac­ public lending institutions owned and tors, namely, land, labor, capital, and operated by landlords. The PNB and DBP management.? From this data, it is evident are government-owned banks whose biggest that neither the farmer nor the landlord customers are mostly the landlords. Com­ reaped the benefits of the Green Revolution mon to all of them are the following facts: or HYV diffusion. The real beneficiaries (1) close relations with the landed class in the were the suppliers of farm inputs, farm work community; (2) all of them are suppliers of contractors, private moneylenders and basic production factors; (3) they are all banks. There is hardly any need to examine engaged in either commercial or financial ac­ the share of the farmers again as this was tivities; and (4) invariably, they surfaced on­ already analyzed earlier. As for the share of ly during the HYV diffusion days. the laborers, it has practically remained what In view of the abovementioned composi­ it was in 1970. On the other hand, the tion of the businessmen, they can thus be landlord also lost a substantial part of his easily categorized into one single group: the share in recent years whereas, traditionally, commercial elite.II There seems to be no he used to enjoy the largest share in the com­ doubt that this commercial elite group modity distribution. It is estimated that in benefited the most from the Green Revolu­ 1970, the landlord obtained roughly 35 per­ tion whose shares had increased from less cent of the total harvest in the study than 1/5 to more than 1/2 of the total rice village.to This proportion includes land rent, harvest in San Andres within a brief span of irrigation fees, and threshing fees. Eight 9 years (1970-78). years later, his total share dropped to only 15 percent of the total commodity distribution Summary andImplications largely as a result of the effect of the agrarian reform implementation which forced The present report represents only one him to suspend the provision of irrigation case of a small village out of thousands in and threshing services to the tenants which the extensive area of Central Luzon in the was his way ofprotesting against the reform. Philippines. As such, the study has its own In addition, he was forced to refrain from inherent limitations which make it difficult imposing a unilateral increase in land rent. to conclude that the situation in San Andres In comparison, the dealer-contractor­ holds true in all the other villageseven under private moneylender and lending institu­ a similar setting. Nonetheless. many obser­ tions increased their share in the commodity vations in this study find· meaning and distribution dramatically. The dealers re­ similarities with conditions peculiar to the ferred to are the merchants who supplied the regional, provincial and national levelsin the agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, HYV country. This is because the study village, no seeds, chemicals and fuel. On the other matter how small it may be, represents a part hand, the contractors are the owners of large of the whole. In this context, the findings farm machineries such as the tractors and may be briefly reexamined in order to iden­ threshers who monopolized the contract for tify some trends and the underlying causes of farm work such as mechanical threshing and the failure or success of the Green Revolu­ tractor plowing. In many cases, the contrac­ tion from which some implications of the tor was also the moneylender. The lending study may be drawn. institutions referred to are the local rural Much of the benefits that the Green­ banks and the Philippine National Bank Revolution spawned in the village was. 38 Umehara: Green Revolution for Whom? reaped neither by the farmers nor the The rural Philippines seems to be landlord but by the commercial elite group. undergoing an important structural change This observation is also true in other villages in that the landlords who were traditionally where the HYVs diffused among the the rural elite are about to lose their farmers, because the more HYV diffusion supremacy to the newly-emerging commer­ there was, the more that the farmers used the cial elite group. Nevertheless, no significant expensive agricultural inputs which were conflict between landlords and commercial channelled through the facilities of the com­ elite was observed. This is because they both mercial elite group. Although the rate of belong to the affluent class in the communi­ share of the commercial elite is a function of ty. For instance, some of the smart landlords rice yield, it cannot be marginal under cur­ who perceived this change quickly responded rent yield levels. In fact, their share was not and joined the ranks of the commercial elite less than 30 percent of the total production to adjust themselves to the changing in other cases.12 economic and structural situation. Instead In this regard, two implications of the of staying as old-type landlords and resisting findings may be stated. the government's agrarian reform program, they conveniently opted to become members Implication No. 1 of the commercial elite. Many landlords still remain as legal owners of lands because the The emergence of a commercial elite slow-paced government reform effort has group in rural Philippines is evidently bring­ yet to be fully effective in disenfranchizing ing about changes in the way the peasants them of ownership of land. But their attitude are being exploited, i.e., a trend that moves towards tenants as well as their business away the peasants from their traditional outlook have changed. Consequently, relations with the landlord to a new relation landlord-tenant relationships are currently with the commercial elite. experiencing a transition that bears further In the traditional rice farming system, study. land is the most important production factor which explains why the landlord is able to Implication No.2 claim the largest share of the harvest from the tenants. In Central Luzon, the landlord's The emergence of the commercial elite is share used to be between 50 percent and 60 opening up the rural areas as a new frontier percent of the total rice harvest because not or market for foreign capital. In the present only land rent but repayment of loan ad­ case study, more than half of the total pro­ vances as well as various fees constituted his duction in the village was absorbed by the share in those days. 13 The landlord was then commercial elite group. However, not all the the moneylender and merchant at the same profits accrue to them. Their "share of the time and often provided irrigation and spoils" is derived from services rendered, in­ threshing services to the tenants. Literally, terest to capital, fees from contractual work the landlord was the largest exploiter of the and others. The rest goes to the agri-business tenant-cultivators until the commercial elite sector as payments for farm inputs. Most of group emerged. the agri-business sector in the Philippines is Since the mid-196Os, however, the relative dominated by foreign capital or multina­ importance of capital as a production factor tional firms. In this sense, the Green Revolu­ increased along with a growing dependence tion also functions to expand the market for upon modern farm inputs and mechanical foreign capital. power which accompanied the HYV diffu­ In short, the Green Revolution is a com­ sion. As a consequence, and together with mercialization process of the traditional pea­ the effects of the agrarian reform, the share sant agriculture that was left intact from the of the commercial elite expanded substan­ colonial times. It has certainly shown the tially at the expense of the landlord and the possibility for a technological breakthrough tenant. of the chronically stagnant rice yield in the Second Viewfrom the Paddy 39

country. It was also evident that some of the fertilizer almost tripled due to the heavy demand farmers cultivating better ricelands, well­ of HYVs, and farm mechanization advanced as irrigated areas and larger farm sizes were shown by increases in the sales of small-size fairly benefited in the process. For the ma­ machineries such as power tillers, irrigation jority of the rice farmers, however, the pumps, threshers, and sprayers. Green Revolution has made farming very 2See the following studies, for instance: Takahashi, Akira. The Peasantization of unstable, an instability which pervades their "Kasama" Tenants. In View from the Paddy. livesas a whole since they depend heavilyon Philippine Sociological Review 20 (1-2), rice farming for their livelihood. Owing to Jan.-April 1972. pp. 129-133. the "Masagana 99" loan, even the small and Kikuchi, Masao, Luisa Maligalig and Yujiro marginal farmers were able to grow capital­ Hayami. Evolution of Land Tenure System in it intensive HYVs. However, many of them Laguna Village. IRRI Agricultural Economics ran deeply into debt after several crop Department Paper No. 77-1 I, 1977. failures. Abandonment of farming as a Ledesma, Antonio J. Rice Farmers and Landless primary preoccupation has been an unhappy Rural Workers: Perspectivesfrom the Household Level. IRRI Agricultural Economics Department fate for the marginal and small farmers. Paper, Oct. 1978. • One of the villagersaptly summarized the Bautista, Germelino M. Major Changes in Philip­ story of the Green Revolution in San Andres pine Rice Agriculture, Institute of Developing when he lamented in the vernacular: "Ang Economies, Tokyo, VRF Series No. 60, 1979. pagsasaka ngayon ay tulad sa sugal" which International Rice Research Institute. Changes in means "Rice farming these days is akin to Rice Farming in Selected Areas ofAsia, Interna­ tional Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, 1975. gambling." To this farmer, his expenditures Van den Muijzenberg, Otto D., "Involution or for farm inputs are his stakes (pusta) or bet. Evolution in Central Luzon?" In Cultural An­ After betting, he waits for luck or loss. Ifhe thropology in the Netherlands. P. Kloos and is lucky, he gets a bumper crop (masaganang H.J.M. Classen, eds. Rotterdam, 1975, pp. am). Otherwise, he loses all his stakes, in­ 141-155. cluding his shirt. 3The result of an earlier study was published as an IDE Occasional Papers series. See Umehara, H. A Hacienda Barrio in Central Luzon: r:ase Notes Study ofa Philippine Village. Tokyo, 1974. 4See Umehara, H., op. cit., Appendix A, pp. 83-85. HIROMITSU UMEHARA sought affiliation as a SIn 1976, there were 187registered seed growers visiting research associate (VRA) of the Institute allover the six provinces ofCentral Luzon, 144of of Philippine Culture when he conducted his re­ which produced rice seeds in that year. (L. S. search on the socioeconomic structure ofa Philip­ Sayabec and others, "Production and Marketing pine Village. He has since then published A Ha­ of Palay Seeds, Central Luzon," NFAC Special cienda Barrio in Central Luzon: A Case Study of Study Series No. 77-15, 1977). a Philippine Village, and other articles on Philip­ pine agriculture. He is currently Senior Research 6As will be clarified later, the landlord, as his protest against land reform, SUddenly stopped Officer at the Institute of Developing Economies in Tokyo, Japan. rendering threshing and irrigation services shortly after the proclamation of P.D. 27, otherwise known as "The Tenant Emancipation Decree of IBased on macro-level statistical data, for ex­ 1972." As a consequence, the tenants were forced ample, the national yield of paddy or rough rice to do threshing themselves. Many started contract­ (otherwise locally known as "palay") showed im­ ing with contractors who own large threshing provement from 1.2S mt/ha to 1.90 mt/ha be­ machines. However, those whose fields were far tween the middle of 1960and towards the end of away from roads and inaccessible to large and 1970. As a result, the total paddy production in heavy machineries depended on manual the country also registered an unprecedented in­ threshing. crease of 4 million mt to nearly 7 million mt dur­ 7IRRI Annual Report, 1976. Los Banos, 1977, ing the same period of to years. This increase pp. 277-290. brought about a state of rice self-sufficiency. In SAt the time of the 1970 study, the credit addition, the national consumption of chemical source of the villagers were the private 40 Umehara: Green Revolution for Whom? moneylenders who charged exorbitant rates of in­ IITypical was the case of the owner of the rural terest, ranging from 50 to 100 percent over one bank in the study area. As owner and general crop season. manager of the bank, this man channelled the 9It is assumed that a farm operator supplied government loans to the farmers, on the one management and labor, a laborer did labor, a hand, and on the other, he financed, from the landlord did land, and a dealer-contractor­ loan, his side-business of retailing fertilizer, moneylender did capital. chemicals, contracting farm workers and render­ ing such services as plowing and threshing with 10At the time of the first study in 1970, there the use of machinery. were, among the villagers, one assistant en­ qAnother village study that the author did in cargado and two katiwala in the hacienda. Among Panay Island gave a little over 30 percent as the the privileges that the landlord gave them were share of the commercial elite. In another study in reduced land rent, and free irrigation and Southern Luzon, about 35 percent of the total threshing services. Since these privileges were part harvest was estimated as capital and inputs cost. of their remuneration, they should have been add­ See Kikuchi, Masao, "Firippin Nosan ni okeru ed to the landlord's share. However, in the table, Seidotekhenka" (Institutional Change in Philip­ the values were credited to the operator's share pine Village: A Case Analysis of a Rice-Growing because of die assumption that the data can be Village in Laguna) Nogyosogokenkyu, Vol 32, rounded off from the response of the farmers. No.3 (March 1978), p. 48. Therefore, it is considered that at least a small I3See G.F. Rivera and R.T. McMillan. An percentage of the farm operator's share originally Economic and Social Survey ofRural Households belonged to the landlord. in Central Luzon. Manila. 1954, p. 68. PROFILES OF AGRARIAN REFORM IN A NUEVA ECIJA VILLAGE *

BENEDICT J. TRIA KERKVLIET

Introduction thereby rarely attempt to portray the human beings about whom we write.2 To begin, I need to justify still another I shall offer a modest redress against the critique of agrarian reform in the Philip­ trend by writing about seven families and pines. After all, many articles, master's their experiences with the government's agra­ theses, chapters in books, and dissertations rian programs during the last two decades. have already discussed numerous limitations They include three families owning a lot of and failures of the government's rural pro­ land, two that are tenants and one that was a grams during the 1970s. Even reports com­ tenant of these large landowners, and one missioned by United States Agency for Inter­ that has no land. Their lives help make more national Development (USAID) and the vivid what previous writers have argued in World Bank - perhaps the quintessence of other ways, namely, that while agrarian pro­ Immanuel Wallerstein's "core" of the grams have benefited a few small palay modern world economy - have criticized growers, they have not enhanced significant­ "operation land transfer," the cooperative ly the we!! being of most villagers nor have program (Samahang Nayoni, loan program they undermined noticeably the wealth and (Masagana-99), and other components of;the status of families with large landholdings.I government's integrated agrarian reform package that was supposed to have a signifi­ The Locale cant impact on poverty and inequity in the countryside. I Of what value is still another Bukiran is the home barrio for four of article? It certainly will not prompt the the families and includes some of the land of Philippine government or the "core" to the three large landowners.4 redress gross inequities in society. Like most villages situated amid palay The best justification I can offer is that fields in Central Luzon, Bukiran is not par­ several people in the rural area where my ticularly attractive. The weather is hot and wife and I lived for a year encouraged us to sticky in the summer and wet and muddy in write about their lives so that others in the the rainy season. Its houses straddle unpaved Philippines might better understand their roads that billow with dust while buses and situation. Beginning to do this in VIEW trucks rumble through seemingly oblivious FROM THE PADDY II seems especia!!y ap­ to the people and carabao-drawn carts that propriate. plod along the edges. The village has no elec­ One criticism I have of many studies ­ tricity and no marketplace. It does have a including my own - about rural political school, four small churches, a "plaza" - a and economic conditions in the Philippines concrete slab for drying in the middle of a during the 1970s is they lack life. We pasture bounded by a low rock wall - and, authors rely too heavily on statistics, tables, the favorite hangouts during the heat of the and generalizations. We say too little about day and cool of the evening, a dozen small particular people, places, and events, and stores (tindahan) selling cigarettes, soft 42 Kerkvliet: Profiles ofAgrarian Reform drinks, ice, canned goods, comics, and bankers, employers, and others who affect booze. the lives of Bukiran residents. A century ago the area was sparsely populated by people growing palay, vege­ BurgosHaciendas: Owners, tables, and fruits on plots painstakingly Tenants, andEx-tenants cleared of trees and grasses. By the 1930s virtually all the land had been claimed and The name Burgos in Bukiran means ex­ titled by homesteaders and a few large land­ pansive landholdings - over 600 contiguous owners who had numerous tenants to share­ hectares purchased and acquired during the crop what were becoming well-developed late 19th and 20th centuries by Artemio palay fields. Burgos and his first wife, Nati. They had the Today the population is about 1,400 peo­ land farmed by share tenants (kasama) who, ple living in 230 houses. Nearby are five under Artemio and his overseer's guidance, smaller villages. About 45 percent of Buki­ cleared forests and grasslands to create a ran's households farm - often less than 2 palay-growing hacienda. hectares. About two-thirds of those who After Artemio died in the 1920s, the land farm are tenants, mostly leaseholders enti­ was divided into a 200 hectare parcel for one tled to "Certificates of Land Transfer" of his two sons by Nati and another parcel (CLT) under the government's land reform. about twice as large to be shared among four About one-fourth of those cultivating land children by his third wife. Today these two are owners; another 8 percent both own and large areas define the Nando Burgos hacien­ lease land. The remaining fraction (about 2 da and the Rafael Burgos hacienda, Rafael percent) have land through other ar­ being one of the four siblings. rangements. Most landholding families also Peasant unrest in the 1930s, the Huk have other means of livelihood ranging from rebellion in the 194Os, and government seasonal work to employment (typically as regulation of landlord-tenant relations in the construction workers) outside the village to 1950swere too wearisome for Nando Burgos those who sell vegetables and wares. and his half siblings. Like many large land­ Another 52 percent of the households owners in Nueva Ecija, they tired of wrang­ have no land. Nearly all of these rely on ling with tenants and feared future laws seasonal work, such as planting, weeding, would divest them of their lands. to avoid and harvesting palay; some have a member these problems they visualized evicting all or two with other work, also usually sea­ tenants and farming with tractors and com­ sonal, outside of the village. The poorest bines operated by a handful of laborers. here, like the poorest among the land­ Lacking the capital to mechanize their entire holders, supplement their small earnings holdings at once, however, they made the with edible plants and water life they forage transition in phases, combining their cash in fields and irrigation canals. Also among with government-sponsored credit to buy this non-landholding group, however, are machinery and build an irrigation system. some of the village's most prosperous Actually, Rafael Burgos (57 years old) families with steady income usually from and his two sisters Caring (62 years old) and desk-type or professional jobs (e.g., school Nora have mechanized only 140 hectares.I teachers and government clerks). Over the years they have become more in­ The remaining, relatively wealthy house­ terested and financially involved in other holds (about 3 percent of the village) are land­ businesses and prefer to expend little time owners who have tenants and hired and energy on "legal and other hassles" in laborers. They, too, have other sources of order to evict the remaining tenants. income such as palay marketing and salaried Since 1973, most of the mechanized area posts in government offices. has been planted with sugar cane. "That was Living outside the village - in the Nora's idea," Rafael said, indicating with a nearest town 7 kilometers northwest, the smirk that he remains skeptical. "At the provincial capital, and Metro Manila - are time the price of sugar was good; it still is," the large landowners, government officials, Caring explained. Favorable prices or not, Second View from the Paddy 43 the Burgoses' earnings from the cane have "only a half million pesos." Caring's hus­ not equalled expenses. Because virtually no band, a chemist trained at the University of other cane is grown in Nueva Ecija, they Cincinatti, operates with his brothers a large must have their cane trucked at considerable tannery and has other investments. expense to a mill in Tarlac 75 kilometers Caring, her husband, and their son livein away. Moreover, all harvesters are imported a large, modern house in a quiet neighbor­ seasonally because "Bukiran people are too hood in Metro Manila. It includes an lazy to do hard work." Finally, according to elaborately furnished living room and dining their foreman, whom they brought from area, where we sat after she insisted that my Tarlac, the cane's quality is poor because the wife and I stay for lunch. Surrounding the Burgoses spend too little on fertilizer and house are shade trees and an expansive lawn, labor. all enclosed by a high concrete wall. The reason Rafael, Caring, and Nora in­ Caring mentioned that for her last birth­ vest little in their hacienda is that it is not day, her husband bought her an expensive economically important. "I sent my kids to ring. "I told him to take it back and use the the best schools," Rafael said, "and have money to buy me a new air conditioned 'bee­ supported my family all these years on earn­ tle' [Volkswagen] instead. So he did. I just ings from other things, not from the farm in love driving it. It's perfect for our awful Bukiran. The farm is really just a hobby that Manila traffic." has increasingly become a big headache." Rafael agreed his "beetle" is also his One cannot depend on it for income, he said, favorite car. "I don't even like to drive the because hurricanes often destroy crops and Mercedes anymore. That is, the '200.' I do "tenants are unreliable." To illustrate, Ca­ still enjoy my diesel-engined Mercedes." ring added, most of their remaining tenants Rafael also likes to travel abroad "a couple on their palay land have not paid rent times a year" to buy heavy equipment and (buwis) since 1973 even though they are sup­ visit a son in a Michigan boarding school posed to continue paying rent until they and a daughter who recently graduated from begin mortgage payments to the Land Bank. a college in Switzerland and now lives with "How can we afford to pay taxes on the her husband in Wisconsin. Traveling has in­ land?" Caring asked. "We can't. And we troduced him to his favorite delicacy - truf­ don't." fles. They cost "about $50 a can - it works People who have farmed for them, out to about $5 a bite when spread on thin Rafael complained, are "shameless" toast" he grinned. (walanghiya). "They show no gratitude for While in the Philippines, he spends most what we did for them previously" - giving of his time in Metro Manila where he and his them interest-free loans longer than other wife live in a fashionable home in a posh landowners, finding them inexpensive cara­ subdivision. "However, I'm really a farmer bao, charging them no rent for Burgos land at heart," he mused. "I'd like to live on the upon which their houses sit, and sending farm and really make it into something. I'd some of their children to school. "We never like, for instance, to have diversified plant­ abused people there. Never. We've always ing, different crops, you see. Also dairy tried to help them. But they don't remember cows and other livestock. There's a great this." market for dairy products in Manila and the Besidesa thriving construction company, farm isn't too far away to sell there. But it is Rafael has a real estate company and nume­ impossible to use the land like I'd want." rous investments. To indicate how lucrative Consequently, Rafael as well as Caring these are compared to the land in Bukiran, are rather unhappy about the prospects of he noted that "overnight" recently he made selling their "farm" in Bukiran to the a couple hundred thousand pesos from a government under the land reform program. shrewd investment. Their palay land with leasehold tenants Caring and Nora run three pawnshops in is, technically, under land reform, although Metro Manila in which Rafael has invested only for,half has a price been agreed upon 44 Kerkvliet: Profiles ofAgrarian Reform

(averaging PIO,5oo per hectare). "This and cookies and Ruben's Pall Mall cigarettes. [price] is fine," Caring said. It is not hurting The house, Ruben noted, was built in us economically," although she and Rafael 1975 following a fire that had destroyed their wonder when is the government going to pay previous house on the lot. No one was in­ them. They now want to settle on a price for jured. In 1976 his wife died of cancer, and the remaining tenanted land as wellas sell the the next year his father died of a heart at­ mechanized area to the government. They will tack. Nineteen seventy-eight, however, accept no less than PI5,OOO and are halfway brought no misfortune to Ruben and his two serious about asking P30,OOO per hectare. children - students at the University of the Nando Burgos, half brother of Rafael Philippines - and he was hoping in January and Caring, mechanized nearly all of his ha­ 1979that the new year would bring a resolu­ cienda before he died in 1977.Starting at one tion to the disagreement over the land in corner of the 200 hectares in the early 1950s, Bukiran, he had the land changed, phase by phase Ruben explained about his father's land. during the next 30 years, from an irregular Before he died, Nando had the hacienda in­ grid of paddies farmed by about 80 tenants corporated. Nando retained 70 percent of to long, curving arcs of land of uniform the stock; he gave his children the remain­ width plowed, cultivated, and harvested by der. Since his death, the children have been John Deere tractors and combines and by bickering over how to divide their father's three dozen permanent workers housed in shares. Because his father made him vice­ wooden barracks inside the walled hacienda president of the corporation, Ruben thinks compound on the edge of Bukiran. He he should become president and control the wanted to make palay growing more pro­ majority of the stock. Two brothers, includ­ fitable and avoid trouble with tenants. He ing the eldest, and a sister disagree. The mat­ also wanted to use, before they were revised, ter is now in court. Meanwhile they cannot those laws that permitted a landowner to agree either about how to share farming ex­ evict tenants in order to "self-cultivate." penses, thus the land remains unfarrned. Because a new law in 1971 prohibited evic­ Ruben looks upon himself as a successful tions, as he had feared earlier, he was unable businessman who has become fairly well-off to complete his plan. Three leasehold tenants due to his own acumen and hard work. As a farming 11 hectares remain until now. young man he worked as a salesman and Paradoxically, the land of those tenants low-levelmanager for several companies un­ is practically the only area in the hacienda til he started his own trucking business in that has been farmed consistently since Nan­ Mindanao. That became a thriving business do's death. Virtually all the mechanized area and now serves as a "holding company" for has become overgrown with weeds. his many investments in other corporations Ruben Burgos, 46 years old, explained and in real estate in Mindanao, Metro the situation when we met in the living room Manila, and Nueva Ecija. of his two-storied home in Metro Manila. Although never deeply involved in While we talked a gardener meticulously managing their land in Bukiran while his clipped the lawn that stretched from the father was alive, he is eager to take charge of house to the high wall 35 feet away and it now and expects to make it even more pro­ across the width of the lot to a paved fitable than his father did. He estimates the driveway, where two Toyotas gleamed in the yields can average at least 70 cavans per hec­ sun. Inside the carport were a Ford LTD and tare with between 1Y3 to 2 crops per year, de­ a van. Ruben and I were comfortably seated pending on water supply. On about 180hec­ on expensive furniture while a fan, standing tares of plantable land, the production above a Hammond organ, cooled the room. would be 16 to 25 thousand cavans a year, At the other end of the carpeted living room which would "more than cover expenses." was a piano. Tastefully selected paintings If, however, the dispute among the and pictures decorated the walls. Two brothers and sisters cannot be resolved, maids, signalled by a buzzer, brought us tea Ruben expects they will either lease the ha- Second Viewfrom the Paddy 45 cienda to someone else or sell the whole court. They lost in the lower and appellate thing. "If the government wants to buy it, courts. In desperation Pedro, Maring, and fine. But I wouldn't accept Land Bank their co-tenants went to the Secretary of bonds as payment" because they are not Agrarian Reform. "He told us we could get worth their face value. land in Mindanao through NARRA [a Land reform is one of several govern­ government resettlement program). Would ment programs Ruben criticizes. "It's anti­ you believe it! They wanted to dump us in landowner. It coerces a landowner to sell." Mindanao!" Pedro recalled then asking the At the Ministry of Agrarian Reform "the Secretary, "I'd like to have land but how can burden of proof is on the landowner, not the we live in Mindanao when there is fighting tenant. If in a dispute a landowner can't and turmoil there?" The secretary, Maring prove his case, but the tenant can't prove his scowled, "said nothing; he just sat there." either, the tenant wins." Pedro and Maring, both 71 years old, At the same time, Ruben knows poverty talked to my wife and me in their three-room is widespread and says material conditions house constructed of bamboo and thatching. for most people in the Philippines have not He sat with his spindly, bare legs tucked improved, contrary to what the government under him on a wooden chair. Affixed to the claims. He thinks the government should sawali wall behind his balding head was the help bring material development but not "at same picture of Jesus Christ displayed in the expense of some other group, nor should many Bukiran houses. Hurriedly pushing in­ people become dependent. Too many people to a heap the recently laundered clothing in the country today are being fed dextrose, scattered across their bamboo bed, Maring too many small farmers are being subsidized asked us to be seated. She initially sat beside with loans and' other government handouts, us, but later walked about as she became too many, especially among the poor, de­ animated by the discussion. Unlike her hus­ pend on paternalism . . . Instead of giving a band, who spoke softly and with few ges­ fish to a hungry man, I think you should tures beyond removing and replacing a teach the man to fish. Besidesmaking people cigarette from his thin lips, Maring talked weak, this feeding of dextrose has created a loudly with hands flayingand dark eyes, sunk country wherein most people have lost their deep behind her sharp cheekbones, flashing. pride by trading it for aid." Development Both laughed easily, revealing when they did for a country and for individuals comes, their few remaining, yellowing teeth. therefore, "not by taking from the rich and They had resisted the eviction initially giving to the poor, but by teaching people to because they believed,"We had a right to our provide for themselves." He favors, for in­ parcel. After all, we had no other land to stance, the government encouraging landless farm." Pedro had also concluded, "it's better families to farm land that is not already be­ to fight and lose our land than not to fight ing used. and still lose the land." One reply to this suggestion might be By the time they were forced to leave, what Pedro Alfonso, a landless man near however, Maring and Pedro "realized it was Bukiran, told me: "I don't want to go to next to impossible for the littleguy to fight the some strange place. There is unused land rich guy. You have to have cash," Maring right here - the Nando Burgos land." said, making a money sign with her thumb In 1970 Pedro and his wife Maring were and index finger. "We think Burgos bribed told they could apply for land in Mindanao. some judges and even our attorney." Ma­ They had been share tenants for Nando ring, steaming up as she recounted their Burgos since the late 1940s and, wanting to story, recalled that once when they were still continue tenant farming, decided to resist on good terms, Burgos visited their house. Nando's efforts in the 19608 to evict them. "I fed him chicken," something they rarely With the help of attorneys employed by a could afford to eat themselves. "Had I government agrarian reform office, the known what he would eventually do to us, I Alfonsos and several other tenants fought in would have fed him poison." 46 Kerkvliet: Profiles ofAgrarian Reform

"Don't be so harsh," Pedro cautioned. ed, "is going to help people like us get land." "Burgos was always civil to us. Even during When I asked how he could put such hope in court, he took us to coffee and lunch." the government after what had already hap­ As much as Burgos upset her, Maring as pened to them, Pedro replied, "Things are well as Pedro were even angrier with fellow different now. Besides, one must have hope in villagers. "They didn't help us." Of the 15 order to go on." tenants who had initially refused to leave Cora Fernandez, a tenant in Bukiran, is their lands in 1962, only five stayed with the one of those whom President Marcos is court case. "Some were scared and dropped already supposed to have benefited. out," Pedro acknowledged. "Others were "Because of him," she claimed, "there is desperate for money and accepted a couple land reform and soon, I hope, I'll have my thousand pesos, sometimes more, from CLT. After that I'll be able to buy land - if Burgos and returned their land." Most of­ price isn't too high and if harvests are fensive to Maring is that on the day she and good." These qualifications, however, turn her family had to carry their house off out to be major because land prices have Burgos' land to a temporary location on her been escalating and yields have been erratic. brother's lot, only a few people, mostly close We first met Cora, a slender woman in relatives, helped. Meanwhile others along her mid-50s, while she and her teenage son the route "just stared at us; some were even stood knee-deep in water weeding her paddy my cousins! Until now when I see them they field. She has a well-deserved reputation in try to ignore what happened to us. But I Bukiran for being strong-willed and hard don't let them forget it; I remind them every working. When she is not tending her crop, chance I get." she is planting someone else's, gathering Some of those to whom the Alfonsos snails and wild vegetables in the fields, or refer insinuate that people who resisted selling snacks and cigarettes to harvesters. Burgos' eviction were fools. Jose She also runs a household consisting of her Evangelista, a former Burgos tenant, said, . 76-year old mother, two grade school 'Little guys are bound to lose a fight like children, and a son. Another son, in his early that." According to him, Nando Burgos 20s and unemployed, lives with his wife and "helped those who didn't resist" by giving baby in a tiny house behind Cora's. Cora's money and palay. For tenants whom he field nourishes his young family, too. knew especially well, Burgos even helped Another grown son left home a few years them get their own land. The others like the ago and has not been heard from since. In Alfonsos, he continued, "could have had 1976another child, only a year old, died of this {help], too," had they reached an agree­ fever. Not long before that Cora's husband ment with Burgos instead of trying to fight ran off with another woman. him. Cora is one of several women in Bukiran Since losing their Burgos land, the Alfon­ who farm, doing some of the work them­ sos have barely eked out a living ­ selves (with help from their children) and transplanting, weeding, and harvesting other hiring laborers for the remainder, because people's land as well as fishing in the creeks their husbands are working at far-flung con­ and irrigation canals. Their married children struction sites or because their husbands - five sons and two daughters - struggle have abandoned them. the same way to support their families. The Fernandez house, made of hollow "I don't regret what we did," Pedro said concrete blocks with a dirt floor and tin firmly. Then he smiledand said, "Things will roof, was still under construction in 1979 soon improve." The local Samahang Nayon even though Cora's family had started build­ leadership, he explained, has proposed that ing it 3 years ago. She never has enough the government buy Nando Burgos' land for money to complete it. A hurricane in Oc­ resale to landless families. "Former tenants tober 1978 set her back still further by rip­ like us will have first priority," Maring ping off the roof and blowing down one assured us. "President Marcos," Pedro add- wall. Second Viewfrom the Paddy 47

The storm also flattened her nearly ripe 55 cavans remained. From this she needed palay. Consequently. her field yielded only seed, palay for household consumption, 55 cavans per hectare instead of an an­ other family expenditures, and, if any re­ ticipated 70 or 75.6 The combination of rats, mained, some of her farming costs for the bad weather, and plant diseases in 1976-77 next season. and her wayward son's leaving and taking As one of ninety leasehold tenants on the some of her money forced her to mortgage a Rafael Burgos hacienda, Cora is entitled to a half hectare of her 2.5 hectares to a CLT. Although most tenants do have the neighbor. document, she and at least a dozen others do Nario and Lydia Ramos, who own a not because the owners have mortgaged their small store in Bukiran, were looking for fields for a bank loan. Apparently, until the land. They and Cora agreed that the latter Burgoses repay the bank, the Ministry of would permit them to farm a half hectare of Agrarian Reform cannot touch those her land for a minimum oftwo seasons in ex­ parcels. change for a PI,000 no-interest loan from Like many leasehold tenants, Cora Fer­ them. The Ramoses would also pay her nandez has not paid her rent (12 cavans per "rent" (buwis) of 6 cavans for each harvest. hectare) since the mid-1970s. Only lease­ IfCora could not repay the loan after the se­ holders of small owners seem to pay their cond season, the agreement would continue seasonal rent (generally between 8 and 12 until she could repay. The agreement was cavans per hectare). "The Burgoses don't typical ofsangla (mortgage) arrangements in mind if I don't pay," Cora explained. "They Bukiran.? never do anything to collect." Cora's Sangla is not uncommon. Eleven out of brother, who farms another 2.5 hectares of the 70 households farming land they did not Rafael Burgos' land, explained that it makes own had that land on a sangla basis.8Ten of no sense for a tenant, whether he actually those who mortgaged were leasehold tenants has a CLT or is still waiting to receiveone, to like Cora Fernandez; one had a CLT. Most pay rent to the landowner. The law says any sangla arrangements extend beyond the rent paid since 1973 will count toward the original time period because the household price of the land once that is determined. who borrowed money is unable to repay. "But what is the guarantee the landowner Cora Fernandez is an exception. "To get her will remember those payments or that the land back," Nario Ramos said the day after government will credit them even if you have Cora had repaid the PI,OOO, "she nearly receipts showing you did pay? You may be worked herself to death." swindled. Maybe the landowner will die by She repaid the debt despite the damaged the time the price is set and his heirs won't harvest of November 1978. From the 110 honor those payments you made. Anything cavans her field grossed, she had to pay 16to can happen. So, it's best not to pay. Just harvesters. She set aside 6.5 for seed and 21 wait for the papers to be complete, the price for her family and her sons. She gave enough set and everything, then start paying the to Toyang Trinidad to repay a PI,OOO loan Land Bank." plus 25 percent interest and settled accounts Rent-free land is, however, only a small at two village stores. That left 37 cavans, compensation to Cora, her brother, and which she sold for P50 each or PI,850. She others like them. It does not begin to offset then paid the Ramoses PI,OOO, leaving only other costs. "If you don't feed the palay," P850, much too little for her family to live on goes the saying, "it won't feed you." And until the next harvest, 5 months away. No what you feed the palay costs more and wonder she as well as her sons hustle for more. Between 1969 and 1979, fertilizer other ways to earn a few pesos. prices tripled, averaging P75 per sack in The following harvest, April 1979, was 1979. Irrigation costs rose seven-fold, now better - 165 cavans, gross. Even so, after P137 per hectare in the wet season and P227 deducting for farming expenses, including a per hectare in the dry. "You figure [cash) ex­ P2,OOO loan at 25 percent to Trinidad, only penses will run PI,OOO to Pl,500 per 48 KerkvliettProfiles of Agrarian Reform hectare," Cora said, explaining why she bor­ Driving his Toyota landrover, Doming still rows from a local lender each season. Even travels weekly to Cabanatuan, where he though she plants twice as often as before maintains the house of his parents (now 1975, when Pantabangan dam made double deceased). He stays 3 or 4 days, each day up cropping possible, "I'm not living any bet­ early to oversee his granary and lands in ter,' she said. Consequently, she is glad not neighboring municipalities. to be paying rent but wonders how she can "Life is very hard in the Philippines," afford amortization payments. Doming complained. "One is constantly try­ Amounts thus far for other Burgos land ing to make a living, not like in the States have been P9,000 to Pll,500 per hectare. where you can enjoy life a little and get bet­ Prices still to be negotiated wiII be higher. ter compensated for your work." He would Even P9,000-Pll,500 is three to four thou­ "love to live for good in America" and has sand more than most tenants were willing to advised one of his sons, who will probably pay going into bargaining sessions with enroll at Stanford University, to "do every­ representatives from the Agrarian Reform thing he can to stay there." Estimating that Ministry and the landowner. It is two to he has only about 20 more years to live, he three times higher than what the amount ponders how he can finance more travel, his would have been had the formula in PD 27 favorite recreation. "Given my present been followed.? financial and businessconditions, I can only afford to go abroad once every 5 to 6 years. Sebastian Lands: That's not many trips left." OwnerandAmortizing Tenant He acknowledges villagers have a much harder life. "I don't know how in the world Association of Landowners for Agrarian landless families in barrios like Bukiran Reform Movement (ALARM) was organized manage. Even those with land have a tough in 1974 by severallarge palay landowners who time. Their production is low, costs to pro­ wantedthe government to permit landowners duce are high and keep rising all the time. to retain at least 24 hectares and to discard Yet the price for palay doesn't go up nearly PD's formula for determiningland prices. as much." But they themselvesare partly to Doming Sebastian was one of ALARM's blame "because they gamble and have big founders and officers. He owns about 550 families." When I pointed out his own fami­ hectares of palay land dispersed among ly is large, he replied, "Yes, but I can afford several municipalities of Nueva Ecija. Sixty them. All of my children have gone through hectares are near Bukiran, farmed by 20 to good colleges." The government, he added, 25 tenants, several of whom live in Bukiran. should help the poor- "subsidize fertilizer A well-groomed man in his late 50s, who would be one thing. Another would be in­ talks softly but decisively, Doming describes crease the price of palay." Land reform, himself as a "farmer-lawyer." He inherited however, is not among his recommenda­ most of his farm land, sharing with his only tions. sister about 1,000 hectares their parents had Doming has resisted land reform every accumulated between 1915 and 1960. Al­ step of the way. When share tenants wanted though he graduated from law school, he has to become leasehold tenants, he often re­ never earned a living as an attorney other fused. Even after a leasehold tenancy became than being his own lawyer in court cases in­ the law for Nueva Ecija in the late 1960s, he volving his lands. By the time he had com­ still objected. He has also tried to skirt the pleted his law degree in the late 1940s, his laws by dividing and redividing lands among parents needed him to look after their pro­ relatives. perty and businesses in Nueva Bcija. "Under the old land reform law Until the late 1950s, Doming and his wife [pre-1972] you could keep up to 50 hectares, lived in Cabanatuan with Doming's parents so I took all my lands, used some hokus in a huge Spanish-styled house. They moved pokus and distributed the lands among my to Manila, however, in order to send their children, nieces, nephews, other relatives so children to prestigious private high schools. everyone would have less than 50 hectares. Second View from the Paddy 49

Then came the new land reform [1972]where handwriting on the wall regarding land 24 hectares was the maximum retainable. So reform, I started investing in blue chip I took all my lands again, did some more stocks." He also bought residential land in hokus pokus and distributed lands among expensive subdivisions. Second, he made an more relatives, making all parcels below 24 agreement with tenants; which the Ministry hectares. More recently the government said of Agrarian Reform approved. Rather than the maximum retention is 7 hectares. I gave setting a price for his lands and dealing with up. I had ran out of relatives." the Land Bank- "which is a mess" -he and Forming ALARM was another effort to his tenants agreed that they would pay a fixed oppose land reform. Although he is disap­ number of cavans per hectare each harvest for pointed that it failed to convince the govern­ 15 years. This presupposes two harvests a ment to allow owners to keep 24 hectares, he year. "Once they've paid all the cavans they is delighted that "we [in ALARM] got rid of owe, that's it. Period. The land is theirs." that formula" in PO 27 for setting land Under this arrangement, the "peso value prices. "Landowners," he smiled, "can still of the land is irrelevant." Tenants like it he exert pressure even during martial law, even said, "because they don't have to think in though the government leans toward the ten­ terms of pesos, just cavans. I like it because, nant's side." Knowing numerous high wen, it's much simpler -less hassle with the ranking government officials personally, government, the Land Bank, and an that." I Doming and fellow ALARM members mentioned it also minimizes his losses due to argued before them that the formula "was inflation inasmuch as the value of palay will unfair, set land prices much too low, and probably rise during the 15 years whereas a favored tenants who were too lazy to pro­ fixed price for land cannot. He smiled. That, duce good crops in the 3 years prior to 1972. too, was a consideration. Moreover, the land is worth much more than Poncing and Loring Espiritu affirm, as the formula would allow . . . Land can pro­ do other Doming Sebastian tenants, that duce much more now than before, hence, it they like the agreement. They have been pay­ is more valuable."Largely, thanks to this ing Sebastian 38 cavans each harvest since argument, he said, land prices are now deter­ 1974. When they began farming 3 hectares mined through negotiations between tenants for Sebastian in 1947, they were share and landowners. tenants. In the 1960s they became leasehold StilI Doming is unhappy with land tenants, paying Sebastian 15 cavans per hec­ reform. "It is taking away my livelihood." tare. "I prefer the new [amortization] When it is completed, "all I'll have left is the system," Poncing said, "because I will even­ 22 hectares I mechanized" near Cabanatuan tually own land to leave to my children." in the 1960s. He had tried to mechanize more Poncing and Loring are among the least but the court forbade him on the grounds his impoverished farming households in plan was financially unfeasible. Also, Bukiran. And among the 74 Bukiran according to him, he was not as "strong households farming land they do not own, willedand determined as Nando Burgos was. the Bspiritus are one of thirteen now paying I felt sorry for tenants who did not want to installments in order to become landowners. leave. After all, the land is their livelihood, Therefore, they are among the few full too. I couldn't bring myself to kicking them beneficiaries of land reform in the Bukiran off. " area. Within this minority, they are in the He harbors one last hope to stop land half who amortize each season. reform. "Once Marcos bows out or for some Doming Sebastian complained that reason disappears ... I'm going to chal­ "many tenants don't regularly give me what lenge it and try to get my lands back" on the they owe. They say they can't because they grounds that the reform is an "uncon­ too are in debt or have too many expenses." stitutional confiscation of land." He can do nothing to make them pay other Meanwhile, he makes the best of "bad" than report the fact to the Ministry of Agra­ circumstances. "In the 1960s when I saw the rian Reform. 50 KerkVliet: ,Profiles ofAgrarian Reform

Poncing is 60 years old; Loring is 55. Also contributing to the household in­ They have seven children; five still living come in recent years is their daughter with them and two are married-a daughter Juling's roadside store and eatery. Juling, 22 whose husband is a tenant farmer, and a son years old, has had her small business for who works intermittently as a driver and nearly 5 years. Although Poncing wishes Ju­ tractor operator for a wealthy Bukiran fami­ ling had stayed in school- "she only finished ly. fifth grade" -he is proud of his daughter's The Espiritus live in a one-and-a-half­ successful business, by village standards. storied concrete block house, which they Poncing also takes pride in his farming constructed piecemeal during the last 5 or 6 abilities. He does much of the work himself years. "It's so nice not to be sleeping on top with occasional help from Loring and his of each other anymore." Loring laughed, children, hiring others only for transplanting revealing her teeth stained from years of and harvesting. In recent years he has also betel nut chewing. The house is one of the paid a tractor and driver to plow his field­ more roomy and better-built ones in Buki­ worth the additional P600 expense, he said, ran, featuring a polished, red concrete floor because the tractor's plow "digs deeper, in a 15 by 2()..foot living room, curtained turns the soil better, and finishes the job windows, a spacious kitchen, and four sleep­ faster so my field is ready in time for the ir­ ing rooms. Prominent in the living room is a rigation." He finishes preparing the soil with television set, one of only a dozen in his carabao-pulled harrow. Bukiran, powered by a 12-volt battery that While showing me his maturing palay Poncing or his son regularly take into town field one morning, Poncing talked about for recharging. Frequently their living room double-cropping. "It has meant more palay is crowded with neighbors watching televi­ and more earnings for us even though it has sion with the Bspiritus. also been more costly. We have to have be­ Outlining for me one day the socio­ tween three and four thousand pesos cash to economic composition of Bukiran, Pondng put in each crop. Fortunately, harvests have said there are "two major groups of people­ been pretty good, and through the grace of those who draw a salary, usually by working God, we've managed to recuperate from the with a pencil, and those who work in the bad ones." mud with a plow and shovel." Those in the One of the worst recently followed a first category, he said, are generally better strong hurricane in late October 1978. The off. "Among those of us in the mud, some Espiritus grossed 170 cavans, about 35 per­ are more poor than others." Here he iden­ cent less than their harvest a year before. tified five gradations, putting himself and After deducting all expenses, including his family within the top two. Most in repaying a P2,OOO loan at 25 percent interest, Bukiran who depend on agriculture for a liv­ and giving 38 cavans to Doming Sebastian, ing, he said, "are in the bottom three" and they had 37 cavans remaining- "just enough include very poor tenant farmers and land­ to keep us in rice until the next harvest," Lor­ less workers. Many, he added sorrowfully, ing said, adding that besides her own family "live hand to mouth." He thanks hard she also helps to feed her aging mother and a work, luck, and God that his life is better, crippled brother and his three children. shows no animosity to the "pencil holders," For the next crop, Loring and Poneing and hopes that some of his children will go accepted money from their daughter and to college. "That way," he smiled, "they borrowed an additional Pl,5oo from Toyang can move from mud to salaries." Trinidad to finance plowing, transplanting, Besides farming, both Loring and Pon­ and fertilizing. The yield was better-80 eing have done such other work as helping in cavans per hectare, enabling them, after a Cabanatuan bakery, selling snacks and repaying their crop loans, to set-aside a little lunches to schoolchildren, carting palay for for the next season and even pay some of a other peasants during harvest season, and long-term loan they had for their house. selling vegetables in front of their house. Second View from the Paddy 5/

Borrowing is a "fact of life," Poncing eluding the Gomezes, Nora's brother's fami­ explained, which is why "it's good that ly, and the family of Nora's son by her first Bukiran has a few like Kumareng Toyang husband-share a tiny box of matches (cost: who will lend." He was referring to Toyang 15 centavos). Trinidad, probably the barrio's wealthiest "I can stand being without food for a woman who is a lender to many landholders few days," Nora once remarked after raising in the vicinity. "Kumareng Toyang, being her voice to her daughter to scoot over so she rich, has an obligation to help others by could sit down while we crowded into their lending them money and rice. It's OK for her house. "It hurts my heart though to see the to charge interest, as long as it's not too high. kids not eat." She said this so matter of fact­ Twenty-five percent is fine. What would be ly, and with no hint of asking my wife and bad is if she stopped lending." me for help, that it had the effect of making To help insure that she will lend to them, light of their grave situation the Espiritus have nurtured their relationship That was inSeptember 1978. The follow­ with her. Poncing explained, for example, ing August, Juan and Nora's youngest child that he sells palay to her "rather than to died, apparently of malnutrition. He became other buyers so I'll have a place to run to in the sixth fatality among Bukiran youngsters case I'm broke. If I sold to others, Kuma­ under 4 years old that we knew about be­ reng Toyang would hear about it and I'd be tween June 1978 and August 1979. All were embarrassed to ask again for her help." children of parents in the bottom 30 percent "Having her as a backup is great comfort to of Bukiran society. us," Loring allowed, then added that she "A bird wakes up at dawn and im­ feels sorry for others who have no one like mediately flies about looking for food," Toyang Trinidad and must borrow just to Juan Gomez commented during one conver­ feed their families. "That is one thing at sation. "The bird spends his day doing this. least we don't have to agonize about." The next day is the same. Me, too. I wake up and scurry around looking for food and The LandlessAgricultural work wherever I can find it-splitting woods, Workers killing a pig for Aling Juaning, doing some carpentry for Mang Pepe, harvesting this The Juan and Nora Gomez family is an field, pulling seedlings in that field, going example of the people Loring Espiritu had in here, going there, flighty like a bird, becom­ mind. The Gomezes are in the bottom 30 ing dizzy trying to keep my family alive. By percent of Bukiran's population in terms of evening I'm tired and weak. At dawn I have a living standard, and like about half of to be up again doing the same, like the these people, the Gomezes have neither land birds." Nora, too. They are a team during nor regular jobs. Their house, made of split harvest season, often camping in the fields bamboo and thatching, is a mere 6 by to severaldays in a row. She also does transplan­ foot room with a 4 foot square addition ting, responds to calls from the Rafael Burgos where food is prepared. It is home for Juan hacienda for workers to fertilize the sugar (50 years old), Nora (40 years old), their cane, washes and irons other people's clothes lo-year old daughter, and two sons (one whenever she is given the opportunity, and aged 6, the other aged 2). Their diet is mostly looks with her children for edible greens and steamed rice seasoned with salt or fish sauce waterlife in irrigation canals and streams. and vegetables or (rarely) fish they find in the Juan Gomez has known somewhat better fields or buy. Several times each year, times. He was born and raised in Pangasi­ generally during the month before harvest nan, one of five boys of a small landowner. season, they are reduced to eating watered He was among the few youngsters in his home down rice(lugaw). Bythen they have borrow­ barrio to finish high school, after which he ed as much as local creditors will lend, and left home to search for work. He held they can no longer turn to relatives and various jobs, including a bouncer in a neighbors, who are in similar straits. Cash nightclub near Clark Air Force Base in Pam­ becomes so scarce that three households-in- panga. He ended up in Bukiran in 1959. 51 Kerkvliet: Profiles ofAgrarian Reform

when he met and married a daughter of a Juan, who usually looks disheveled-hair tenant family and settled down. uncombed, shirt wrinkled and tattered, and With the help ofhis mother-in-law, a dis­ face drawn-has a more stem personalitythan tant relative of a small landowner named Nora's. He is also more reflective than she Tomas Gregorio, Juan bought the right and more aware of whatis happening be­ (puwesto) to tenant farm 2 hectares of yond his particular circumstances. His only Gregorio's land. "Life was pretty good then. vice, he said, is cigarettes, pointing out that Harvests grossed about 100 cavans, and I unlike many other impoverished men, "I always had palay left over after giving don't sit around getting drunk." Gregorio half. I could also borrow 10cavans Juan tried returning to Manila, leaving of rice from Gregorio each season, more his family in Bukiran, to be a barber. "The than my wife and I could eat." money still was not enough to support us," In the early 1960s, however, Juan's wife Juan recalled. Nora said, "I didn't like him died while giving birth to their first child. being away. I finally insisted that he come Juan was griefstricken. "My mind snapped. home." I couldn't take it. I had to leave Bukiran." Juan has tried working on construction He returned the 2 hectares to the owner in projects in various parts of Nueva Ecija and exchange for Gregorio wiping away Juan's adjoining provinces. Invariably they last n,ooo debt (most of which Juan had spent only a couple of months or end up being on an expensive funeral for his wife and more costly than helpful. In January 1979, powdered milk and medicines for his baby) for instance, he managed to join a construc­ and giving Juan 10 cavans of palay, "I tion crew to make irrigation canals in Tarlac. turned over the palay to my mother-in-law "We were to be paid," Juan said, "forevery and asked her to raise my son, then left." so many meters of cement we poured," He wandered from town to town, "not equalling about PI8 a day-a good wage in really aware of where I was going," until he luan and Nora's opinion. "We were paid settled down in Manila while working as a for our first week's work. After the second security guard. He started sending no and week, though, no pay came. The foreman P25 every other week for his son's care. explained that our pay hadn't been sent from In 1967, his impoverished mother-in-law the company's office in Pampanga. We wrote to ask that he return to Bukiran and worked still another week. After the fourth raise his son. He did but with far too little week without pay, I left as did several savings to purchase a puwestoto land. "I've others." He returned to Bukiran, "my been a stand-by laborer ever since." pockets empty and nothing to be done about In 1968 he began living with Nora. Her it." first husband had died, leaving her with two They have talked about returning to children. He had tenant-farmed a small par­ Juan's barrio in Pangasinan, but they have cel, but she was unable to keep it after his very little prospect of getting land there death. Her own parents were landless, never because his brothers are farming his father's having money to purchase a carabao and fields. "Besides, I'd be returning as a pauper puwesto after evacuating to Bukiran during ." That's terribly embarrassing," Juan the Japanese occupation. Nora had very lit­ felt. tle formal schooling and most of her life has "The best solution," Juan concluded, been "like I'm living now - scratching the "is to get land. Somehow I have to get even dirt each day in order to stay alive." just 1 hectare. Then we could live decently. Conversation and an occasional cigarette We wouldn't have to worry over every grain seem to be Nora's only pastimes. She takes of rice, every single centavo. I know how to pleasure in a good story and is prone to act­ farm. I just need some land." He looks long­ ing out parts as she relates what she has ingly at the Burgos fields, "unplanted going heard and Observed.She is especially fond of on for 2 years now while many ofus sitting a giving a sexual twist to her interpretations. few meters away grow old and hungry with­ out any land." Second Viewfrom the Paddy 53

In early 1979 he decided to get several each season you have to pay so many thou­ other landless men to write a letter asking sand pesos in order to keep the land." President Marcos to buy the Burgos hacien­ da for resale to them and other landless in Discussion Bukiran and vicinity. "There would be nothing wrong just asking," he reassured himself. But when he shared the idea with a These seven families illustrate a fun­ few neighbors, he received no encourage­ damental feature of the political-economic ment. "It's a waste of time," one man said. situation in the Philippines and a major "Even if Burgos wants to sell, the price will aspect of agrarian programs there: the be more than we can afford." burdens have fallen heavieston the weakand Bycoincidencea fewweekslater the local lightest on the strong. I can elaborate by Samahang Nayon's leadership called a discussing land reform, the new technology general meeting to announce that the for growing palay, and the landless laborers' government might purchase both the Nando situation. and Rafael Burgos hacienda for resale to Land Reform landless people. to In order to get on the waiting list of prospective beneficiaries, one Tenants qualifying for land reform must had to join the Samahang Nayon. Many eventually pay for their parcels plus interest. from Bukiran and nearby barrios signed up, They also shoulder the cost of the dilatory attended a required 2-day seminar that administration of "operation land transfer" leaders of several Samahang Nayons or­ and of opposing landowners' successful ef­ ganized, and promised to pay the P25 mem­ forts to deter implementation and/or in­ bership fee. crease the price. By 1979, only a small frac­ Juan Gomez, however, did not even sign tion of the lands in Bukiran and vicinity had up. "It's not fair that they require you to been evaluated; the same is true for the rest join before anything has been accomplished. of the municipality and Nueva Ecija prov­ Besides, I don't have P25. That's big money! ince. The longer the delay, the higher the And I certainly don't need a seminar; I price. This advantages landowners-they get already know all that stuff they say in those more money for their land even though they long meetings." Moreover, it will take "at can take no credit for the land's increased least 3 years" before anything comes of this value. talk about Burgos' land being sold. "When Meanwhile, the costs to large landowners and if the time comes, I'll join the Samahang such as Rafael Burgos and Doming Sebas­ Nayon." tian are small relative to their means. First, In October 1979 after I had returned to they have prepared for this possibility, Hawaii, a Bukiran resident wrote to me and generally keepinga step or two ahead of land mentioned that a national officer of the reform. Through their relatives, friends, and Samahang Nayon had announced in a barrio other connections, they shape the making meeting that the government was probably and implementation of laws. Smaller land­ going to buy the Ramon Burgos hacienda for owners (with, say, 10-30 hectares oftenanted P25,000 per hectare. Once the details had land) have also benefited. Many of them in been worked out, landless residents would be Bukiran and vicinity anticipated PD 27 and able to get 1 or 2 hectares each. Subsequent got rid of tenants (through persuasion, en­ letters, including ones from Juan and Nora ticement, and force) before or in some cases Gomez, said little more about this even even after the decree. They replaced the though I repeatedly asked in my letters to tenants with tractors and laborers. Like the them. The last word I have, June 1980, is large landowners, they also skirted the law from Nora Gomez's sister-in-law, wife of by entitling fractions of their land to their her landless brother. "The price is way too children and other close relatives. much for us to even consider. You need Second, the large landowners, who are Pl,OOO just to qualify for 1 hectare. Then the principal targets of land reform between 54 Kerkvliet: Profiles ofAgrarian Reform

1972 and 1979, are likely to be the owners figure they may as well spend that amount least dependent on their lands. This is cer­ on other needs until either they are required tainly true for those in Bukiran and vicinity. to amortize or the landowner presses them They are prosperous doctors, lawyers, for rent. business people, investors, and owners of . Even though land reform does not jeop­ valuable real estate. Although numbering ardize the economic welfare of large land­ many hectares, their lands often compose owners, many have resisted, winning in the only a small fraction of their wealth. Indeed, processimportant concessions.One wonders many such owners have lost virtually all in­ what will happen should they persuade the terest in their lands and are eager to sellif the courts, as Doming Sebastian vowed he and price is right. others would eventually do, to nullify the Thus a land reform that merely requires land reform program and return all "con­ large landowners to sell to tenant farmers fiscated" land to them. Should they succeed, costs those landowners little. For tenants, on I suspect most people in Bukiran will not the other hand, amortization payments are a resist too strongly so long as they can remain significant portion of their early earnings­ tenants. They are much more likely to fight about 20-30 percent of their average gross any attempts to evict them from their lands. yields and probably higher for those whose How vigorous or violent they become will lands are only now being evaluated. This depend partly on the number of people situation in Bukiran and vicinityillustrates a simultaneously threatened. If only a few, weakness common to land reforms in a their fate may be the same as the Alfonsos political system like that of the Philippines: and other Burgos' tenants in the 1960s with even if fully implemented they will not many landless villagers watching from the noticeably reduce gaping inequalities.II sidelines, hoping to be their replacements. True enough, a tenant can look forward to becoming an owner after 15years. That is New Technology for Palay solace for some. But most tenants regularly confront severe cash and palay shortages; The government encouraged the "green the temptation-if not the necessity-to revolution" during its "integrated rural spend what has been set aside for amortiza­ development" program in the 19.70s. This tion payments on much more immediate method for palay growing spread much needs is not only possible but is already hap­ more rapidly than land reform probably pening in Bukiran and nearby barrios. because, first, it enjoyed considerable sup­ Partly for this reason and partly because port from large landowners and other many villagersare cynical about the govern­ powerful interests in the country, and sec­ ment's ability to see operation land transfer ond, by controlling the irrigation systems, through to the end, they often doubt they the government essentially forced palay willbecomeowners. To most tenants, conse­ growers to plant the new seeds and buy quently, that is not the primary feature of chemical fertilizers and other inputs. land reform. Although the new varieties have helped To them what land reform means the nation to become self-sufficient in rice, foremost is tenure security. They are much most small palay producers in Bukiran have more confidentthat the government-and for benefited little. Many have suffered. They this they thank President Marcos-will en­ bear virtually all the costs and risks of an force the lawsthat prohibit landowners from agricultural method that is considerably evictingtenants. more expensive than was true before, yet The combination of tenants thinking they are not compensated with favorable their tenure is secure, the relative prices and other returns. significanceof land to large owners, and the The principal significance of this new confusion regarding land evaluation and method for most landholders in Bukiran is processing CLTs has emboldened some that, in addition to access to land, one must tenants not even to pay their land rent. They also have capital in order to farm. Previous- Second View from the Paddy 55

Iythere were fewrecurrent cash expenditures tant to most landholders that they curry their in order to put in a crop. The large one was favors and repay debts to them before repay­ hiring transplanters. If one were a share ten­ ing the Rural Banks. ant (kasama), as most landholders in Buki­ The government-the taxpayers, to bemore ran were until the late 1960s, the landowner precise-are absorbing some of the costs advanced this expense. The only other cash of the new palay technology as a result of that had to be doled out was if one wanted to defaulted Masagana-99 loans. Rural Banks, hire day laborers (e.g., to weed), but usually too, might argue they absorb some costs due that was unnecessary because family to bad debts, although they write these offas members did the work or neighbors helped a business expense. Most Rural Banks, in­ each other. Consequently, as long as one had cluding the one nearest Bukiran, have made access to land and had a plow, harrow, and healthy profits in recent years. Local carabao, he or she could farm. creditors, too, hold a few bad debts, but These are no longer sufficient. A land­ these too are business expenses that, at least holder must have considerable cash not only in Bukiran and vicinity, are more than ade­ for transplanting, but for fertilizers, quately covered by the high interest charged pesticides, herbicides, as wellas some (usual­ to clients. Ultimately, those who bear the ly most) plowing, harrowing, and (every few brunt of the costs and risks of the new seasons) new seed. And the prices for these agricultural method are the landholders. escalate each year. A continual problem for A few are in a good position to engage in most small landholders is where to get suffi­ this increasingly capital-intensive techno­ cient cash. logy. Nando Burgos is an example from The government's lending programs Bukiran. As a large landowner with good (principally Masagana-99) have become connections in the financial and political inaccessible to most. Those who failed to arenas, he was able to get low interest loans repay promptly their first loans from in order to mechanize and modernize his Masagana-99 may no longer borrow. Conse­ palay hacienda. He also had the advantage quently in Bukiran, the number of Masa­ of a large volume of palay to sell and could gana-99 borrowers dropped from a high of wait for the most favorable market prices. 21 in 1975 to 10 by 1978. In Nueva Ecija the And he had plenty ofcheap labor with which number of Masagana-99 borrowers fell from to develop the lands. a high of 56,200 in mid-1974 to 9,200 in Several owners of moderate holdings mid-1978. 12 Such loans, despite their (10-30hectares) also seem able to compete in relatively low interest rates (12 percent per this environment. Frequently, they are annum), are costly in other terms. Borrowers augmenting their palay farming (done with complain of long waiting periods, repeated small tractors and hired workers) with trips to the bank costing transportation and poultry raising, rice milling, money lending, other expenses, and overwhelming paper and other "sidelines." They are also prac­ work before they can actually get a loan­ tically the only palay producers in the and then, in too many instances, the money Bukiran area during the last decade who comes too late. Because they need to plow have acquired more land. and transplant in order to take advantage Only a few of the numerous tenants and fully of the irrigation cycle but before their small owners, however, seem to be improv­ bank loan had been released, they frequently ing their financial situation. Understanding end up borrowing from local creditors, who better this minority would require a more charge considerably higher interest. detailed examination than is possible here. I Most small landholders actually depend suspect a crucial difference is they have ac­ on local creditors because almost invariably cess to cash from nonagricultural sources. they need credit each season and these Important for the Espiritu couple, for exam­ creditors are more prompt and reliable than ple, are earnings from their daughter's store. the government and banks. Indeed, having That avenue is impossible for everyone. The good relations with local lenders is so impor- desirability of some such source for cash is 56 Kerkvliet: Profiles ofAgrarian Reform indicated by the "ideal" situation many high. Double-cropping has tended to mean dream about: having land in order to grow more work for transplanters, weeders, and palay while also having a regular, decent­ harvesters, but whatever increased earnings paying job to provide needed capital. they receive are almost invariably consumed by inflation. As these people frequently said, Landless Agricultural Workers they have to run twice as fast just to stand still. Even then, many are falling behind. Landless families who have no reliable One question emerging from the forego­ employment pay the heavy price of being ex­ ing assessment is whether landless agricul­ cluded. They have neither land nor capital. tural workers will attempt to organize Some, like the Alfonsos, are victims of a around shared problems and grievances. I wealthy landowner's decision to change suspect we will see efforts along that line but from labor-intensive to capital-intensive numerous obstacles stand in the way. Re­ farming. Others, like the Gomezes, started pression, direct and indirect, is only one. adult life with a tenanted parcel but had to Another is that landless workers are severely return it to the landowner and until now, divided. Besides competing for sorely limited years later, have been unable to farm again. opportunities to feed their families, they are Still others, like the majority of younger separated by family and by connections to agricultural workers in Bukiran, have never people in other socioeconomic strata. Some, held land. for instance, have fairly significant ties to The combination of increased population landholdersand willnot readily risk such rela­ density, new methods of growing palay, ex­ tionships by overtly aligning with others with tremely scarce employment opportunities whom they have nothing in common except outside of agriculture, and their generally poverty. Many landless, too, hold the view modest skills leave agricultural workers that they, not those better off and.more among the poorest of the poor. They have powerful than they, are responsible for their only their labor to sell, usually cheaply, and predicament. Theseand other impediments are compete with each other in the process. Even common, of course, to most lower classes small landholders take advantage of these whether in the Philippines or elsewhere.U landless workers by paying them as little as History tells us that sometimes they can be possible, thereby passing on to them some of overcome at least long enough for class-based the costs incurred while struggling to grow organizations to expand, seriously challenge, palay and keep their own land. For example, and even modify it not overturn the dominant as the number of people eager to harvest has order. increased in Bukiran, the landholders have decreased the percentage of the crop a har­ vester can earn. In 1979 several small land­ Notes holders experimented with direct seeding (sabog tanim). Since then, more have adopted this procedure, especially for the BENEDICT .t. TRIA KERKVLIET obtained his dry season crop (dayatan). The motive is to Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison avoid the expense of paying people-landless in 1972.He is author of the book The Huk Rebel­ workers in most cases-to uproot and lion: A Study of Peasant Revolt in the Philip­ transplant seedlings. pines, as well as ofa number ofarticles published Land reform and other "agrarian in The Asian Studies, Journal of Asian Studies, development" programs of the government Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Culture et Developpement and Pacific Affairs. He is cur­ are nearly irrelevant to agricultural workers. rently assistant professor at the Department of Although possibilities such as the govern­ Political Science, University of Hawaii. ment buying and then redistributing the Burgos haciendas offer hope for some land­ less, those hopes are vanishing now that the *1am grateful to the following for helping me price for the land has apparently been set so while doing research on which this article is based: Second View from the Paddy 57

numerous residents in Bukiran and elsewhere in palay ready to be cooked) and kanin (cooked Nueva Ecija, Melinda C. Tria Kerkvliet, the bigas), University of Hawaii (especially the Department 4Bukiran is a fictitious name as are those I of Political Science and the Social Science In­ have given to people in this article. The informa­ stitute), the Institute of Philippine Culture at the tion presented here is drawn largely from research Ateneo de Manila University, and the College of I did between June 1978 and May 1979 while liv­ Public Administration at the University of the ing in Bukiran. Philippines. Sin the 1950s, these three bought the share of their fourth partner, a brother. I Aspects ofpoverty in the Philippines: A review and an assessment; 2 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Tenure of landholders who either live in Bukiran, World Bank, I December 1980); and Gerald C. have land in Bukiran (farmed by themselves or Hickey and John L. Wilkinson, "Agrarian Reform others), or have land outside of Bukiran but in the Philippines: Report of a Seminar, 16-17 farmed by Bukiran households (1978-1979) December 1977, at The Rand Corporation, Washington, D.C.," 49 pp. (The latter was finan­ Average ced by USAID, which asked for recommendations hectares per as to what role USAID could play.) A brief list of Households Hectares household other analyses of agrarian reform include Corazon a Conti-Panganiban, "The Promise and Perfor­ Owners 3S 786.8 22.5 mance of the Emancipation of Tenants' Decree: A Farmed by: Case Study of a Farming Village, 1972-1979," Self" 18 24.3 1.3 M.A. Thesis, University of the Philippines, 1979; Self and Duncan A. Harkin, "Strengths and Weaknesses of helpers" 7 32.1 4.6 the Philippine Land Reform: Emancipation or Machinery and Counterinsurgency," in David Rosenberg (ed.), monthly Marcos and Martial Law in the Philippines (Ithaca, employees 3 342.0 114.0 N.Y: Cornell University Press, 1979), pp. 113-144; Machinery and Linda Richter, "Priorities in National Develop­ helpers I 16.0 16.0 ment: A Comparative Study of Policy Making in Share tenants 3 4.5 1.5 the Philippines and Pakistan," Ph. D. dissertation, Leasehold University of Kansas, 1979: J. Eliseo Rocamora tenants 9 159.9 17.8 and Corazon Conti-Panganiban, Rural develop­ CLT holders 2 205.5 102.8 ment strategies: The Philippine case (Quezon Ci­ Sang/a ty: Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de arrangement 2 2.5 1.3 Manila University, 1975); G. Sidney Silliman, "Agrarian Reform in a Philippine Municipality: Nonowners 70- 121.8 1.7 Organizations and Conflict," Ph. D. dissertation, Share tenants 7 8.2 1.2 Claremont Graduate School, 1975; David Wurfel, Leasehold 31 56.6 1.8 "Philippine Agrarian Policy 1976: A Preliminary CLT holders Overview," paper presented to the Institute of yet amortizing 13 26.5 2.0 Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University, CLT holders 1976. who are 2A marvelous exception to my general amortizing 12 22.0 1.8 criticism is Antonio J. Ledesma, "The Sumagay­ Sang/a say Family: A Case Study of Landless Rural arrangement 11 8.5 0.8 Workers," LTC Newsletter No. 55 (Jan­ uary-March 1977): 14-30, published by the Land Total 94d 908.6 8.6 Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison. It is a rich description of one family in aThe number of owner or nonowner households is Iloilo. I am attempting in this article to follow less than a subtotal would be within each category Ledesma's lead, although I have to compromise because some households have more than one tenure details in order to describe several families in only status. a few pages. 6A cavan of palay or rice weighs roughly 50 3palay in this paper refers to rice growing in kilograms. the fields and that stilI has hulls. "Rice" in the 7To be more precise, this is sangla hiram. It is text refers to what Tagalogs call bigas (hulled different from sangla bili, an arrangement 58 Kerkvliet: Profiles ofAgrarian Reform

whereby the person to whom the land has been Harkin, Duncan A. mortgaged can become the owner if the one who 1975 Strengths and weaknesses of the Phi­ mortgaged it does not repay the loan within a lippine land reform. SEADAG specified period of time. Paper, no. 75-5. 8The following table shows the tenure status of Hickey, Gerald C., and John L. Wilkinson landholders in Bukiran for whom I have informa­ 1977 Agrarian reform in the Philippines: tion (about three quarters of the possible Report of a seminar at the Rand Cor­ number). poration, Washington, D.C. on 9The formula reads "two and one-half times 16-17 December. the average harvest of three normal crop years im­ International Labour Office mediately preceding the promulgation of this 1974 Sharing in development. Geneva: In­ Decree." ternational Labour Office. IOThis was practically the only sign while we Kerkvliet, Benedict J. lived in Bukiran that the Samahang Nayon ex­ 1979 Land reform: Emancipation or coun­ isted. Virtually no members paid their annual fee terinsurgency. In Marcos and martial nor had much knowledge or concern about the law in the Philippines. David chapter. The leadership's principal project prior to Rosenberg, ed. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell the excitement about the possible sale of Burgos University Press. Pp.113-144. land was trying to establish a small buying Ledesma, Antonio J. cooperative for members. Because members declin­ 1977 The Sumagaysay family: A case study ed to contribute money to the chapter's fund, the of landless rural workers. LTC News­ leaders felt discouraged and feared the cooperative letter, no. 55 (January-March): 14-30. might never come to pass. Members did not pay Moore, Barrington, Jr. because, generally, they doubted the viabilityof the 1978 Priorities in national development: A idea and did not know what would happen to their comparative study of policy making contributions while waiting-perhaps years-for in the Philippines and Pakistan. Ph. the fund to become sufficiently large to start the D. dissertation. University ofKansas. coop. The circularity of the problem seemed un­ Rocamora, J. Eliseo, and Corazon breakable. Conti-Panganiban .. 11For a similar assessment of the Philippine 1975 Rural development strategies: The case, see Shoring in development (Geneva: Interna­ Philippine case. Quezon City: Insti­ tional Labour Office, 1974), pp, 487-492. For the tute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de more general argument, see Elias H. Tuma, Manila University. Twenty-six centuries ofagrarian reform(Berkelev: Silliman, G. Sidney University of California Press, 1965), chapter 14; 1975 Agrarian reform in a Philippine and Tuma, "Agrarian Reform in Historical municipality: Organizations and con­ Perpective Revisited," Comparative studies in flict. Ph. D. dissertation. Claremont societyand history21 (January 1979): 3-29. Graduate School. 12The figures for Bukiran are from a loan ot­ Turna, Elias H. ficer in the nearest Rural Bank, 31 August 1978. 1965 Twenty-six centuries of agrarian Those for Nueva Ecija are from Masagana-99 reform. Berkeley: University of Cali­ "work sheets" of the National Food and fornia Press. Agriculture Council, Ministry of Agriculture, 1979 Agrarian reform in historical per­ Quezon City. spective revisited. Comparative 13See, for example, the superb book by Barr­ Studies in Society and History 21 ington Moore, Jr.; Injustice: The socialbases of (January): 3-29. obedience and revolt (White Plains, N.Y.: M.E. World Bank Sharpe, 1978). 1980 Aspects of poverty in the Philippines: A review and an assessment. 2 vols, Washington, D.C.: World Bank. References Wurfel, David 1976 Philippine agrarian policy 1976: A Conti-Panganiban, Corazon preliminary overview. Paper pre­ 1979 The promise and performance of the sented to the Institute of Philippine emancipation of tenants' decree: A Culture, Ateneo de Manila Universi­ case study of a farming village, ty. 1972-1979.M.A. thesis. University of the Philippines. RECENT CHANGES IN A LAGUNA RICE VILLAGE: A NEW GENERATION OF CHANGES?

MASAO KIKUCHI

Since the mid 1970s rice farming areas in Data Collection and Study Site the Philippines have undergone perceptible changes that are different from those prior Data to the period. We have been studying intensively a rice From the late-1960s to the mid-1970s, village in Laguna since 1974. A village cen­ many observers witnessed dramatic changes sus was conducted in November 1974 to in the rice farming areas. Their observations identify socioeconomic characteristics of the on these changes were mainly centered village. Similar census surveys were repeated around three issues. First, the introduction in December 1976, and in April and October and diffusion of modern rice technology in­ 1980.1 The data used in this paper for identi­ creased rice yields significantly. Second, the fying recent changes in the village were land reform programs were extensively im­ mainly taken from these surveys. A similar plemented by the government resulting in survey was conducted in this village in 1966 drastic changes in land-tenure systems in rice by Hiromitsu Umehara.I His study provides farming. Third, rapid population growth in invaluable benchmark information with rural areas resulted in a rapid increase in the which the long-term historical changes in population of landless workers in the rice the study village can be ascertained: farming areas. These incidents remain important fac­ Study site tors affecting rice farming. It seems, how­ ever, that seeds of new structural changes The village under study- is one of 13 bar­ have been germinating in rice villages since rios in the municipality of Pila located about the mid-1970s. Especially noteworthy are the 25 kilometers east of Los Banos, or about 90 influences of the rapidly-growing nonfarm kilometers southeast of Manila along Na­ sectors on the rural sector. After the period tional Highway No. 21 which connects to of dynamic changes within the rural sector, Sta. Cruz, Laguna. Pila belongs to a well­ rice villages might have moved into the stage irrigated rice area along the coast of Laguna in which the nonfarm sectors play critical de Bay, one ofthe most productive rice areas roles in shaping the course of structural in the Philippines. changes in rice farming: the stage that has Compared to the western coast of the been experienced by the rural areas in East Laguna de Bay, the urban influence is felt Asian countries such as Japan. less in the southern coast where Pila is In this paper, we aim to shed light on located because of its greater distance from socioeconomic changes in rice villages based Manila. However, the economic distance of on recent observations in a rice village in this area to Manila in terms of time required Laguna Province. In nature, however, the for travel was greatly shortened' because of study raises problems more than it offers improvements in highway systems in solutions. 1977-78. The travel time from Pila to Manila 60 Kikuchi: Recent Changes in a Laguna Rice Village was reduced from more than 3 hours to less the population growth rate in the Philippines than 2 hours. This means that the study area was about 3 percent per annum, it is reason­ is now more exposed to urban influences able to expect that there was a net in­ than before. migration to this barrio in addition to a high The study barrio is connected to the rate of natural reproduction. Poblacion of Pila by a narrow unpaved road There is, however, a sign that the popula­ of about 2 kilometers. The road that had tion growth rate in this barrio began to dec­ ended at the barrio was extended in 1978 to a line in recent years. The growth rate of the neighboring barrio in Pila. As in the past, 1976-80 period was less than 3 percent which the villagers' common means of transportation seems more or less the same as the natural are tractors and tricycles. The number of rate of population growth. This must mean tricycles serving this barrio seems to have in­ that the social increase in population in the creased significantly. barrio has declined substantially. The barrio, with its houses clustered The structural change in population under coconut groves surrounded by growth in the village is clearly seen in Table beautiful paddy fields, appears exactly the 2. For the lO-year period from 1966 to 1976, same as-it did in 1974. However, a closer ex­ the village population increased by 249 per­ amination of the village economy indicates sons, of which 25 percent was due, as ex­ that significant changes have been taking pected, to a net social increase (the number place. of in-migrants less that of out-migrants). In contrast, the 4-year period from 1976 to Changes inDemographic 1980 experienced a net social decrease in the and Occupational Patterns village population, though the total popula­ tion increased because of a high rate of net Population natural increase (the number ofpersons born less the number of persons who died during The population pyramids of this barrio the period) - as high as that for the previous for 1966, 1974, and 1980 are shown in Figure period. 1, The total population increased from 387 The change from a net inflow to a net persons in 1966 to 528 persons in 1974, and outflow occurred mainly in the adult.popula­ to 708 persons in 1980. The growth rates per tion in the village. As a result, the ratio of annum were as high as 4 percent for 1966-74 the economically inactive population (less and 5 percent for 1974-80 (Table 1). Since than 15 and more than 64 years old) to the

Table 1. Changes in population and households, 1966 to 19801

Number of households Population Total Farmer Landless worker 1966 387 64 44 20 (100)1 (69) (31) 1974 528 95 54 41 (100) (57) (43) 1976 636 109 55 54 (l00) (50) (50) 1980 708 126 47 79 (l00) (37) (63) Annual compound growth rate (1l,70) 1966-1974 4.0 5.1 2.6 9.4 1974-1980 5.0 4.8 -2.3 11.6 1976-1980 2.7 3.7 -3.6 10.0

1Figures in parentheses are percentages. Second View from the Paddy 61

Table 2. Sodal and natural increases in population 1966·1980

Male Female Total

1966 Population 201 186 387 Social increase: 1966·1976 In 52 63 115 Out 21 31 52 Net +31 +32 +63 Natural increase: 1966-1976 Born 112 106 218 Dead 20 12 32 Net +92 +94 +186 1976 Population 324 312 636 Social increase: 1976-1980 In 30 32 62 Out 40 37 77 Net -10 - 5 -15 Natural increase: 1976-1980 Born 46 55 101 Dead 7 7 14 Net +39 +48 +87 1980 Population 353 355 708 active population (15 to 64 years old), which Table 3. Changes in number of households by cause had declined from 1.25 in 1966 to 0.96 in and by category, 1976 to 1980 1974, rose to 1.13 in 1980. Farmer Landless Households worker The increase in the number of house­ Creation holds from 1966 to 1980 paralleled the Independence from growth in population (seeTable 1). The total parents + 3 + 7 +10 number of households in the barrio in­ In migration + 2 +11 +13 creased from 64 in 1966to 95 in 1974and to Disappearance 126 in 1980. Death - 3 0 - 3 However, dramatic changes have occurred Out-migration - I - 2 - 3 in the composition of farmer and landless Change in category worker households. Here, the farmer is From farmer to landless -13 +13 0 defined as one who cultivates ricefields From landless to farmer 4 4 0 either as an owner or as a tenant, and the Total • 8 +25 +17 landless worker as one with no ricefarm to operate, either his own or rented. While the number of farmer households increased from 1976 to 1980. The decline was mainly slowlyuntil 1976and declined since then, the due to the fact that many farmers became number of landless worker households in­ landless through selling or pawning their creased very rapidly at a rate as high as 9 to tenancy titles (Table 3, see also Table 10).As 11 percent per annum. As a result, the share many as 13farmers (more than 20 percent of oflandless households in the total number of farmers in 1976)lost their tenancy rights and households increased from 31 percent in became landless workers, while only four 1966to 43 percent in 1974,and to 63 percent landless workers climbed up the social ladder in 1980. by acquiring land through inheritance or A striking observation is the absolute subrenting. Creation of new households decline in the number of farmer households through independence from parents and im- 62 Kikuchi: Recent Changes in a Laguna Rice Village

Table 4. Number of households by type of family and average family size, 1974 and 1980

Farmers Total Large Small Landless (2 has; & above) (Below 2 has.) workers

1974 Nuclear family 81 16 26 39 (85)1 (67) (87) (95) Extended family 14 8 4 2 (15) (33) (13) (5) Total 95 24 30 41 (100) (100) (100) (100) Average family size (persons) 5.6 7.3 5.2 4.8 1980 Nuclear family 105 13 25 67 (83) (76) (83) (85) Extended family 21 4 5 12 (17) (24) (17) (IS) Total 126 17 30 79 (100) (100) (100) (100) Average family size (persons) 5.6 6.4 5.6 5.5

1Figures in parentheses are percentages.

migration was larger in number for landless resulting in an equalization in family size workers while disappearance of old house­ among the three social classes. holds through death and out-migration was larger for farmers. Altogether, farmer Occupational patterns households decreased by 8 and landless Corresponding to both the decrease in worker households increased by 25, a net in­ the number of farmers and the rapid increase crease in the number of all households in this of landless workers, the occupational distri­ barrio of 17. butions of villagers experienced major From 1974 to 1980, the distribution of changes. The changes also reflect growing households among the categories of nuclear influences of the urban economy on the and extended familiesand the average family village. size did not change much for all households Rice farming continued to be the most in the village (Table 4). However, the distri­ dominant enterprise in the barrio providing butions change significantly when compared villagers the largest income-earning oppor­ with farmers and landlessworkersseparately. tunity either as self-employed or employed. In 1974the percentageof extendedfamilywas The percentage in the total economically ac­ much higher for farmers, especially for large tive male population of those whose major farmers, than for landless workers; the dif­ occupation was either self-employment for ference was reduced in 1980. Corresponding­ rice production in their own farms or hired ly, the difference between farmers and employment for rice labor was 72 percent in landless workers in the average size of 1980, indicating a slight increase when com­ families was reduced. The average familysize pared with 65 percent in 1974 (Table 5). of large farmers declined- and those of small However, the composition of self-employ­ farmers and landless workers increased, ment and hired employment changed I~ ~ ~ Table 5. Oeeupadonal patterns of eeooomk:aIly aedve populaCion (134)5years old), 1974and 1980 '::;> ~ Male Female s 1914 1980 1914 C9t1O ~ Tot. Farmer LlIIldless Tot. Farlll\!l' Ll\Ildless Total F_ Lllndless TotAl Fllrmer Landless ~ 'iii Total economically active IQ6 population (persons) ------)------151 99 52 204 87 117 161 55 182 80 102 Major o«upadon Rice farming Own farm 47 n o 25 59 o 12 18 () 3 8 0 Farm laborer 19 0 54 47 9 74 7 0 22 18 5 25 Duck raising IS 6 33 3 1 4 I 1 :2 10 14 8 Fishing o 0 n I o :2 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sari-saristore 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 5 2 6 9 3 Other self-employed I 0 4 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 Salariedworker 3 4 2 6 8 4 4 5 o 9 9 9 Carpenter 1 0 4 :2 1 4 0 0 0 I.} 0 0 ~hooling 12 16 4 13 19 8 II 13 1 17 23 13 NOlle (household) 1 2 o 3 I 4 60 58 65' 31 33 42 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

MillOrlKCllpatiOIl Ricefarming Own farm 4 6 0 3 8 0 14 21 0 2 4 I) Farm laborer 17 14 21 7 to 5 19 15 25 9 4 14 Duck raising 15 17 12 10 9 II 8 to 4 9 10 8 Fishing I 0 2 15 16 16 0 0 0 0 o (} Sari-saristore (} I} 0 I} 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 I Tricycle I :2 0 4 7 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 Other self-employed I} 0 0 1 :2 1 0 0 0 :2 1 :2 Carpenter 0 0 0 10 14 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 - IPercent of total economically active population.

al 64 Kikuchi: Recent Changes in a Laguna Rice Village drastically. In 1974, more than 70 percent of farm employment opportunities, which will those engaged in rice farming as major oc­ be discussed later. The resultant increase in cupation were farmers themselves, whereas, cash flow in the barrio is reflected in a sharp in 1980, more than 60 percent were landless increase in the number of sari-sari (variety) workers. The change reflects the fact that the stores from 3 in 1974 to 11 in 1980. As a number of farmers decreased and landless result, the female labor force engaging in workers increased. At the same time, the storekeeping increased. percentage of male labor force engaging in The influence of the urban labor market own rice farming as a major economic activi­ on villagers' occupational patterns increased ty declined from 72 percent in 1974to 59 per­ from 1974 to 1980. The number of males cent in 1980 within the farmer class, whereas who engaged in carpentry work in the Pila the percentage of those employed for hired poblacion and other places such as San rice work as a major income source within Pablo and Manila, increased significantly. the landless class increased sharply from 54 The work is both skilled and unskilled. A percent in 1974 to 74 percent in1980. In the major factor underlying the increase in ur­ case of the female labor force, self-employ­ ban employment for villagers seems to be the ment in rice farming as a major activity recent improvement in the highway systems decreased and hired employment increased and the rapid development of the nonfarm substantially. sectors in the greater Manila areas. These data show that rice farming in the The number of persons above 13 years village became increasingly dependent on the old attending schools increased steadily both hired labor of landless workers, while for male and female. Reflecting an improve­ farmers and their families were retreating ment in the educational level of villagers, the from work on their own farms-a pheno­ number of salaried workers. such as teachers menon common in Laguna (Smith and and office or factory workers increased. Gascon 1979). Duck raising which had been as impor­ Changes in Rice Farming tant as hired work in rice farming, both as and Land Tenure major and minor activities for male laborers. declined. The decline in the importance of Rice yield duck raising was largely compensated for by the increase in hired rice work in the case of Average rice yields per hectare in this major occupation, and by fishing in the case village increased steadily (Table 6). The in­ of minor occupation. The concentration of crease from 1966 to 1974 was mainly due to major occupation in hired employment in the introduction of modern varieties. The rice farming is especially conspicuous for average yields have increased by 25 percent landless workers. More than 70 percent of since 1974 despite the fact that several landless male workers were engaged in hired farmers suffered from rodent infestation in employment in rice work as their major ac­ 1979 resulting in very low yields (see Table tivity in 1980. This was partly due to the 9. p. 68). It is amazing that nearly 40 per­ substitution of hired labor for family labor cent and more than 50 percent of farmers in rice farming, and to the increase in the achieved yields higher than 100 cavans per labor absorptive capacity of rice farming. In hectare in the 1979 wet and dry seasons. any case. dependency on rice farming as the respectively. The sustained increase in rice source of employment was further increased yields per hectare clearly show that the in recent years for the villagers in the poorer "green revolution" is not a one-shot class. phenomenon but an evolutionary process in­ There is an indication that the total volving successive replacements of earlier village income increased significantly mainly modern varieties by new ones, mote efficient because of an increase in the productivity of application of fertilizers and chemicals. and rice farming and partly to an increase in off- adoption of better cultural differences. Second View from the Paddy 65

Table 6. Distribution of rice farmers by yield per hectare, 1966-1979

1966 1974 1979 Yield Wet Dry Wet Dry ------010------Below 20 cavans 2 20..39 28 2 8 2 4 4 40-59 49 21 21 17 17 9 6Q..79 19 44 48 30 17 13 80-99 2 26 13 28 25 22 100-119 7 10 19 27 20 120..139 2 4 15 14()..159 2 6 13 160 and over 4

Average yield (cavans/ha) 53 69 70 80 84 103

11974-1976 average

Table 7. Changes in the wage rates by task, from 1966 to 1980

Rate of change 1966 1976 1980 1966 to 1976 to 1976 1980 ---(010)---

Nominal wage rates I --- P/day--­ Land preparation 4.5 13.0 20.0 189 54 Transplanting 3,4 8,4 13.5 147 61 Weeding 3.0 8.0 13.0 167 63 ---P/leg-- Paddy prices 0,40 1.02 1.25 155 23 - 1966 = 100- Consumer price index2 100 280 455 180 63 Real wage rates Deflated by CPI ---P/day -- Land preparation 4.5 4.6 4,4 2 -4 Transplanting 3.4 3.0 3.0 -12 -0 Weeding 3.0 2.9 2.9 -3 0 Average 3.6 3.5 3,4 -3 -3 Deflated by paddy prices -- leg/day Land preparation 11.3 12.7 16.0 12 26 Transplanting 8.5 8.2 10.8 -4 32 Weeding 7.5 7.8 10,4 4 33 Average 9.1 9.5 12,4 4 31

1Include the cost of meals. 2Consumer price index for Manila. 66 Kikuchi: Recent Changes in a Laguna Rice Village

Table 8. Changes in distribution of parcels and farms by tenure status, 1966 to 1980

Parcel Farm Number Area Number Area No. Ha. No. Ha.

1966 Owned 2 1.3 Owner/lease 2 10.3 ( I) 5) Lease 12 29.9 Leaseholder 7 18.0 ( 30) ( 16) Share 43 62.6 ShareI 33 60.4 ( 64) ( 75)2 Subrented 4 4.9 Lease/shareI 2 10.0 ( 5) ( 5) Total 61 98.7 Total 44 98.7 (IDO) (I DO)

1976 Owned 3 1.7 Owner/lease 3 11.2 ( 2) ( 5) Lease 44 67.7 Leaseholder I 29 48.5 ( 63) ( 54) Share 30 29.7 Share I 14 24.6 ( 27) ( 26) Subrented 16 9.1 Lease/shareI 8 23.9 ( 8) ( 15) Total 93 108.2 Total 54 108.2 (I DO) (100) 1980 Owned 4 2.1 Owner/lease 4 12.6 ( 2) ( 9) Lease 38 61.5 LeaseholderI 27 39.5 ( 71) ( 57) Share 12 15.3 ShareI 8 9.1 ( 18) ( 17) Subrented II 7.3 Lease/sharel 8 25.0 ( 9) ( 17) Total 65 86.2 Total 47 86.2 (I DO) (I DO)

IInclude subtenants. 2Figures in parentheses are percentages.

Wage rate in rice farming ception. This increase in real wage rates would have been associated with increases in As we have seen in the previous section, demand for labor in rice farming. It might hired labor opportunities in rice farming have also resulted from shifts in the supply became more important sources of employ­ curve of labor due to the increasing avail­ ment for landless workers in the village. ability of nonfarm job opportunities for the Table 7 shows changes in wage rates for ma­ village labor force. jor rice tasks. The real wage rates remained almost constant from 1966 to 1980, if the Land tenure and size of operational holdings consumer price index is used as a deflator. However, the real wage rates, as The distribution of parcels and farms by measured by deflating nominal wages by land tenure status underwent little change paddy prices, showed remarkable increases after 1976 inasmuch as the conversion from from 1976 to 1980 for all tasks without ex- share tenancy to leaseholding, as provided Second View from the Paddy 67

Table 9. Size distribution of operational holdings of paddy field, 1966 to 1980

1966 1976 1980 Number Area Number Area Number Area No. Ha. No. Ha. No. Ha.

5 ha. or more 3 17 2 14 I 6 ( 5)1 ( 17) 2) ( 13) I) ( 7) 3.0 - 4.9 ha. 12 42 II 41 8 29 ( 19) ( 43) ( 10) ( 38) 6) ( 34) 2.0 - 2.9 ha. 6 19 8 19 8 18 ( 14) ( 19) ( 7) ( 18) 6) ( 21) 1.0 - 1.9 ha. 14 18 20 28 19 27 ( 22) ( 18) ( 18) ( 26) ( 15) ( 31) Less than I ha. 6 3 13 6 II 6 ( 9) 3) ( 12) 5) ( 9) 7) None 20 0 55 0 79 0 ( 31) 0) ( 51) ( 0) ( 63) ( 0) Total 64 99 109 108 126 86 (100) (100) (100) (100) (100) (100)

Paddy area (ha.) Per farm 2.3 2.0 1.8 Per household 1.5 1.0 0.7 Per capita 0.3 0.2 0.1

Gini coefficient Excluding landless 0.34 0.39 0.34

Including landless 0.53 0.70 0.76

IF'igures m. parentheses are percentages. by land reform had largely been completed Land transfers before 1976 (Table 8).5 In 1980, more than 70 percent of the total paddy field area An important change that occurred from operated by the village farmers were under 1.976 to 1980 :-vas a decrease in the paddy leasehold tenancy and more than 80 percent field area cultivated by villagers, from 108 of the village rice farmers were lessees or hectares to 86 hectares as indicated in Tables part-lessees. 8 and 9. There has been no paddy area con­ The size distribution of operational hold­ verted to other purposes in the village since ings underwent major changes. The per­ 1976 except for 0.3 hectares diverted for centage of landless workers continued to in­ road construction in 1978. The reduction in crease, while that of farmers decreased the area took place mainly through transfer ~egardless of size class (Table 9). Inequality of tenancy titles from villagers to outsiders. Table 10 summarizes the transactions of vil­ III farm size distribution measured by the Gini coefficient did not rise among farmers. lagers' operational holdings since 1976. The However, the inequality increased markedly most important source of the 22 hectare net when landless workers were included in the decrease in the villagers' operational holding calculation. Average paddy area became was the selling of tenancy rights to outsiders. smaller per farm, per household, and per This alone accounts for 52 percent in capita. number and 58 percent in area of the gross decrease in. villagers' operational holdings. 68 Kikuchi: Recent Changes in a Laguna Rice Village

Table 10. Transfer of operational holdings of paddy field from 1976 to 1980

Transactions Transactions within village with outsider Type of transaction Increase Decrease Increase Decrease No. Ha. No. Ha. No. Ha.

Purchase/sale of tenancy right 2 1.5 0.5 15 18.0 Pawning in/out of tenancy right I 0.5 3 1.2 Subrenting in/out I 0.5 2 3.5 Cancellation of subrenting/ pawning contract 9 3.3 I 0.5 4 1.4 Inheritance 7 6.5 I 2.0 2 6.5 Renting in from landowner I 0.5 Migrating in with land 3 5.4 (Converted to road) 3 0-3 Total 20 12.3 7 8.9(a) 29 30.9(b) Decrease in land area operated by village farmers (ha): (b) - (a) 22.0

Major buyers of tenancy titles were land­ tional holdings from 1976 to 1980. It should owners who wanted to take back the land for be noted that this resulted partly from the their own cultivation, and urban residents protection of tenancy rights by land reform: with nonfarm occupations who found the it established well-protected leasehold titles purchase of tenancy titles a profitable invest­ for tenant farmers, which in turn gave the ment opportunity. The purchases by land­ tenants the right to dispose of the leasehold owners account for more than 60 percent of land on their own accounts. As shown in the the villagers' sale of tenancy titles to out­ next section, the price of tenancy titles has siders both in number and in area, and the risen sharply in recent years. rest is accounted for by the second type of buyers. In both cases, rice farming was not Prices of land and tenancy titles done by those outsiders who bought the tenancy titles but by hired laborers mainly Changes in the prices of land ownership from this barrio. and tenancy titles for the past two decades Other important sources of decrease in are compared in Table 11. It is evident that villagers' operational holdings were the the real price of land ownership titles (the pawning and subrenting of tenancy titles and current price deflated by the rice price index) the cancellation of subrenting arrangements. did not increase, whereas, the real price of In the cases of pawning and cancellation of tenancy titles increased very rapidly. The subrenting, the control of land is surren­ prices of land ownership titles recorded in dered to outsiders, while in the case of Table 11 are those with tenants on land, for subrenting the potential right to control the which landlords have to pay tenants the price land is still with the subrenters in the village. of tenancy titles if they want to recover the In Table 10, inheritance means inheriting right of cultivation. The rapid increase in the tenancy titles. There were two cases in which real price of tenancy titles in contrast to a the cultivating right was inherited by sons stagnant or decreasing trend in the real price living outside the barrio. Inheritance con­ of ownership titles is a clear indication that stituted a major part of within-village trans­ the share of economic rent captured by the fers of operational landholdings, followed leasehold tenants increased relative to that by subrenting arrangements. captured by the original landlords. Indeed, Altogether, the village lost the control of the ratio of leasehold rent to total rice output land for about 20 percent of the net opera- continued to decline according to the in- Second Viewfrom the Paddy 69

Table 11. Prices of land ownership and tenancy titles

Tmnsfer of land ownership Transfer of lenancy Iille Deflaled Number Area Current rice price Number Area Current rice prife price I index' price index

No. "fha. 1959 1.0 150 822 1960 2.4 125 658 1961 1962 3.0 6.333 28,786 1963 1.3 7,692 28.489 2.0 1,500 5.556 1964 3.5 5,429 16.975 1965 3.0 433 1.443 1966 1.0 11,000 36.667 1967 I 1.5 467 1.557 1968 I 1.5 18.000 60,000 3 3.9 6\1 1,852 1969 I 0.8 14.667 40,742 3 2.5 980 2,722 1970 1 2.0 9,500 27,143 4 6.4 2.100 5,714 1971 1 2.5 10,000 23,256 1972 2 1.4 12,143 21.684 4 5.0 1,300 2,321 1973 I 1.0 15,000 17,857 2 3.5 3.086 3,674 1974 2 3.1 4,113 4.284 1975 0.4 15.600 15,600 4 5.1 4,068 4,068 1976 I 1.2 6,667 6,667 1977 6 8.0 8,688 8,493 1978 1 0.8 10,000 9,569 1979 2 5.3 20,394 19,096 4 5.3 10.099 9,456 1980 4 4.0 14,250 12,544

IThis price is with tenant on the land. ~he rice price index used up to 1975 is of Southern Tagalog area, 1975 100. After 1975, the index is linked with rice index in the village.

Table 12. Holdings of productive farm assets (in number), 1966 to 1980

Total Farmer Landless 1966 1974 1980 1966 1974 1980 1966 1974 1980 Machines and implements Hand tractor ]4 21 22 14 21 20 0 0 2 Chemical sprayer 0 23 19 0 23 19 0 0 0 Rotary weeder 45 103 110 45 SO 65 0 23 45 Threshing machine 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 Fish catcher n.a, n.a, 2S n.a, n.a. 13 n.a. n.a. 15

Animals Carabao 21 4 13 1 21 4 10 0 0 3 Cattle n.a, 6 I~ n.a. 5 13 n.a. I 6 Hog n.a. 82 55 n.a, 62 34 n.a. 20 21 Chicken n.a, 27S 53] a.a, 199 349 n.a. III 182 Duck n.a. 5836 2370 n.a, 2989 1386 n.a. 2847 984 Goat n.a. 0 3 n.a. 0 0 n.a, 0 3

IInclude 6 under "Iwi." 2Include 13 under "Iwi." 70 Kikuchi: Recent Changes in a Laguna Rice Village

crease in rice yield per hectare in recent In 1980, there were two landless worker years. Under the fixation of land rent by the households owning one hand tractor each. land reform laws at a level of the conversion They were the ones who had been farm from share to leasehold tenancy, the portion operators but lost their tenancy titles by sell­ of economic rent captured by the tenants in­ ing them to outsiders. They are now using creased parallel to increases in rice yields per the tractors for custom works for other hectare. farmers. The number of chemical sprayers de­ Changes in Asset Holdings creased from 1974 to 1980. This was due Changes in the numbers of major farm in­ partly to the decrease in the number of struments and animals are shown in Table farmers, but likewise to the fact that the bar­ 12. The number of hand tractors increased rio kept a sprayer for communal use which by only one from 1974 to 1980, whereas the had been donated by the Extension Center, number of caraboas raised in the village University of the Philippines at Los Banos. decreased drastically from 1966 to 1974. Farmers can use the sprayer at a rental rate However, carabaos began to increase again of Pl/day. from 1974 to 1980. The increase in the The use of portable threshing machines number of carabaos was induced by the hike became popular in this area after 1977. In in the price of gasoline in recent years. 1980 a threshing machine was added to the Carabao plowing and harrowing-once list of farm machineries. However, machine almost completely replaced by hand trac­ use was inhibited by the second oil crisis in tors-began to come back. 1978.

Table 13. Possession of major consumer durable goods, 1974 and 1980

All Large Small Landless household farmers farmers workers 1974 1980 1974 1980 1974 1980 1974 1980 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

Radio 67 86 17 14 21 22 29 50 (70)1 (71) (68) (78) (70) (71) (71) (69) Television 11 23 11 13 0 6 0 4 (11) (19) (44) (72) ( 0) (19) ( 0) ( 3) Refrigerator 8 15 8 9 0 4 0 2 ( 8) (12) (32) (50) ( 0) (13) ( 0) ( 3) Sewing machine 18 24 11 9 6 12 I 3 (19) (20) (44) (50) (20) (39) ( 2) ( 4) Bicycle 6 30 3 6 1 12 2 12 ( 6) (25) (12) (33) ( 3) (39) ( 2) (17) Stereo2 10 15 8 9 2 6 0 0 (10) (12) (32) (50) ( 7) (19) ( 0) ( 0) Electric fan 3 7 2 5 I 2 0 0 ( 3) ( 6) ( 8) (28) ( 3) ( 6) ( 0) ( 0) Tricycle 3 6 2 2 3 3 0 I ( 3) ( 5) ( 8) (11) (10) (10) ( 0) ( I) Jeep 0 2 0 I 0 I 0 0 ( 0) ( 2) ( 0) ( 6) ( 0) ( 3) ( 0) ( 0)

INumber of houses that own appliances divided by the number of houses. 2Includes tape deck, radio phono, and radio casette. Second View from the Paddy 71

As explained earlier, fishing emerged as newly created households for recent an important secondary occupation of the years composed of landless workers, villagers in recent years. Fishing is mainly but a number of farmers came down performed in Laguna de Bay or nearby the social ladder to join the landless creeks with the use of battery-operated fish class. catchers. In 1980, there were 28 fish catchers 3. A tendency was observed for villagers' in the barrio. economic activities to become increas­ As a result of the shift from duck raising ingly concentrated in rice farming. to fishing, the number of duck heads de­ However, farmers have been reducing creased by about one half from 1974to 1980. their family labor input for rice pro­ Professional duck raisers decreased in duction. Rice production has become number. more dependent on hired labor. Em­ All the major consumer durables owned ployment in secondary occupations in by villagers such as radio, television, and the village suchas duck raisingdeclined. refrigerator increased not only in number However, off-farm employmentoutside but also in terms of percentage of house­ the village increased, presumablydue to holds which owned them (Table 13). In­ rapid economic development in the creases in the percentage were especially nonfarm sectors and improvement in observable among large farmers and, next, the highway systems. for small farmers. However, the increase in 4. Averagericeyields per hectareincreased the possession of consumer durables by steadily. Despite recurrent natural landless workers was minor except for bi­ calamities, the newricetechonologyhas cycles that were used for productive pur­ been advancing with the successive poses, such as transporting fish to the replacement of earlier modern varieties market in the Poblacion or peddling them with new ones. around as vendors. Although the tricycle is 5. Little change has been observed in the recorded as a consumer durable in Table 13, land tenure system since the few years it was usually used as a passenger vehicle for immediately preceding 1976, when the hire. majority of share tenants was con­ verted into leaseholders by the land Summary reform programs. However, the size distribution of farms has increasingly The major changes which occurred in a become more skewed, with the rise in Laguna rice village the past few recent years the numbers of landless workers. and identified by a comparison with past 6. One of the dramatic phenomena in re­ surveys are summarized as follows: cent years was the increase in the num­ 1. The population growth rate declined ber of cases involving the transfer of sharply from a level of 4-5 percent per tenancy titles from villagers to out­ year before 1976to less than 3 percent siders, mostly urban residents. These after that year. The decline in popula­ outsiders, who acquired the tenancy tion growth rate occurred due to a re­ titles either through direct cash pur­ markable change in social population chase or through mortgaging arrange­ increase from a net inflow to a net ments, operated their farms under their outflow. The decrease in social popula­ direct administration by hiring laborers tion resulted from the fact that a from the village. substantial part of the labor force in 7. After the leasehold tenancy titles were the village migrated to engage in non­ established by the land reform pro­ farm jobs outside the village. grams with the fixation of land rents, 2. One of the most dramatic changes in the transactions of tenancy titles this village was the sharp increase in became common. Determined by rice the number of landless worker house­ yieldincreases under the fixed rent, the holds. Not only was the majority of price of tenancy titles has continued to 72 Kikuchi.''Recent Changes in a Laguna Rice Village

rise, whereas the price of ownership the Economic Development and Cultural Change, titles for the land for which the tenancy Developing Economies, Review of Economics titles were established has remained and Statistics, and Journal ofEconomic History. constant. 8. Carabaos had been almost completely IThe results of some of these surveys were sum­ replaced by hand tractors by 1974. But, marized in Hayami and others 1978, and Kikuchi and Hayami 1980. in more recent years, the number of carabaos began to increase again due 2Umehara 1967. to the increase in gasoline prices. The 3For more detailed information on the study number of ducks decreased while fish­ area and study village, see Hayami and others ing equipment increased, reflecting a 1978:9-21. shift in secondary economic activities in the barrio. 4The average family size of large farmer 9. Major consumer durables such as households declined by almost one person 1974to 1980. This is due partly to the fact that many adult radios, television sets and refrigerators family members of these households migrated to increased rapidly. However, the in­ obtain jobs outside the village. crease was largely concentrated in farmer households, especially large S The Operation Land Transfer has not been farmer households. The increase in implemented in this area because the majority of consumer durables was marginal for landowners have holdings less than the 7-hectare retention limit. landless workers, except for bicycles which were often used for productive purposes. References Especially important among these Hayami, Y., and others changes are the new trends of outflow both 1978 Anatomy of a peasant economy: A of labor force and farm land from inside to rice village in the Philippines. Los outside the village. If these peculiar trends Banos, Laguna: International Rice are continuous, rather than one-shot Research Institute. phenomena, they would have profound im­ Kikuchi, M., and Y. Hayami plications for the formation of effective 1980 Inducements to institutional .innova­ rural development programs. We need to tions in an agrarian community. observe carefully and steadily the evolution Economic Development and Cultural of these changes in the future to see whether Change 29(1). Smith, J., and F. Gascon or not they represent new patterns of change 1979 The effect of the new rice technology in the areas. on family labor utilization in Laguna. IRRI Research Paper Series, no. 42. Los Banos, Laguna: International Notes Rice Research Institute. Umehara, H. 1967 Philippine no beisaku noson (Rice MASAO KIKUCHI is Associate Agricultural village in the Philippines). In Ajia no Economist at the International Rice Research Ins­ tochiseido to noson shakai kozo titute. He obtained his Ph.D. in Agricultural Eco­ (Land tenure system and rural social nomics at the Hokkaido University in 1976. His structure in Asia). T. Takigawa and articles, written mostly in collaboration with Yu­ H. Saito, eds. Tokyo: Institute of jiro Hayami, have appeared in such journals as Developing Economics. Pp. 141-205. Part III: OTHER UPLANDS

FARM HOUSEHOLDS ON RICE AND SUGAR LANDS: MARGEN'S VILLAGE ECONOMY IN TRANSITION

GERMELINO M. BAUTISTA, WILLIAM C. THIESENHUSEN, and DAVID J. KING

Agrarian change in the Philippines over While the first four tenure types (CLT­ the last decade and a half has frequently holder, lessee, share tenant, and subtenant) been associated with the spread of high­ have direct access to landholding rights, that yielding rice varieties. But the implementa­ of the farm laborer is indirect, by means of tion of the 1972land reform program on rice his labor. The distribution of farm house­ (palay) and corn lands, the transformation holds classified by land tenure type in the of palay-harvesting labor arrangements, and sample roughly reflects that of the entire the increase in the number of sugar mills and village. Much of the information analyzed utilization of land for sugarcane cultivation here is taken from a weekly diary of ac­ have also had profound effects on the tivities kept by a literate member of each Philippines. While change in the agricultural sample household for the 8 February 1978to structure is often analyzed in macro terms, 9 February 1979 period. we believe that certain key relationships can The three assumptions underlying this better be understood within the village (bar­ study are: (1) the household is the proper rio) context. We will empirically document unit of analysis because the farm family is the following: (1) the characteristics of not only a living arrangement and a social agricultural production in a southern Philip­ entity but a unit of work; (2) villages with pine village; (2) the employment oppor­ similar cropping patterns can be expected to tunities of working members of farm house­ reveal some similarities in social characteris­ holds; and (3) the income sources, expend­ tics; and (3) in recent years contemporary iture and credit patterns of such households village communities have developed into in one agricultural season (1978-79). more heterogeneous entities than they In addition, we will assess the economic previously were. viability of representative households within Students of Philippine rural communities the village economy. and peasantry have noted the heterogeneity The data utilized in this study are from a of village populations, using several in­ census of three out of the five local districts dicators, and Margen is no exception to this. (sitios) within the village and a stratified First, the village has come to be recognized sample of 17 out of 145 farm households'! as the focal point not only of farm-related Two districts were omitted because they households but also of households whose seemed more atypical than the others, being working members are in nonagricultural oc­ somewhat geographically isolated. In Mar­ cupations. Studies of other Philippine gen, the rice- and sugar-growing village villages with mainly rural characteristics chosen in Leyte province, the farm house­ report that 'heads with nonfarm occupations holds can be classified in terms of the land range up to and beyond half oftotal working tenure status of the household head (Table househofd heads (see Kerkvliet 1980; 1).2 Ledesma 1980; Umehara 1980). In Margen, 74 Bautista, et aliFarm Households on Rice and Sugar Lands

Table 1. Land tenure status of farm household heads, Margen, 1977.

Access Population Sample to land Tenure No. % No. 070

Direct CLT* holder 29 20.0 4 23.5 Direct Lessee 34 23.4 4 23.5 Direct Mixed 4 23.5 Share tenant '21 14.5 Subtenant 7 4.8 Indirect Farm labor 54 37.2 5 29.4 - - 145 17

*Certificate of Land Transfer households whose heads have a nonfarm job smallest landholdings-cannot participate constitute 16 to 18 percent of total house­ in land transfer proceedings. The 39 percent holds. remaining are involved in Operation Land A second indicator which shows the Transfer. a procedure through which tenants heterogeneity of the village is the growing receive a CLT, conclude an agreement on number of landless household heads depend­ land valuation, and pay an annual land ent on farm and nonfarm employment, and amortization for 15 years before receiving their distinction from farm household heads the title. with landholding rights. This is a common The nature of Philippine agrarian reform phenomenon not only in the Philippines but has led to the division of the farm popula­ in most developing countries, with some hav­ tion into two basic groups: those with cur­ ing a higher incidence of "proletarianization" rently recognized rights to a piece of land, than others. In Mexico, for instance, 60 per­ and those with no such rights. The first cent of the economically active rural popula­ group consists of land title holders, lessees tion belong to what has been called the paying fixed rentals, and CLT-holders. The "landless, wage-earning rural proletariat" second group is made up of tenants with no (Bartra 1975). In India, Pakistan, the Philip­ legal control (such as fixed rent) over their pines, Thailand, and Malaysia, on the other landholdings, and farm workers with neither hand, "hired labor supplying" households ownership nor tenancy rights. Moreover, the constitute from 20 to 60 percent of the rural availability of the new seed-fertilizer population (Hirashima 1977). technology coupled with government credit Among those with landholding rights, has allowed some farm households to cap­ social differentiation has emerged with ture financial gains and has propelled them agrarian reform. The current program in the into the status of savers and investors. In Philippines was enunciated after the declara­ sharp contrast, other households have tion of martial law by a presidential decree in amassed increasing debt and have remained 1972. The reform has decreed an abolition of at or below subsistence levels. For legal, share tenancy in many private rice and Gam social, and technological reasons, the trend lands and a conversion of both share tenant of the last decade in the Philippines has been farmers and lessees to owners (CLT-holders) toward village diversity. of the lands they till. The promise of "land to the tiller" does Agricultural Production and Land Tenure not apply to all rice and corn tenants. Because small landowners with less than 24 To understand how a village economy hectares can keep 7 hectares of their proper­ functions, one must be able to specify the ty, tenants working on these lands are to be work opportunities available. Most house­ converted into "permanent" lessees paying a holds in Philippine villages are maintained fixed rent. For this reason, 61 percent of the through the employment of their members tenant population-those who work on the on the land. Because of the great dependence Second Viewfrom the Paddy 75 of the village economy on farming, we will The agrarian reform has implications concentrate first on patterns of land use and both for the average size of rice and corn control in Margen. holdings and for ownership concentration. It Based on census data, the agricultural has formalized the subdivision of rice and lands owned or held through some form of corn farms into small parcels. Moreover. it tenancy rights by Margen respondents has sought to diffuse ownership of ricelands amounted to 262 hectares.I Slightly more by distributing the small landholdings to the than half of the total agricultural area (53 tenant-tillers. The program's exclusion of percent) is devoted to sugarcane cultivation; sugarlands has maintained the disparity in approximately 39 percent is allocated to rice land size between sugar and rice/corn. It has and corn; and about 8 percent is used for the eliminated ownership concentration of rice­ production of an assorted mixture of crops lands but has left that of sugarlands intact. like bananas, peanuts, rootcrops, and This concentration is illustrated in coconuts.f Margen. where the resident hacendero Land size and ownership concentration (landlord) owns 110 of the total 140 hectares differ for rice and sugar. Unlike ricelands in ofsugarland.5 The remaining 30 hectares are which small farms predominate. sugar in the divided among three landowners. Philippines is usually grown on larger units. The predominance of sugarlands in In 1975, the mean size of holdings growing Margen (140 out of 262 hectares). their high sugar was 16.7 hectares compared to only ownership concentration, and the system of 1.6 hectares for those in rice. owner-management of 65.5 percent of all

Table 2. Distribution of heetarage and fann household heads. by crop, Margen census data, 1977

Rice --Com Sugar All Crops TOTAL Has.* Fann Has. Has. Has. 0J0 heads

Landowners Owner-noncultivator 5.45 1 1.5 132.0 4 138.95 (53.1) 7.8 4.5 20.3 4 32.6 (12.4) Owner-cultivator -- - 1 ------Subtotal 13.25 2 6.0 152.3 8 171.6 (65.5)

Landholders CLT-holder 27.8 29 27.8 (10.6) Lessee w/registered contract 16.3 10 16.3 ( 6.2) Lessee w/unregistered contract 6.4 6 6.4 ( 2.4) Lessee w/oral/verbal contract 12.9 15 2.0 0.5 3 15.4 ( 5.9) Share-tenant 13.8 19 1.6 3.7 2 19.1 ( 7.3) Subtenant 1.9 7 1.9 ( 0.7) 2.4 3.4 ( 1.3) Free cultivating rights 2 --1.0 -- --4 -- Subtotal 79.1 86 4.6 6.6 9 90.3 (34.5)

Total 92.35 88 10.6 158.9 17 261.85 "10 (35.3) (4.0) (60.7)

*hectares I"Others"consist of land used for raising coconut (10.5 hectares), root crops, bananas, and peanuts (8.5 ha.). Sugarlands constitute 140 hectares. 2 The four individuals with free cultivating rights are also farm laborers. During the past 5 years they were lent small land parcels measuring from 0.15 to 1.0 hectare, with no obligation to pay rent. 76 Bautista, et al: Farm Households on Rice and Sugar Lands lands leave only 90.3 hectares (or 34.5 per­ seemingly privileged CLT-holding tenure cent of total land area) for the 95 Margen group do not essentially differ from the fixed tenants. Nonowning tenure groups in rice rental-paying lessees, and in this study the and corn can, on the average, obtain land­ two groups are usually discussed together. holding rights to till less than 1 hectare. In While land reform has officially abolished contrast to rice tenants, sugar workers do share tenancy on rice and corn lands, there is not have access to legal land rights. None of evidence of the continued existence or the sugarlands in Margen is tenanted; those reemergence of share tenants in the country. who work sugarlands are mainly contractual In Margen, farmers in this category in­ laborers (Table 2). creased. Of the 21 share tenants, 18acquired Confronted with pressure for land this status after the 1972 land reform imple­ reform, sugar barons have always been suc­ mentation. cessful in preventing it. The land reform pro­ gram carries, in addition to being a product EmploymentOpponunures of pressure politics, an ideological concept in the Vii/age which reinforces sugarland exclusion: "land to the tiller." Land reform in the Philippines Because there is limited rented land. is premised on a preexisting parcelization of available in Margen, the alternative for farm land on which a tiller works with insecure household members is to sell their labor to rights. The way rice and corn lands are sugar farm owners or rice tillers. However, farmed usually fulfills this model; sugar, with work in sugar and rice is limited. In the its contracted labor force, does not. former, it is heavily seasonal, consisting The reason that sugarland cannot be split mainly of cutting, hauling, and transporting up and farmed on small parcels by tenants is the harvested cane to the truck. Planting because economies of scale prevail in such sugarcane is also a major employment activi­ production steps as harvesting, milling, and ty, but it is not done every year. Landowners exportation. Adjustment to external growth usually save on planting expenses by allow­ of demand, price fluctuations, and quality ing the roots of the harvested crop to remain control of the exportable product are in the field to sprout new cane. This method facilitated when owners manage labor cen­ of growing sugar, known as ratooning, is trally. In villages like Margen, therefore, usually done in at least two consecutive crop­ where sugarland is dominant and none of its ping seasons (a cropping season is a 10-12 tillers can be associated with a distinct month period), before the field is prepared parcel, land available for redistribution is for planting new seedlings. Land prepara­ very limited. tion itself requires little labor since a four­ In Margen, implementation of agrarian wheel tractor is used. In the year the research reform on rice and corn lands lags behind was conducted, ratooning was being used, the situation in the nation as a whole. and employment was available only for Margen lessees with unregistered or only oral weeding, harvesting, and transporting cane. contracts (see Table 2), continue to be in an Rice farms are more labor-intensive, and ambiguous position. Beneficiaries can be employment may be available in plowing either CLT-holders or permanent lessees and harrowing with the use of a water buf­ with registered contracts. As of December falo (carabao), pulling and transplanting 1979, official data from the Ministry of seedlings, weeding, harvesting, threshing, Agrarian Reform (MAR) show that 24 per­ and transporting. Except for plowing and cent of CLT-holders in the Philippines had harrowing, which are now done by a hired begun amortization payments. Among the power tiller, the other activities can be sub­ 29 Margen CLT-holders, however, only one sumed under transplanting, weeding, and had begun paying on his 0.5 hectare and only harvesting. Pulling of seedlings, for in­ because he was able to obtain a special stance, happens during transplanting, while dispensation from the landowner. More­ manual threshing and transporting occur im­ over, no land valuation has been undertaken mediately after the actual harvest. Employ­ within the village. Thus, the members of the ment is available, therefore, in any of these ~ 680 ~ E :::s l:l. ~ ~ ~ 600 .~ c .A s :;. '"~

~ & ~r D " "'" fil >- 400 Q-< =: 0

..l=-< '-' 300 t- C B I 200

100

A "

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 (MONTH)

Figure 1: Monthly total actual employment in the different labor activities, Margen Sample :::l 78 Bautista, et ali.Farm Households on Rice and Sugar Lands three stages, but is at its peak during the worker reservoir, a ready supply of labor for transplanting and harvesting periods. rice and sugar farms. Table 3 also shows the other activities in Agricultural Employment which working members of the sample of Sample Households households engage. While working members of households with CLT-holding heads do The lower graph in Figure 1 shows the not sell their labor in rice and sugar farms as monthly employment levels within the much as members of other farm households, survey period in the three rice activities. a greater portion of their time (60 percent) is Throughout the year, a few farmers were spent working on their own rice farms or able to hire workers for two cycles of rice nonrice farm parcels. Except for the house­ production. Not all farmers, however, were holds headed by lessees, the working mem­ able to do so either because their lands were bers of the other tenure groups spend about not irrigated or because they were affected the same proportional amount of their total by a typhoon or some other natural disaster. working days (8-11 percent) in cash-paying For the activities on sugar farms, the nonfarm activities (e.g., construction). Last­ worker is paid a daily wage ofP6 for weeding ly, the members of farm labor households and rs for harvesting, or a piecework rate of who have no access to landholding rights P7 for every harvested and loaded ton of spend the residual or their total hired work­ cane. Compared to sugar, the wage rate in ing days (5 percent) in subsistence-oriented rice transplanting and weeding is lower - P5 activities, like fishing, hunting, gathering a day. Moreover, if laborers seek to guaran­ clams and firewood. (See Appendix 1 for a tee future employment in palay harvesting breakdown of total labor days for each sam­ and threshing, they agree to forego the usual ple household.) payment for transplanting or weeding and The pattern of employment in different render free labor service in either activity to activities is illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. the farmer-employer. If farm laborers defer Figure 1 shows the monthly levels of employ­ pay-ment, they take it not in cash but in ment in different activities in labor days of harvesting rights, and they can earn a 34-39 working members of the farm popula­ predetermined share of the harvested and tion, including the household head.7,8 Figure manually threshed palay. This labor arrange­ 2 is a more detailed weekly account of actual ment for harvesting, locally called prendes, employment of the members. In both figures, has recently emerged in Margen and in other seasonal employment is shown and rice-producing villages in the Philippines (see underemployment may be derived. Graph A Ledesma 1980). Its source and implications represents hired employment in rice activities; will be discussed later. B, in rice and sugar; C, in rice, sugar, non­ Farm laborers are found in 37.2 percent farm work, and subsistence activities; and D, of total farm households in Margen. How­ in rice, sugar, nonfarm work, subsistence ac­ ever, the results from the 17 household sam­ tivities, and employment in the household's ple show that most heads and employable landholding. Line E is the full employment household members worked as hired level, i.e., the level which can be achieved if laborers in rice and sugar farms (Table 3). each of the 34 working members in the sam­ Indeed, since they have no landholdings, the ple were continuously employed for at least 5 five farm labor heads and their spouses in days a week, thus supplying 170 days each the sample sold about 80 percent of their week as a group. total working days. On the other hand, four From the figures, the total number of lessees, a share tenant, and three subtenants labor days spent in sugar employment is ob­ in the "mixed" category were hired laborers tained by subtracting A from B; the dif­ for about half of their total working days.f ference at each week between C and B Even the CL T-holders sold 28 percent of reflects the number of days spent on non­ their total labor days on the average. The ex­ farm work and subsistence activities. The istence of small peasant holdings and land­ gap between D and C, on the other hand, is . lessness in Margen, therefore, serves as a the employment obtained in one's tenanted Second View from the Paddy 79

Table 3. Total and average labor days, by adivity andlenDre group, Margen, 1978-79.

SELF-EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT ON OTHER FARMS Other Subsislenee TenureGroup Rice Crops Activity Wee Nonfarm Total CLT-holder Labor days 725.7 165.0 25.0 148.2 257.5 150.0 1,471.4 OJo of total labor days (49.3) (11.2) (1.7) (10.1) (17.5) (10.2) Mean labor days per member (N"" 8) 90.7 20.6 3.1 18.5 32.2 18.7

Lessee Labor days 819.0 42.5 16.0 406.2 670.3 9.0 1,963.0 OJo of total labor days (41.7) (2.2) (0.8) (20.7) (34.1) (0.5) Mean labor days per member (N "" 10) 81.9 4.3 1.6 40.6 67.0 0.9 196.3

Mixedtenure Labor days 524.0 89.0 35.5 268.0 202.0 98.0 1,216.5 OJo of total labor days (43.1) (7.3) (2.9) (22.0) (16.6) (8.1) Mean labor days per member (N = 6) 87.3 14.8 5.9 44.7 33.7 16.3 202.7

Non-land­ holding farm labor Labor days 61.0 87.5 760.7 566.5 188.7 1,664.4 OJo of total labor days (3.7) (5.3) (45.7) (34.0) (11.3) Mean labor days per member (N = 10) 6.1 8.8 76.1 56.7 18.9 166.4

rice farm holdings or in the cultivation of needed in the nonagricultural or capitalized other crops. This gap, therefore, suggests sector. When additional labor hired does not that farm laborer households suffer more contribute anything to output (i.e., its from seasonal unemployment than house­ marginal productivity is zero), it is holds of other tenure groups. Landholding "surplus" or dispensable and may be shifted provides from 4249 percent of total to where its marginal product is greater than employed days to the working members of zero. In neo-classicaltheory surplus labor is those households. manifested by the difference between the The gap between 0, the actual employ­ agricultural and the nonagricultural sectors ment curve, and E, the full employment line, in both marginal product (adjusted for gives a more fundamental meaning to the transfer costs) and wage rates.? This dif­ notion of surplus labor. "Surplus labor" in ference reflects the nonoptimality in

< classical economic theory exists in the resource.utilization in the two sectors. Like agricultural or noncapitalized sector and is classical theory, the.neo-classical model see~ ~ 0: 175 <::s ...,J... 170/-E ~ ~ ~ "l:l 0: <::s 150 .~ 'l:: 0: 0 ~. 0 -<:: 125 ~ ~ E ~ iii ..:..: 100 <::s >- ~ ~ ~ .!:J "0 '=i III ~ d

50

25

1 357 1011 14 17 20 25 30 33 35 40 45 50 (WEEKS)

~ Figure 2: Weekly actual employment in labor-dars in the different labor activities, Margen Sample Second View from the Paddy 81

the transfer of surplus labor to the industrial be moved off, for there is no place for them sector as promoting intersectoral efficiency. to go. The lack of available nonagricultural Both economic theories, however, are of work makes questionable the relevance of questionable usefulness in light of the plight surplus labor theory's policy prescriptions of rural labor in Margen. and partly explains the existence of chronic One assumption that bears rethinking is surplus labor in Margen, the full employ­ whether labor in agriculture is actually ment level being greater than the peak equivalent to being employed. In Margen, the season's actual employment. 10 laborers in the sample are generally Underemployment becomes relatively unemployed, or at least seasonally more chronic in some months or weeks dur­ unemployed (underemployed). If it is as­ ing the year not only because of the sporadic sumed that every member of the village labor and limited availability of nonagricultural force sample seeks work 5 days a week (or work but also because of the seasonality of 260 working days a year), then, on the aver­ hired labor demand in the rice and sugar age, no laborer in Margen was fully em­ farms. The level of employment during the ployed during the survey period. Underem­ study period was not affected by techno­ ployment was most severe for the farm labor logical or institutional change but was af­ households. The mean number of labor days fected by weather conditions. Drought on of the heads of such households and their the seventh and eighth weeks decimated a spouses was only 166 days in the research part of the growing rice crop, thus making year. But because of peaks and valleys in weeding unnecessary; a typhoon on the tenth labor needs, an average figure is less than week damaged some of the standing crop. fully revealing. On the other hand, if much Because of the weather, actual employment more than a small amount (the difference be­ in harvesting the first rice crop (weeks 13-19) tween the horizontal line and the peak in the was only about half that during the second one below it) of labor is withdrawn full time, rice crop harvest (weeks 32-38), The second there will be some loss ofproduction because rice crop was more or less "normal." at some time (harvest) a large number of This crop loss in the first 3 months of the workers are needed or the crop will not be field research raises a policy-related ques­ taken in. The rhythm of work in agriculture tion: what is the viability of the relatively is biologically determined and not, as in in­ new labor arrangement whereby rice labor­ dustry, determined by man and often well ers experience the full, unmitigated weight controlled as in an assembly line. In agricul­ of risk and uncertainty if natural disaster ture the rhythm is more syncopated than in strikes? If the standing crop is struck by a much of manufacturing. natural calamity between transplanting and A second inference which may be drawn harvest, the invested labor is lost and goes in both classical and neo-classical theories forever unremunerated. from the existence of "surplus labor" is that The Prendes Harvesting the nonagricultural sector offers sufficient Arrangement employment opportunities to absorb the rural surplus. However, the nonagricultural Field observation and study of village jobs which some working members in the practices give evidence that the prendes sample could tap were not only limited but harvesting arrangement continues as a domi­ also subject to seasonal demand. Nonagri­ nant labor contract in Margen. Despite the cultural work available during the entire uncertainties of the weather, therefore, rice research period consisted of a small range of farm workers, because they are available in activities: vehicle-driving, carpentry, canal surplus, must either take a "total risk" posi­ construction, and blockmaking. The jobs tion of providing"free labor" as an advance were short-term, lasting about 4 months, 3 against harvesting participation or not work. months, 2 months, and 2 weeks, respective­ This is the choice given to them by their land­ ly, for each activity. Contrary to economic holding employers. theories of "surplus labor," therefore, the Risk-taking through prendes cuts across underemployed workers in Margen cannot all tenure classifications in the study. Except 82 Bautista, et al: Farm Households on Rice and Sugar Lands

Table 4. Labor-days employed and palay earnings In cavaos In the Prendes arrangement of the working household members, Margen, 1978-79.

Labor-days Cavens Total employed of prendes earned cash Tenure in rice work in prendes Income category (in pesos) (1) (2) (3) (4)

CLT-holder A 4.0 n.a n.a. 2,518.7 B 31.0 22.0 7.12 2,816.0 C 81.0 27.0 2.32 1.646.3 0 32.2 1.7 0.5 3,487.1

Lessee A 125.0 9.0 2.16 2,863.9 B 165.0 90.0 10.74 927.4 C 10.0 8.0 1.12 5,902.7 0 106.2 53.0 6.78 1,434.2

"Mixed" tenure status A 33.0 33.0 4.26 1,242.9 B 117.5 66.5 9.91 994.6 C 81.0 20.5 3.99 1,205.6 0 36.5 13.0 1.88 1,901.0

Non-landowning farm labor A 189.5 144.0 17.97 1,859.8 B 119.5 84.0 7.04 1,644.6 C 41.2 31.0 3.26 1,294.2 0 284.0 210.5 29.81 1,139.9 E 126.5 89.5 8.52 987.9

for two households with CLT-recipient despite its risk, is the most sought-after heads which raised two rice crops during the village employment. And because some year and thus engaged family members in Margen farmers together with their spouses work on their own small landholdings, the and working children obtain prendes con­ majority of households-regardless of ac­ tracts from other farmers, as well as extend cess to land-had at least one member contracts to others on their own plots, the engaged in prendes work. (Column 2 of new labor harvesting arrangement needs to Table 4 shows that 13 out of the 17 be understood not only as a "deal" between households had more than 10 days of landholding households but as a risk-sharing prendes work.) mechanismbetween peasants of more or less The arrangement ofprendes is a boon for similar position in the rural hierarchy. "If farmer-employers in some periods of bad my crop should be wiped out, I may be able weather, but it also has advantages for to provide for my family from the prendes laborers. In most rice-producingareas in the someone in my household holds on another Philippines, the harvesting season represents farm," a Margen villager may reason. Of both the period of highest labor demand and course, the arrangement is most sought after the only activity for which workers can be by the landless farm laborers who have the expected to receive a share in kind. Among fewest subsistence alternatives. other advantages, payment in palay when Its functions as a hedge against risk is the weather is good is a type of insurance clear enough, but prendes may be attractive policy against inflation. In fact, prendes, in absolute terms, too. One way to document Second View from the Paddy' 83

this is to compute the implicit daily wage rate work results from competition both among of the prendes worker by dividing the value the landless farm labor households and bet­ of the harvest share by the number of labor ween such households and those of other days expended in weeding, harvesting, and tenure groups. It is the competition among threshing.II themselveswhich may force farm workers to The weekly diaries which respondent accept the uncertainties and risks of the households were asked to keep indicate the prendes contract. number of days that members worked on their prendes contract. Since they do not Other Village Studies specify the number of hours with precision, we can obtain only a rough measure of the A number of village studies elsewhere in wage rate. The average rate for 12 out of 15 the country have documented this prendes respondents faUs within 5.9 to 10.6 pesos per rice-harvesting arrangement and have day. It should also be noted that the season discussed its origin, diffusion, and implica­ on which these data were based was relative­ tions. There is agreement that it spread wide­ ly good. If the season had been bad, these ly after the introduction of the high-yielding imputations, based as they would have been rice varieties. There is less consensus on the on lower yields, would have been low. It is origins and the equity implications of the ar­ even possible that there would have been no rangement. harvest at all. The prendes harvesters, According to Hayami and Kikuchi, who therefore, face the fact that they absorb studied an irrigated Laguna viUage,12 the ex­ some of the farmer's weather risks. tension ofirrigation facilitiesin 1958and the The extent ofinvolvement in prendes dif­ introduction of the new seed-fertilizer fers between tenure groups. CLT-recipient technology in the late 1960s improved land households had least to do with prendes productivity and gave rise to two major while farm-labor households were most in­ social changes: the new prendes-like labor ar­ volved. Among lessees and "mixed tenure" rangement (here calledgama), and the rise of households, three households had about subtenancy. Farmer-employers gave up the three times more opportunities to share the traditional arrangement in which laborers harvest than the other members of their ten­ shared a sixth of the harvest without requir­ ure group, as shown by the number of labor ing free labor for weeding because the in­ days under the prendes contract. These three crease in labor supply and in yield due to households also had the lowest cash incomes productivity improvements gave the share­ in their respective categories and, together harvesters a share of output greater than with the farm labor households, can be their marginal productivity. The gama ar­ classified as the poorest in the village (see rangement's requirement of free services for Table 4). The negative correlation between weeding is seen, in this study, to correct the labor days of prendes work and income disequilibrium in the labor market and pro­ among the farmholding households does not mote an efficient, competitive market. 13• obtain among the farm labor households. The authors recognize that other routes For instance, farm labor household C rela­ to equilibrium may be available but not tive to households A and B had a lower in­ necessarily feasible-for instance, the hir­ come and only 31 days of prendes work ing of daily wage laborers for the harvesting (compared to 144 and 84 days of A and B, tasks at the market rate. This alternative in­ respectively). volves the risk of not finding a sufficient However risky, the prendes harvesting number of cash wage laborers at the right arrangement may be considered as yet time. Furthermore, it has a social cost, the another survival strategy for some farm creation of social friction by the departure households. Because of the benefits it offers from a long-establishedvillagecustom of ex­ as well as the very limited employment alter­ tending employment to the less fortunate. natives open to villagers, almost all Aside from serving as an efficient households in Margen compete for the few mechanism for reducing the implicit wage existing prendes jobs. Obtaining prendes rate to the level of labor's marginal produc- 84 Bautista, et aliFarm Households on Rice and Sugar Lands tivity, gama has the added advantage of portunities which was biased against unaf­ preserving an established practice- that of filiated workers. The new arrangement, paying the one-sixth palay share. therefore, may benefit the farmer-employer While this new arrangement continued to who has a ready group of contracted give employment and assistance to farm laborers and some harvesting groups who, laborers in a manner similar to the tradi­ because of the many contracts secured, are tional arrangement, the emergence of able to obtain an imputed wage rate higher subtenancy within the village allowed some than would have been possible otherwise.I> former landless residents to acquire access to The studies cited above document the land. 14 Therefore, according to Hayami and establishment and effects of the prendes-like Kikuchi, no segment of the village farm labor harvesting mode in the face of a growing force seems to be placed in a disadvantageous number of landless workers. While Margen's position by the two institutional changes. rice fields are not so productive as those in An Iloilo study interpreted another the above-cited villages, the new labor ar­ prendes-like arrangement, locally called rangement seems to be found not only in sagod to be the result of an involutionary villages where chronic underemployment ex­ process (Ledesma 1980). Village resources ists but also in irrigated areas which have a like land and farm operations are shared greater labor absorptive capacity. Before among the landless. According to Ledesma, any conclusion can be made about the equity this sharing takes the form of fragmenting implications of the new labor arrangement in the farmer-employer's plot among landless this barrio, findings of other village studies farm laborers and marginal small farmers must be taken into consideration. From such that a hectare of broadcasted riceland is them, one can hypothesize that the institu­ subdivided among 10 or more adult workers, tion of the new labor arrangement has either with each having a subplot to replant and increased the fragmentation of farm parcels weed. This harvesting arrangement is sug­ or restricted competition among potential gested to be an inchoate form of share tenan­ workers. cy involving limited farm operations. Although it allows for a sharing of Employment in Sugar resources, the author asserts that the emergence of sagod contributes to the incip­ The coexistence of sugar and rice cultiva­ ient formation of peasant subclasses. tion within Margen has three important im­ Bautista's research on a Pampanga plications for sugar employment. First, the village (1979) illustrates the possible negative landless rice workers and the below­ equity implications of the prendes-like ar­ subsistence-sized farm holdings help to secure a supply of labor for the sugar farms. rangement. It asserts that the new labor ar­ rangement, where labor expended for pull­ Second, sugar farms are so seasonal that ing of seedlings immediately before their operators neither need to employ a per­ manent workforce nor be responsible for transplanting is exchanged for the harvesting laborer's subsistence food requirements right, emerged for one or two possible since the abundant labor supply can meet reasons. First, the farmer-employer wanted to reduce cash expenditures as much as peak seasonal demands while they can share­ possible, given cost increases of the external harvest for subsistence. Third, the prendes input requirements of the new seed-fertilizer contract in rice may act as a mechanism for technology. Second, the new harvesting ar­ keeping the wage rate in sugar at or below rangement diffused rapidly within the village the rate in rice, even during peak seasonal and even to other villages because the con­ demand for sugar workers. tracting groups of farm laborers, actively Though labor supply in Margen is secure competing among themselves and with unaf­ and plentiful, jobs on sugarlands are not filiated farm workers, sought to negotiate as adequate to provide full employment. Dur­ many contracts as possible. This competition ing the first 3 months of the survey, when the resulted in a distribution of employment op- drought and typhoon damaged much of the standing rice crop while having no adverse' Second View from the Paddy 85 effect on the sugar crop, the labor oversup­ cyclical changes, with peaks occurring in ply was only partially absorbed by sugarcane 1951, 1956, 1960, 1965, 1969 and 1975. This harvesting. Even this employment, however, suggests a cycleof from 4 to 6 yearsin length. was very short term. When the mature cane When world prices trend downward, planted had been harvested (by the fourteenth week), and harvested hectarage in the Philippines some sugarcane workers complained that declines, as does employmenton sugar farms. work in the cane fields was more scarce than in previous weeks. By the twentieth week, Economic Viability of work opportunities declined further. For the Margen Households rest of the year, employment in sugar never regained the levels reached in the first 3 Present village economy is sometimes months. Actual employment on sugar farms described as an organization of households for the sample is represented by the gap be­ producing only for their own subsistence. tween the bottom first and second curves of Margen is somewhat different. First, owner­ Figures I and 2. There was some cane har­ ship of farmland and tenancy rights in vesting activity during the seventh, eighth, Margen are unequally distributed, so much and twelfth months, but it was not so inten­ so that a growing number of households sive as in the first 5 months. have become completely landless; hiring out In years when the weather has no adverse is their only livelihood possibility. Second, effects on sugar crops, the inability of some of the people of Margen produce a sugar employment to absorb available labor commercial export crop. Because of the may be explained by the overall pattern of nature of the cropping pattern in Margen, farm practices and the sugar market. The the struggle for subsistence must confront decline in sugar employment after the twen­ three major problems: the risks associated tieth week of this research can be attributed with the vagaries of the world market which either to the practice of ratooning, which affect sugar, the adverse weather conditions eliminates the need for annual labor to which threaten the cultivation of both sugar transplant, or to the depressed nature of the and rice, and the negative effect on employ­ world sugar market, which may either make ment opportunities of the long gestation the standing sugar crop unprofitable to period before harvest. This problem results harvest or discourage new plantings. in seasonality of demand for labor. From a high of44.9 cents per kilogram in During periods of waiting, nonfarm 1975, Philippine raw sugar in the world work might provide employment. In fact;. market fetched 25.4 cents in 1976, 17.9 cents such work is infrequently available. While in 1977, and 17.2 cents in 1978. This con­ awaiting the harvest, farm households are tinuous decline of world prices naturally af­ compelled to seek alternatives for meeting fected the hectarage of sugarcane fields to be their subsistence needs. The following sec­ harvested. For the country, harvested area tion documents how families cope with their declined from 567,000 hectares in 1977 to situation when production and employment 472,000hectaresin 1978; in 1979 only 442,200 incomes do not guarantee their weekly con­ hectares were harvested. sumption (to say nothing about investment) The conscious reduction in sugar produc­ needs. tion on the part of Philippine sugar operators In discussing these efforts to attain was carried out physically either by leaving economic viability, general observations wil1 the crops unharvested and later burning be made based on data from the 17 them, or by reducing the planted area. householdsand inferences will be drawn from The steady decline in Philippine sugar the following accounting items around which hectarage is a direct reflection of the recent the household records were organized. These downward trend of sugar prices in the world categories differ somewhat from Western market. Throughout the decades, the inter­ farm accounting identities because the ebb national price ofsugar has fluctuated, and in and flow of incomes and expenses are dif­ turn world harvested area has undergone ferent in these subsistence operations. 86 Bautista, et al: Farm Households on Rice and Sugar Lands

I. Casb Accounts: Income Sources

(a) Annual Cash Receipts (excluding More than 50 percent of annual cash borrowing) = Palay Sales + receipts (Identity Ia, above) come from the Farm Cash Wages + Nonfarm sale of palay and farm wages for 15 sample Wages + Net Transfers + Sales households (see Appendix 2). of Non-rice Item(s) Households made up of farm laborers (b) Total Receipts = Annual Cash obtain most of their noncredit cash receipts Receipts + Beginning-of-Period from farm wages. Palay sales constitute only (BOP) Cash Holding 8 percent or less ofthe receipts of four out of (c) Cash Surplus (or Deficit) = Total those five households, while farm wages Receipts - [Food Expenses + made up from 51 to 89 percent of annual Nonfood Consumption Expenses cash receipts. The one remaining household + Farm Operation Expenses + (Farm Laborer D) in this category had in- Household and Farm Capital . come from palay sales which was about a Items] fourth of its cash receipts because the (d) End-of-Period (EOP) Credit household head was able to obtain the Outstanding = BOP Outstanding highest number of prendes contracts in the Credit + Net Yearly Borrowing sample. - Net Yearly Debt Payments It would be expected that those house­ holds with direct access to landholdings II. Palay Accounts (in cavans):16 would obtain most of their cash receipts (a) Farm Surplus = Household (HH) from the sale of palay. However, only 3 out Palay Output ..,.. [Farm Use + of the 12 farmer households sold 25 to 70 Payment to Harvesters + Rent] cavans (see Appendix 3), while the rest sold (b) HH Total Palay Receipts = Farm only 0.34 to 13 cavans during the entire year. Surplus + Beginning-of-Period The relationship between palay sale and an­ (BOP) Palay Holding + nual cash receipts is, therefore, not simple. Harvesting Share Income + Net The amount of palay sold and its proportion Transfers + Net Borrowings of total cash receipts is dependent on farm where size, total output, and palay outlays used for Net Borrowing = BOP rental and debt payments. Outstanding Credit . + Credit But the findings here show that size of Receipts - Loans holding by itself does not assure that a (c) Net HH Palay Receipts = Total sizable amount of palay will be sold. Lessee Palay Receipts - [Consumption A with 3.5 hectares, for example, had the + Net Debt Payments] largest landholding but the typhoon and where drought of the first season destroyed his Net Debt Payment = Payments crop, leaving him with only two harvested to Creditors - Payment from cavans of palay. In the second season, he ob­ Debtors tained only about 35 cavans per hectare. (d) Net Palay Receipts = Amount of Meanwhile, his expenses were high since as a Palay Sold + End-of-Period lessee he paid about 37 percent of his harvest Palay Holding as rent for the use of the land. In addition, loan amortization payments were paid in Note that two accounts (cash and palay) were palay and amounted to one-fourth of his kept because farm households usually do so. harvest. Thus, his household sold only 20 Both accounts, however, are not mutually ex­ percent of its produce. About 75 percent of clusive. Since these observations refer mainly the total cash receipts came from the house­ to the 17households and cover only one year, hold head's work as a power tiller operator any attempt to generalize should be taken as and the member's employment as sugar suggestive. workers. Second Viewfrom the Paddy 87

Unlike land size, total yield and palay expenditures constitute a greater proportion outlays for rent and/or debt payments by of cash receipts for the three highest income themselves have direct effects on the total households (from 41 to 61 percent). For 7 of annual receipts of the sample households. As the remaining 14 households, total food and a result of poor yields, for instance, a nonfood expenses exceeded noncredit cash substantial portion of total palay was paid receipts. Ifother nonfood expenditures (i.e., out for rent by Lessee D, Subtenant A, and expenses for farm operations, farm and Share Tenant D. Debt payment in palay was household durables) are added to the money a significant outlay for CLT-C and LesseeB spent on food and small nonfood items, (see Appendix 3). three more households would be in deficit. Because of their substantial palay (Household expenditures for different com­ outflow, the capacity of the affected ponents are presented in Appendix 4.) households to convert it to cash for family Would there have been a way for and farm expenses was greatly reduced. households to avoid deficits? On a month­ Since most households in the sample wereaf­ to-month basis, some households avoided fected, about 46 to 70 percent of total cash debt by drawing from the household's receipts were obtained from cash farm and outstanding cash balance, by using cash nonfarm employment. surpluses generated in the preceding month, It is generally the case that the greater the or by sellinga portion of palay holdings and number of cavans sold by a household, the household assets. However, the first two more a household is able to realize a high in­ mechanisms for avoiding deficits stress the come level. However, the highest income­ importance of a household's beginning-of­ earning household in the sample did not sell period (BOP) cash holding which in effect is as much palay as the other high income the savings generated from the past year's households (i.e., CLT-A and CLT-D). The noncredit .cash receipts. Among all the bulk of its income was obtained from the respondents, only one household (CLT-A) head's full-time, year-round work as a con­ had a substantial cash holding, amounting to tractor of sugar labor, which yielded about 897 pesos (US$119.6). The remaining eight half of its total receipts, and from the households with BOP cash holdings had on­ household's small retail store, which sup­ ly from 2.2 to 40 pesos (US$0.29 to US$5.3) plied the daily needs of recruited sugar on hand (see Appendix 2). laborers. The third mechanism seems more ra­ tional and it is the timely and regular sale of Expenditures and Deficit Patterns a portion of one's palay or of livestock, sav­ ing the remainder as an inflation hedge or Findings from the sample also imply that against the natural seasonal rise in the price the income elasticity of demand for food is of rice. It emphasizes the importance either higher at low income levels. The relatively of having a substantial palay surplus or of high income recipients(CLT-A, CLT-D, and livestock in the first place. As noted above, Lessee C, together with Lessee D in Appen­ only a few farmer households (CLT-A and dix 2) use from 22 to 30 percent of their in­ CLT-D) can depend on palay surpluses to come for food, whilelow income households cover weekly or monthly expenses. use as much as 43 to 93 percent of their cash Since most households do not have sav­ receipts for the same purpose. Although a ings either in cash or in palay, they confront large proportion of the incomes of the ma­ weekly and monthly cash deficits and the jority of households is spent on food, the need for credit to finance the shortfall. average weekly per capita food expenses for Credit in the form of cash was inevitable this group is really a pittance (1.6-6.1 pesos because whatever cash surpluses were or 21-81 U.S. cents), implying very low in­ generated by the majority of households comes to start with. within a month were used to cover the When food. expenses are combined with deficits incurred in the next few weeks or purchases of nonfood household items (e.g., month. Only four households, namely CLT­ kerosene, cooking oil, clothing), household A, CLT-B, CLT-D, and LesseeD, generated 88 Bautista, et at: Farm Households on Rice and Sugar Lands a monthly surplus which financed or covered The need to provide for household sub­ deficits of more than a month. sistenceduring months oflimited or nonpay­ The usual case was that a portion ofcash ing farm work and to finance farm opera­ debts incurred by households in previous tions explains why most households, except months was repaid by cash savingsgenerated for the three high-income creditor house­ in the most current month. This borrowed holds (CLT-A, CLT-D, and Lessee C), had money was in small amounts and used main­ BOP cash debts. This need, together with the ly for food purchases. The relatively bigger fact that for creditors payments in palay are debts which were not immediately paid back more attractive and easier to collect during from cash balances were usually borrowed harvest, servesas the functional rationale for through a particular credit arrangement, the binakiran system. called binakiran. Although most households regardless of Binakiran specifies that for every 25 tenure were in debt and somehow linked to pesos borrowed during the research year a binakiran, all households in the "mixed cavan of palay is paid as principal and in­ tenure" category had greater shortfalls than terest. If a cavan of palay is assumed to be farm labor households. The subtenants in valued at the year's weighted average price this category, formerly landless and depend­ of 42.58 pesos, then the interest on a 25-peso ent mainly on hired farm employment, have loan is at a rate ofabout 70 percent. In most foregone the opportunity to hire out their cases, this credit arrangement also stipulates services for cash in order to work on their that the palay payment must generally be small land parcel. made by harvest time. Bridging the cash and This foregone opportunity to earn cash, palay accounts, the arrangement is essential­ together with the risks associated with rice ly a coping mechanism to meet an expected farming and the large outlays for rent and substantial cash outlay. debt payments which further erode the capa­ There seemed to be a pattern as to the city to hold on to palay stocks for sale, ex­ time of the year when sizable cash outlays plains why the deficits of landholding were made and cash credit was needed. The tenants were greater than those the farm household records show that June-July, and labor households incurred. The greater November-January were the months in deficits of the landholding tenants are which the majority of households (12 to 14 reflected in the fact that while farm labor out of the 17)experienceddeficits.!? In June households had deficits for 6 to 7 months of and July of the research year there was vir­ the year, the landholders were in the red for tually no work in sugarlands. The 2 months 7 to 10 months. Tottering on the brink of also coincided with land preparation, solvency was the position of all tenure transplanting, or weeding of the rice fields. groups, with some deeper into debt than Since under the prendes system free labor is others. rendered for weeding or transplanting, The cycle of indebtedness and the laborers had no cash wagesfor their services. dependence on binakiran seem difficult to Farmers, on the other hand, needed cash break. Payment in the form of harvested during these months to pay a power tiller palay prevents debtors from stocking surplus operator and the nonprendes transplanters palay which could be transformed into ready as well as to provide for their own food cash when necessary. The need for cash, needs. therefore, can be met only by borrowing From November to January, on the other and, in Margen, by continued reliance on hand, weedingand harvesting were the main binakiran. activities. During this time, however, no Although all households were in and out cash income was being received by farmers of debt at varying times of year, most ended and farm workers since those under prendes the research period with deficits. Seven were still rendering free weeding services in households, however (including three land­ November while in late December and less households), had some cash surplus (see January palay was still being harvested, Appendix 5). The position of the three threshed, and dried. surplus farm labor households, however, Second Viewfrom the Paddy 89 vergedon insolvencysince their positivecash households are not much beyond the grasp balance ranged from 68 to 211 pesos. This of subsistence. The surplus generated by all surplus may be insignificant as a reserve households is too small to be reinvested, fund, but it is often sufficient to tide them even in the case of the one with an item of over from 3 to 11 weeks of unemployment. capital equipment. The little surplus that re­ As mentioned earlier, two of the remain­ mains with a few functions simply as a ing four surplus households (CLT-A and reserve fund to tide families over in times of CLT-B) remained relatively viable need. Not one of the households in the sam­ economically through the timely and regular ple can produce a surplus on an ever­ sale of portions of palay stock or of expanding scale, thus paving the way for fur­ homemade rice cake, respectively. However, ther investments. Accumulation in Margen is this income source could not cover the farm virtually impossible. production expenses for the third crop. Theoretically, agrarian reform should Thus, they remained viable simply by draw­ enable landholders to realize a surplus and ing on their BOP cash holding induce them to invest it. The proponents of With respect to LesseeD, it would be er­ the program hope that the benefits to land­ roneous to consider her household as holders will filter to the other segments of surplus-generating because it had an the rural population in the form of employ­ outstanding cash credit of about 820 pesos ment and additional income. Based on this by the end of the year, a carry-over from last community study, these hopes are dim in­ year's debt. No asset acquisition is deed. associated with this former debt. It is highly possible that a part of this debt was spent for the funeral expensesof the household head's Notes spouse, who died the year before. In effect, only one household (CLT-D) GERMELINO M. BAUTISTA specializesin agri­ had the potential for generating a small cultural economics, with a special focus on land surplus. Several factors account for this. tenure and land reform. He was one time research First, during the study period, the household scholar at the International Rice Research Insti­ head was able to harvest rice twice from his tute (IRRI), Los Bafios, research associate at the 1.3 hectares at relatively high yields (50 and Institute of Philippine Culture and at the Institute 90 cavans, thus obtaining the highest farm of Developing Economies, Tokyo. He recently surplus within the sample). Second, the obtained his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics household members tended a small sub­ from the University of Wisconsin. sistence plot in the mountains where root crops and vegetables were grown. The third WILLIAM CHARLES THIESEN HUSEN is pro­ fessor of agricultural journalism and agricultural and most important reason for the economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madi­ household's 637-peso surplus was the son. A Ph.D. holder in agricultural economics household head's ownership of a power tiller from the same university, he has travelled exten­ which, when rented out and operated by sively around the United States, South America him, provided a sizable household income.IS and Asia to teach, lecture on or provide consulta­ Thus, its secure source of subsistence and tion in countless seminars, conferences and work­ cash income makes prendes employment un­ shops on agricultural development and land re­ necessary and enables the household to ex­ form. In 1969 he received the American tend credit to some deficit households. Agricultural Association award for the best article In conclusion, the economic viability of published in 1969 in its American Journal of Agricultural Economics. His research articles and the households in the Margen sample is prob­ commentaries have appeared in various English lematic. Most of the sample households, and South-American journals on agriculture. regardless of tenure type, are at a subsistence level.At this low level,there is some difficul­ DAVID J. KING received his Ph.D. in agricultu­ ty in even satisfying basic food needs. The ral economics from the University of Wisconsin, very few surplus-producing sample Madison, Wisconsin. The same University sent 90 Bautista. et 01: Farm Households on Rice and Sugar Lands him as Assistant Professor to develop the Faculty ble for paying the rent to the landowners, and of Agriculture at the University of lfe, Ile-Ife, whatever may be given to their kin may be per­ Nigeria for a three-year period. In 1976 he was ceived or considered as a gift in reciprocation. assigned as a University of Wisconsin Land Tenure Center Visiting Professor to the University 7A labor-day is roughly equal to a day's work of the Philippines at Los Banos-Agrarian Reform of at least 8 hours. Institute (UPLB-ARI). He likewise served as re­ 8The number of working members within the search adviser on agricultural development proj­ sample ranges from 34 to 39 because 5 working ects of the United States Agency for International nonmembers did not work as regularly as the Development, the IPC, Ateneo de Manila Univer­ others. In the succeeding discussions, 34 members sity, and the Social Survey Research Unit (SSRU), will be assumed. Ateneo de Naga and Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). Dr. King has published a number 9The neo-classical version emerged in the of papers dealing with agricultural development 1960s and assumed a positive marginal product of and agrarian reform. He is currently with the So­ labor and an agricultural wage rate equal to cial Sciences Division, International Development labor's marginal productivity. Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. I°lt is possible under favorable conditions that peak employment on certain weeks surpasses the full employment level. Specifically, this occurs Ilnitially, 30 potential household cooperators when cane cutting coincides with rice harvesting. were considered, with the expectation that some Labor on these occasions, however, can hardly be would be lost after the trial-run period. Agrarian described as superfluous. Reform Research Advisor David King formulated the accounting framework and survey instruments Month Amount Sold Average Monthly and supervised, together with Claire Nacionales, (cav.) Price (P/cav.) the initial village census, survey, and record­ February 2.32 49.4 keeping process. March April 3.22 4].5 2 The tenure list was extracted after the firsr May 33.5] 42.0 survey. The actual status of some household June 5.32 48.0 heads was ascertained only in the second survey July 2.] 48.9 and through the record-keeping procedure. It was August 0.]6 47.5 also then that subtenants, share tenants, and farm September 27.16 #.8 laborers engaged in sugar and/or rice farm work October 59.33 43.2 emerged as groups. November 37.24 39.2 December 5.22 39.6 3This underestimates agricultural land within January 8.58 42.5 the three village districts because the census did not include households in the mountainous areas The weighted average price for the year was 1"42.58. where slash-and-burn or subsistence agriculture prevails. 11 The harvest share of households engaged in prendes was valued by the sale price they or other 41n most places in the Philippines, corn is households received for rice within the week or planted on unirrigated rice lands when rice crops month it was sold. Below are the monthly have been destroyed and replanting is not feasible. weighted average prices per cavan (equal to 44 kilograms) of palay during the research period. 5 According to the census, the hacendero ac­ quired the land in 1%8. Aside from these 12Motivated by the induced innovation sugarlands, he also has some 16.4 hectares of hypothesis, Hayami and Kikuchi (1977a, ]977b) tenanted rice and com lands, a number of portable studied this village to interpret the new employ­ mechanical threshers, and a four-wheel-drive trac­ ment relationship between farmer-employers and tors. the landless workers. 6The three subtenants were lent a portion of 13This neo-classical economic interpretation ricelands by their parent-tiller or parent-in-law. implies that the new labor system represents labor The "subtenant" category may be inappropriate market equilibrium. This conclusion was based on to use for the informal relationship between the quantification and comparison ofthe value of parent or parent-in-law and son with respect to the actual shares of harvesters with the imputed land. Moreover, these respondents were responsi- wage cost valued at the going market rates. Second Viewfrom the Paddy 91

Equilibrium is, therefore, operationalized when Asian Productivity Organization the two values are equal. 1980 Sugar cane production in Asia. Tokyo: APO 14Subtenancy is judged to have emerged Barker, Randolf, and Violeta Cordova because improvements in land productivity and 1977 The effect of modern technology on the land reform regulation on fixed land rents labor utilization in rice have created a surplus between economic rent and production.Laguna: International actual rent. Tenants can capture this surplus Rice Research Institute. through direct cultivation or through sublease ar­ Bautista, Germelino rangements with prospective subtenants. 1978 Major changes in Philippine rice 15The same quantification and comparison of agriculture. VRF series no. 60. harvest share values and imputed wage cost Tokyo: Institute of Developing Eco­ payments as in the Laguna study were performed nomies. but the two values were not found to be equal, Bartra, Roger with the former being greater than the latter. Ac­ 1975 Peasants and political power in Mex­ cording to the neo-classical framework, this may ico: A theoretical model. Latin mean that equilibrium has not yet been reached American Perspectives lJ:2 (Sum­ through the atorga arrangement. In other words, mer). more free labor must be rendered. But the non­ Gemmill, Gordon equalization of the two values may be the result of 1978 Asymmetric cobwebs and the inter­ the circumstances surrounding the establishment of national supply of cane sugar. Jour­ the new labor system, like the contracting group's nal of Agricultural Economics 29:I. capacity to negotiate. Harris, Richard 1973 Marxism and the agrarian question in 16A cavan is a sackful of palay weighing 44 kg. Latin America. Latin American Per­ About 2 cavans of palay must be milled to get a spective 4:4 (Fall). sack of rice. Hayami, Yujiro, and Masao Kikuchi I7The number of deficit households out of the 1977 Inducement to institutional innova­ 17-household sample is given below: tion in an agrarian society. Working Paper Series no. A-07. Tokyo: International Development Center of Month Number of Households Japan, December. February 8, 1978 7 Hayami, Yujiro, Luisa Maligalig and Masao March 8 Kikuchi April 6 1977 Evolution of land tenure system in a May 6 Laguna village. Laguna: IRRI. June 12 Hirashima, Shigemochi, ed. July 12 1977 Hired labor in rural Asia. Tokyo: In­ August 9 stitute of Developing Economies. September 7 International Labour Office October IO 1974 Sharing in development: A pro­ November 12 gramme of employment, equity and December 14 growth for the Philippines. Geneva: January 12 International Labour Office. February 9, 1979 II Kerkvliet, Benedict J. 1980 Classes, consciousness, the change in 18lt is interesting to note that control of one a Philippine village. Paper presented farm machine can offer the opportunity for expan­ to the Annual Meeting of the Asso­ sion. This, however, is not a sufficient condition. ciation for Asian Studies, Washing­ ton, D.C., March. Kikuchi, Masao, and Yujiro Hayami References 1978 Technology and contract: Rice harvesting systems in the Philippines. Anchetti, Eduardo, and Svein Aass (Mimeo.) 1978 Peasant studies: An overview. In In­ Ledesma, Antonio ternational perspectives in rural 1980 Landless workers and rice farmers: sociology. Howard Newby, ed, New Peasant subclasses under agrarian York: John Wiley and Sons. reform in two Philippine villages. 92 Bautista, et al: Farm Households on Rice and Sugar Lands

Ph.D. thesis. University of Wis­ analysis. Philippine Labor Review consin-Madison. 1:4. Makil, Lorna Pena-Reyes, and Patria Fermin Umehara,Hiromitsu 1976 Landless rural workers in the Philip­ 1980 Green revolution for whom'! An in­ pines: A documentary survey. quiry into its beneficiaries in a Cen­ Manila: Institute of Philippine tral Luzon village, Philippines. Paper Culture, Ateneo de Manila Universi­ read at the 24th International Geo­ ty. graphic Congress, Tokyo, Ofreneo, Rene September. 1976 The Philippine labor force: A class SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF COCONUT FARMING IN TWO SOUTHERN TAGALOG VILLAGES·

LUZVIMINDA CORNISTA

Introduction The focus of the study on the Philippine coconut lands. However, it is proceeding coconut industry, in general, and on coconut with extreme caution not only because of the farming, in particular, stems from the industry'S critical role in the national critical role of the industry in the national economy but also because of the dearth of economy. Coconut in the form of copra, oil, knowledge on the socioeconomic conditions cake meal or dessicated is one of the leading in coconut farming. Not much intensive agricultural exports of the country and documentation has been made on the organi­ therefore, a steady and substantial source of zation and functioning of coconut farming dollar earnings. Moreover, coconut farming especially at the micro-level. The existing ranks second to rice and corn in terms of its studies according to Harkin "do not provide employment absorption of the rural labor information of sufficient details to form any force. It is estimated that of the more than recommendation as to the potential need for six millions employed in crop farms in 1973, reform or what kind of reorganization of 10.9 percent are in coconut farms. And it is coconut production would be beneficial.' 1 also second to rice and corn in terms of land The inadequacy of information on coco­ utilization. nut farming is the result of several factors. Despite the industry's importance, not First, in the past the social investigators con­ much attention has been given to the well­ centrated on rice farming because of its im­ being of those directly involved in coconut portance as the primary means of livelihood farming. In fact, the present agrarian reform of a great majority of Filipinos. Moreover, program (Operation Land Transfer and the social unrest among the rice farmers Operation Leasehold) applies only to tenant­ made them an interesting phenomenon to be farmers of private agricultural lands studied. Second, because of its importance primarily devoted to rice and corn produc­ to the economy, the coconut industry has tion under a system of sharecrop or been protected by the government and, leasehold tenancy. With coconut lands rank­ therefore, shielded from being thoroughly ing second in crop area and with a large studied. Third, the coconut farmer as a number of farmers engaged in coconut farm­ social grouping has not been clearly ing, it has been argued by developmentalists distinguished whether conceptually or that the exclusion of coconut lands (and for analytically. For instance, the Philippine that matter, other croplands) from the pro­ Coconut Authority (PCA), the government gram has deprived a large number of rural agency in charge of the industry, defines a people who draw sustenance from the land coconut farmer as one the enjoyment of the benefits afforded by (a) who owns and tills the farm by the program. himself and!or with the assistance of In reaction to the growing clamor for farm laborers and/or by the persons reform, the government is presently con­ described in (b) and (c); templating some kind of agrarian reform in (b) who harvests and processes the 94 Cornista: Social DYnamics of Coconut Farming

coconut product and is compensated itures, credit, and labor utilization, inten­ in the form of the produce which he sive record-keeping was introduced among sells as his own; or cooperators representing different tenurial (c) who works in the coconut farm and subclasses.I A survey ofthe coconut farming is compensated in kind which he sells population was further made to gather other as his own. pertinent data.! The three techniques men­ In the above definition, participants in tioned above supply the "hard" quantita­ the coconut production are seen as cons­ tive data. For qualitative data, participant tituting a homogeneous grouping ­ observation and interviewing of key infor­ whether a landowner, a tenant, or a laborer. mants were heavily relied on. On the whole, While this facilitates categorization of field work lasted for 10 months in Santiago I and 6 months in Atisan. coconut producers, it may obscure important distinctions which are crucial to policies and programs related to the industry. Thus, any Summary ofFindings information which does not make analytical The findings are organized around distinctions among the different tenurial specific themes: (a) the transformation of groupings is bound to be inadequate and may the coconut farming system; (b) the socio­ at times be misleading. economic characteristics of the different coconut actors; and (c) the social relation­ The Problems and Methodology ships existing within and among tenure In general, the aim of the study is to groups. understand how and why the coconut farm­ ing system is.organized the way it is and On Transformation functions in the manner it does. More specif­ ically, the intention is (a) to identify those The intrusion of market forces into a who are involved in coconut production; (b) subsistence economy which produces coco­ to determine their socioeconomic nut for exchange accounts for the transfor­ characteristics; (c) to examine the social rela­ mation of the coconut farming system. The tionships among the different coconut ac­ following changes in the organization of tors; and (d) to ascertain the forces that have coconut production are evident. brought about the present structure of the First, from an essentially household coconut farming system. enterprise, coconut farming was transform­ My research consisted of case studies of ed into one which is dependent on outside two coconut villages in San Pablo City in hired labor to perform farming tasks, absorb­ Laguna Province. Laguna was chosen ing the growinglabor force brought about by because it is a predominantly coconut­ the rapid increase in population. A distinct producing area. And within the boundaries of .hired laboring class eventuallyemerged. San Pablo City, small holding and tenanted Second, from an essentially owner-op­ coconut farms are commonly found. erated enterprise, coconut farming evolved The two villagesrepresent different levels into one where the farm's operations are of economic development. The older and shared by a mag-aalaga, As a consequence, more accessible settlement, Santiago I, has division of labor became more distinct: the developed into a market-oriented economy landowners own the land and its fruits, the while the relatively new but more remote mag-aalaga take care of the fruits for which mountain settlement, Atisan, has maintained they get a share, and the hired laborers con­ its partly subsistence economy. centrate on harvesting and processing tasks Both quantitative and qualitative for which they are paid wages. methods of data gathering were employed. Third and related to the first two, is the Baseline information on the villages were rise of task specialization within the hired gathered through a census. To get more ac­ laboring group which has resulted in further curate' data on household income, expend- social differentiation and stratification. Second Viewfrom the Paddy 95

Fourth, tenurial changes occurred. In the availability of land resources for raising sub­ market economy of Santiago I, the transfor­ sistence crops as well as other cash crops, mation of owner-operators into mag-aalaga and (b) the presence of strong kinship ties. and/or into hired laborers is quite common; While the first factor has allowed Santiago similarly, the transformation of resident I to adjust to price fluctuations, this may not landowners who were originally owner­ be true in the near future given the absence of operators into nonresident landowners with land frontiers in the village and the tighter mag-aalaga is not rare (see Figure 1). A re­ control by the owners on the use oftheir lands cent development is the growing number of by the mag-aalaga and hired laborers. This nonnatives who are also nonresident land­ situation becomes more problematic if one owners. In the subsistence village of Atisan, considers that the village is more dependent a different pattern of transformation is on coconut products for its livelihood and, observed. Kaingeros who decided to settle therefore, more vulnerable to price fluctua­ down in the village became mag-aalaga, tions. In Atisan, the availability of un­ When enough savings were accumulated to cultivated lands and the willingness of the purchase coconut lands, the original ka­ owners to have their lands cleared and ingeros were transformed into owner­ planted show its greater capacity to cushion operators. This partly explains why the pre­ the effects of market instability. sent resident landowners are all owner­ Aside from the availability of resources, operators (Figure 2). strong kinship ties also help in cushioning Fifth, coconut farms which were relative­ the effects of market forces. For instance, ly big holdings were parcellized. This was the conflicts among the social actors which due to both the inheritance system under may arise from the changing conditions are' which contiguous property is divided among partly mediated by these ties. The same fac­ the heirs and to the system of selling/mort­ tor allows for the sharing of poverty among gaging coconut lands by the number of trees the economically worse-off coconut actors and not by area (Figure 3). There is however, manifested in various work arrangements. an apparent trend towards consolidation of these parcellized holdings. A number of On socioeconomic characteristics well-off villagers and nonvillagers (but It is the basic contention of the study that mostly the latter) are investing in coconut coconut actors should be conceptualized and lands by buying those up for sale or accept­ analyzed as a heterogenous grouping. To ing them as collateral for loans. Moreover, consider the contrary is misleading and heirs tend to hold their inherited lands in could be dangerous if translated into specific common ownership or sell them as one hold­ policies and programs. Any attempt to for­ ing. mulate policies must identify the different Sixth, a marketing system of various tenure groups and their subclasses as well as levels arose. Consequently, the earnings their nature and socioeconomic from coconut products are siphoned from characteristics. the producers and appropriated through a Landowners are categorized into system of buyers (Figure 4). residents and nonresidents and those with Coconut, being a primary product for ex­ and without mag-aalaga. The residence fac­ port, is constantly subject to price fluctua­ tor becomes an important variable in look­ tions in the world market. Thus, the coconut ing at the nature of the relationship of the villages become vulnerable to the instability landowner and his mag-aalaga as well as the of the market. During commodity booms, extent of the former's participation in farm economic prosperity is apparent in the vil­ management. It seems that the resident land­ lages (specifically for those in possession of owner tends to develop closer ties with his coconut farms). And during low periods, the mag-aalaga and engage actively in farm producers and laborers experience difficulty. management. However, the proximity and However, the effects of market instability the availability of easy means of transporta­ have been cushioned by two factors: (a) the tion in Santiago I enable the nonresident ~ .~ ~ ":i 8 <3 Case1 'i:;> - mains owner- ship (if prkes tl of roconul are .~ a;;:qllislUon landownerwilh pllrsued Hfe eocollUl farms Owner- rise of favorable' Operalor ~ of more ~ ~ mag-aalap 1---+ moreleisure --+ of Ieisore ---'» morlgaged/ ~ coconul farms mag-aalap (resident) for owner - becomesa mag- wilh Income sold aaiaga of his t:::l dependenl on farm or olher eocollUl farms farms - becomesan agri- ] cullllrallaborer - becomesa non- .~2 farm worker 'E; engagedIn olber acqlliredmore lands <3 occupationslike Ihm mortgage or enronlll buying, --?bllylag becomes a non- bakery business, residenllandowner ek. wilh mag-aalaga

'I'

Casez

Owner- 1_dependenl - failed10acquire - relains ownership(remainsan owner-operalor' on roconul farms roconol farms Operalor t--~ ~ - becomesmag-lllliaga of his farm or Olherfarms and pursued Hfe morlgaged/sold - becomesan agrIculluratlaborer of leisure coconul farms -.becomesa IIOnfarm worker

Figure 1. Two eases of tenurial transformation of an owner-operator In Santiago 1.

~ Second View from the Paddy 97

Case 1: Teuurial Transformation of a kaingero: Atisan

-_In.1/Ie a('cumulates ..... savings for investment Kaingero J M.g_l.g. I -I I Owuer..otJtrator

- ..UledIn the .iII.ge accumulatessavings for in"estment

Case 2: Tenurial transformation of tbe Kabigting Family.

Child A owner-

Child B nonmldmt lattd01t'Jter with mag.....aga·

Owner..operafor F.t.....

Child 0 nonowner. nonresident

Child E m.g_logo, resident

Cbild F m&g.-aatap, rtslde:nt

Case3: Tenurial Transformation of Nanay Pinay Bayan and ber family.

Child A nonresident landowner with tenant

Child B nonresident landowner appointment with tenaot residtllt rmamident V Owner..operator landowner landowner with ~ witb temmt of mag"'8a'aga tenant Child C nonresidentlandowner -. with tenant - old oge ·_-Inl/le ~ Child 0 \ nonresident landowner wiChltAant

Flgu.re2. Three cases of tenurial transformation in Atisan, 98 Cornista: Social Dynamics ofCoconut Farming [B-- [g------­ [8-- I it ~ l­ [B-­ ·····{~l·· IT:}-­ [g--- [E}--- ~-- 8-­ ~-­ @J-­ ·····-{~l·· 8-­ B-- EJ--- ~-- [B-- ~-­ [E]--­ [0-- 0-- Q ~--

Q--L:.:J ------0IJ10 --- ;:;i -- [EJ~ .. lq ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ "" Village Foreign Producer Agent Contratlsla buyer , Desslcator market

I r Fresh Nuts

Village buyer Foreign ~ Contratlsla Trading lIouse "- 011 mill or . . market Small producer

'I' I I

Copra

Figure 4: Marketing channel of coconut/copra In San Pablo City, 1979-80.

~ /00 Cornista: Social Dynamics of Coconut Farming

landowners who reside in the poblacion to Generally, the landowners and mag-aala­ do the same. In this sense, nonresidence can ga have been in possession of their farms for not be equated with absenteeism. over 15 years. The landowners acquired their The same can not apply to Atisan. The landholdings through inheritance or the remoteness of the village and the absence of market. A majority of the landowners with good means of transportation prevent the mag-aalaga acquired theirs through the nonresident landowner who resides in the market. Most mag-aalaga, in turn, acquired poblacion from having direct participation tenancy rights when they were personally in farm management (although some major asked by the landowners to take care of the decisions are still made by him). Lately, farms. It is interesting to note the tenure however, there has been an emerging trend status inheritance within the family of the towards the same pattern observed in San­ mag-aalaga and the hired laborers. Thus, the tiago I. The nonresident landowners either parents of a mag-aalaga were also mag-aala­ hire a katiwala (usually a relative) to act as ga; those of the magkakawit were also mag­ overseer/administrator or regularly visit the kakawit; and so on. The practice of passing farm despite the hardships entailed. In look­ tenancy rights to the children which is legally ing more substantively at the social relations sanctioned, explains the continuity of pag­ of production, the mag-aalaga is a useful' aalag(J within the family. Similarly, the ex­ social category. In the study, the categoriza­ posure to the task by the children of hired tion of landowners based onwhether they laborers as well as the limited employment have mag-aalaga or not is adhered to. alternatives probably motivated them to take Mag-aalaga are categorized according to on the jobs of their parents in their the size of their alagaan. A big mag-aalaga adulthood. operates an alagaan of 6 hectares; a medium The data on household income, expend­ mag-aalagamore than 3 hectares but lessthan 'itures, credit, and labor utilization have 6; and a small mag-aalaga, less than 3 hec­ been gathered for all tenurial subclasses ex­ tares. Hired laborers areclassified(according) cept the mag-iipon, in the case of Santiago I, to the task performed: the magkakawit and in the case of Atisan, for the owner­ plucks the nuts from the trees; the mag-Upon operator, all the mag-aalaga types, and three gathers the plucked nuts; the magtatapas types of hired laborers (magkakawit, magha­ dehusks them; the magkakariton or hakot, and magtatapas). Some interesting maghahakot transports them to a designated patterns are observed. For instance, where place usually along the roadside; and the income is primarily derived from coconut magkokopra processes nuts into copra. farming activities, stratification based on Landowners and mag-aalaga belong to tenure in coconut farms is distinctly ap­ the older age group (50 years old and above) parent. Thus, in Santiago I the landowning compared to the hired laborers who are in households generate the biggest income; the their twenties and thirties. The landowners mag-aalaga, the second biggest; and the with mag-aalaga have the highest educa­ hired laborers, the smallest (Figure 5). tional attainment (college level) in contrast Where income is primarily derived from to the other tenurial subclasses who have other sources, like noncoconut farming in only reached the elementary grades. In­ Atisan, this distinction is not discernible terestingly, Atisan landowners with mag­ (Figure 6). Consequently, the seasonality of aalaga generally do not consider landowning income is more evident in Santiago I·than in as their primary occupation but rather point Atisan (Figures 7 and 8). While the heads re­ to the exercise of a profession. It is not un­ main the primary income contributors, the common to find owner-operators, rnag-aala­ spouses and children are also income con­ ga and hired laborers having other tenures. tributors. For instance, an owner-operator is also a In terms of household expenditures, hired laborer in his alagaan or in other there is a general pattern observed among all farms. This seems to be a strategy for sur­ tenure groups: they spend more than what vival by these coconut actors. they earn. However, this is more pervasive in (;)

8;:, I:l. ~ 5500 ~ ~ Cl 5000 ::l S. '"~ 4500 & "" 4000

3500

3000 •g riiil 2500 ~ 0 '-l 2S 2000

1500

1000

500

0 with without BIG MEDIUM SMALL KAWIT HAKOT COPRA TAPAS Mag-aalaga Mag-aa1aga

L """'"'" "" /\ "" "" LANDOWNER MAG-AALAGA HIRED LABORERS

Figure 5. Average household gross income for 19 weeks, Santiago I, 1979...... ~ .~ ~ ~ :i E:: e8 1000 l- '0> .~ 9001- § E:: cS 8001- ~ ~ 700 l- S! .!:/ eE 6001- a; = SOO I- ...'= ~ 4001- c0 Z - 3001-

200 I-

100 I-

0 WITHOUT BIG MEDIUM SMALL KAWIT HAKOT TAPAS MAG·AALAGA , yo /' V' ' LANDOWNER MAG.AALAGA HIRED LABORERS

Figure 6. Average household gross income for 42 days, Atisao, 19110. s.... Figure 7. Weekly income of seven cooperating households. Santiago 1. 104 Cornista: Social Dynamics of Coconut Farming

600

500

OWNER.()PERATOR

200

100

2 .3 4 5 6

MAG·AALAGA

1-- -- BIgMedium _.-...... Smal.l

600

soo HIRED LABORERS

Kawlt e --- Hakut ~= 400 1- ;.: -----. Tapas ~ 0 i;J 300 ~

200

100

0 6

Figure 8. WeeklyiDc:ome of ninecooperating bousebolds, Adstm. Second View from the Paddy 105

Santiago I where all household cooperators the coconut farms. The households therefore, spend more than their income. Following the tend to concentrate on coconut farming ac­ income pattern of the villages, household ex­ tivities. In Atisan, the availability and penditure is directly related to tenure in San­ lucrativeness of coffee and vegetable raising tiago I but not in Atisan. Consumption ex­ prompt the households to focus on this type penditures in both villages get the bulk of the of activity. In any case, the participation of income. Interestingly, the biggests expend­ wivesand children in economic activities is to itures item in the former is food; in the lat­ be noted. Women are engaged in all types of ter, it is household items (furniture, ap­ activities from coconut farming to nonfarm pliances, and others). This implies Santiago work. Children who are old enough to work I's dependence on the market for food. It are also utilized by the households in almost also shows Atisan's subsistence character, all work activities. on the one hand, and the growing awareness The tasks of owner-operators and mag­ for new wants created by the market, on the aalaga in coconut farms are usually centered other. on cleaning the farm, watching the fruits, Indebtedness is a characteristic common to and overseeing the harvesting tasks. The all tenure groups although in Atisan a high work of the landowners with mag-aalaga in­ level of indebtedness is associated with cludes overseeing the harvesting, visiting the possession of coconut farms. Frequent bor­ farm from time to time, and making all the rowing from relatives and sari-sari stores ex­ major farm decisions. For these, the plains why coconut households can afford to households spend minimal time and the spend more than what they earn. A pattern heads do most of the work. worth mentioning is the observed practice in Of all the household members, the labor Atisan where coconut households that do not of the heads is the most utilized. In general, overspend are nonetheless borrowers. Part of however, there is an apparent underutiliza­ their earnings are set aside for future tion of household labor of all tenure groups emergency use. For some of their consump­ in both villages. tion needs, they borrow from the usual On social relationships sources of credit. Given an almost interest­ free loan, their behavior is rational. Another The presence of strong kinship ties interesting note is that while all loans in San­ permeates the social relationships among the tiago I are used for consumption, a substan­ different tenure groups. In coconut produc­ tial portion of these are spent by the Atisan tion, the presence of these ties enables the households on productive endeavors like buy­ development and strengthening of patron­ ing and selling of coffee and vegetables. client relationships between the landowner Labor utilization patterns indicate that and his mag-aalaga and hired laborers. This the intensity in use of household labor is not condition is more pronounced in Santiago I premised on the possession of coconut farms than in Atisan not only because kinship ties and does not necessarily determine economic are stronger in the former but also because well-being. For example, the small mag­ the village's accessibility assures constant in­ aalaga cooperating households in Santiago I teraction between the actors, an essential in­ spent more labor time in income-generating gredient of this type of patronage-cliente­ activities, yet, in terms of income, they lism. The absenteeism of a substantial received the least. In fact, the landowners number of landowners with rnag-aalaga in with mag-aalaga who expended the least Atisan inhibits the development of a strong labor time were the biggest income earners.' patron-client relationship which, in the case Household labor is usually utilized in work of these mag-aalaga, may not be necessary which, based on the household's calculations, given their virtual control of the a/agaan. would generate the most income. Its choice The functionality of the patron-client rela­ however, is constrained by what is available. tionship is now subjected to countervailing In Santiago I, the most favorable work op­ forces like: (a) the transfer of ownership or portunities within the village are found within pag-aalaga rights to heirs/nonkins/nonre- 106 Cornista: Social Dynamics of Coconut Farming sidents; (b) the growing importance of While the suki system has a functional coconut and intercrops as income sources; role given imperfect market conditions, it and (c) the threat of agrarian reform. partly accounts for the control of farmgate Whether kinship ties can continue to mediate prices by the middlemen which in turn pre­ these factors is now problematic. vents those involved in coconut production, Patronage-clientelism also characterizes notably the owner-operators, the mag­ the coconut buyer-hired laborer relationship aalaga, and the hired laborers, from getting with kinship ties as the underlying considera­ a bigger share of the value of the produce. tion. Again these social ties enable, to a large Moreover, while monopsonism has been extent, the relationship to thrive and con­ partially mitigated by the presence of com­ flicts to be mediated. It is interesting to note peting buyers and varied sources of price in­ that the subjective perception of reality by formation, the suki system through its credit an economically deprived tenure group, like component ties the seller to a particular the hired laborers of Santiago I, makes ex­ buyer. isting objective conditions, which may be Implications ofthe Study essentially exploitative, acceptable. In this situation, a seemingly harmonious relation­ The implications of the findings of the ships is maintained. For instance, a hired study can be viewed on two levels: (a) the laborer's view of economic loss is in terms of conceptual, and (b) the practical. opportunity cost rather than in terms of At the conceptual level, I have argued for value lost. Thus, payment of a much lower a historical and structural framework. I have wage rate becomes acceptable to him as pointed out the historical forces that went in­ long as he gets and is assured of more work to the development of the present coconut to do. Iflater he realizes that the condition is farming system and have shown the relation­ indeed exploitative, kinship ties and the ship between the economic and nonecono­ recognition of limited work alternatives mic structures. However, I have not dealt would inhibit him from openly demanding a fully with the relationship of the national higher wage rate. and the coconut farming system. In fact, an In coconut marketing, the imperfection important area of further research is the con­ of the market has given rise to a situation trol of the state on the coconut industry and where there are several marketing levels and how it affects the farming system. An inten­ where the suki system permeates the rela­ sive study on the political economy of the in­ tionship between the buyer and the seller. To dustry is indeed needed. Nevertheless, the assure himself of a regular and sufficient impact of market forces on the farming supply of produce, the buyer enters into a structure has been identified. On the whole, suki relationship with the seller-producer it can be argued more conclusively that the through the extension of credit and peri­ conceptual framework adopted in the study pheral services to the latter. On the other is useful in a comprehensive understanding hand, to assure himself of a good price for of a social phenomenon set within the con­ his produce and to enjoy the services attend­ text of an agrarian peasant society. ant to the relationship, the producer develops The study also confirms the notions of suki relations with the buyer. substantivist economists that in agrarian Among the buyers themselves, the suki societies economic activities cannot be system also operates. The village buyers, the understood meaningfully without consider­ katig, have to maintain a suki relationship ing the noneconomic factors and that the with the contratista to get a good price quota­ subjective perception of reality is necessary tion and liberal advance payments. The con­ to know why actors behave in the manner tratista, on the other hand, has to develop they do and how they react and adapt to suki relationships with trading houses and/or structural forces. The latter has important processing companies to get favorable con­ theoretical implications because it looks at tracts and insure against the instability of the relationship between structuralism and coconut prices. phenomenology. Second View from the Paddy 107

At the practical level of policy and pro­ Fourth, there are some practices within gram implementation, the findings of the the production and marketing systems like study point to several substantive considera­ patronage-clientelism, suki system, and tions. others which, given socioeconomic insecurity First, any policy should consider the diver­ and imperfect market conditions, appear to sityof coconut farming systems.A smallhold­ be financial. To eliminate them without cor­ ing owner-operated coconut farm is different recting the structures that make them func­ from a smallholding tenant-operated farm. tional may be too costly. Also, a coconut farming system which is Fifth, while the levels of living of embedded in a partly subsistence society is coconut actors prove to be variable given different from one which is already market­ different conditions, it is safe to assume that dependent. Moreover, a smallholding farm the case of Santiago I is indicative of the whether owner-tenant-operated is distinct transformation of the coconut farming from a plantation type of farm. structure as a whole. In this case, the hired Second, the heterogeneity of tenurial laborers are (or would be) the economically classes would have to be taken as a basic worst-off tenure group followed by the mag­ consideration. In other words, landowners aalaga. Hired laborers, as shown by the are to be viewed and analyzed as distinct study could not reach the poverty threshold from the rnag-aalaga and the hired laborers while the mag-aalaga could barely attain it. and viceversa. Even the heterogeneity within Given limited work opportunities, the low a specific tenurial grouping has to be con­ productivity of coconut trees, and the sidered as differentiation may also exist unavailability ofland resources, the plight of within it. these groups particularly the laborers, ap­ Third, there is a growing concern for in­ pears dismal. creasing productivity of coconut farms Sixth and related to the above, any policy through the adoption of innovations. This or program that would displace labor, even pattern, however, is more discernible among temporarily, should be pursued with caution landowners than among mag-aalaga, The as its effects on the well-being of the worse­ resistance to the adoption of innovation by off groups could be critical. For instance, if the latter could be attributed to three the replanting program using the hybrid reasons: (a) Some tasks like harrowing and variety would be implemented nationwide, application of fertilizer are not traditionally employment-generating activities would performed by the mag-aalaga. In fact, they have to be provided for to absorb those mag­ have no implements for harrowing. For the aalaga and hired laborers who might be one-seventh share of the net harvest, they displaced by the program. perceive their work to include cleaning the Lastly and more importantly, if the farm, watching over the trees and their government is serious in pursuing a policy of fruits, and helping the landowner supervise vertical integration of the coconut industry the harvesting tasks. If they are expected to to uplift the farmers, its direct beneficiaries adopt innovations, they have to be given in­ should include not only the coconut land­ centives in the form of a larger owners but more so the mag-aalaga and the payment/share from the produce. (b) The hired agricultural laborers. The present question of who should shoulder the ex­ structure does not allow the poorer tenure penses incurred in the introduction of in­ groups to be directly involved in the program novations is not clear to the mag-aalaga, If since it is difficult for them to become they feel that the burden would be passed on members of the landowner-dominated to them, they would be reluctant to adopt Coconut Producers Federation changes. (c) The mag-aalaga traditionally (COCOFED), the only organization enjoy the right to use the land in between the recognized by the government as officially coconut trees for raising other crops from representing the interests of the coconut which they derive additional income. farmers. Thus, the absence of other Changes that may threaten this right may be farmers' (workers' organizations within the looked at with suspicion. coconut farming industry is noticeable. The 108 Comista: Social Dynamics ofCoconut Farming need to encourage these types of organiza­ agricultural laborers (two for each of the tion to become means for the articulation of subclasses of magkakawit, magkakariton, magta­ the interests and needs of farmers and hired tapas, and magkokopra). farm laborers seems to be imperative. Attempts were made to do a similar record­ keeping scheme in Atisan. However, these were confined to only one harvesting period, from 5 May to 15 June 1980, due to time and financial Notes constraints. Moreover, only seven cooperators chosen purposively were included. The absence of resident landowners with mag-aalaga and of mag­ kokopra within the village prompted their exclu­ LUZVIMINDA CORNISTA, from San Pablo Ci­ sion from the list. The seven cooperators included ty, obtained her Ph.D. in development studies at an owner-operator; three mag-aalaga (one for the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1981). Her each subclass); and hired laborers (one for each familiarity with rural agricultural conditions is the subclass). In both villages mag-iipon-cooperators fruit of wide research experience in various were not included as the task is usually performed agricultural study projects sponsored by the by women and children and not by household Agrarian Reform Institute (ARI), United States heads. Agency for International Development (USAID), 3In Santiago 1 all three techniques of data Center on Integrated Rural Development for Asia gathering were adopted; however, in Atisan the and the Pacific (CIRDAP) and (PCRDF-UPLB). baseline census was omitted because of the She is currently the principal investigator in an on­ availability of village data. going research project on Coconut-based Rural Development. In addition to the current article appearing in this book, she has published the Coconut Farmer's Profile: Eastern Visayas and Glossary "A Critique of the Christian Social Movement Based on the Doctrine of Man." She works as a Training Specialist at the University of the Philip­ pines at Los Banos. kaingin refers to slash and burn agriculture. kaingero is one who engages in slash *This paper is abstracted from the author's Ph. and burn agriculture. D. in Development Studies dissertation (Universi­ mag-aalaga is literally a caretaker: under ty of Wisconsin, Madison). The research was the law he is a tenant. The funded by grants from the RP-IBRD fellowship, root word is alaga which the National Science and Development Board, means "to take care of." and the Land Tenure Center of the University of pag-aalaga is the act of caretaking. Wisconsin-Madison. alagaan is the coconut farm owned by somebody else but taken care IHarkin, Duncan A. 1976. Philippine agrarian of by the mag-aalaga. reform in perspective of three years of Martial magkakawit is a hired laborer in coconut Law. Land Tenure Center. University of Wiscon­ farms whose main job is to sin-Madison. p. 29. harvest/pluck nuts from the trees through the use of a 2Yhe choice ofcooperators was done through a bamboo pole with a sharp stratified purposive sampling scheme. InSantiago bolo attached to the end of 1, record-keeping covered 19 weeks or three the pole. The root word is harvesting seasons. It started on 21 May 1979,and kawit which means "to ended on 30 September 1979. Twenty-one coope­ hook." rators were initially chosen; however, at the mid­ magkakariton - is a hired laborer who dle of the record-keeping period, three dropped transports husked nuts from out. Thus, only 18 cooperators remained - four the farm to a designated place landowners (two with mag-aalaga who were also with the use of a cart pulled resident-landowners; two without mag-aalaga); by a carabao. The root word six mag-aalaga (two each for the big, medium, is kariton which means and small mag-aalaga subclasses); and eight "cart." second View from the Paddy 109 maghahakot is a hired laborer who katiwala is an overseer or ad­ transports husked nuts and ministrator of a coconut other farm products to a farm. designated place using a katig is a coconut buyer who buys horse. The root word is hakot small volumes of produce which means "to carry." and operates at the village magkokopra is a hired laborer who pro­ level. He is a subcontractor cesses fresh nuts into copra. of a contratista or trading The root word is house. The word literally kopralcopra which is the means "to ride with." dried coconut meat. conrratista is a coconut buyer who deals magtatapas is a hired laborer who with buying large volumes of dehusks whole fresh nuts. produce. He enters into a con­ The root word is tapas which tract with a dessicator com­ means "to remove the pany, a trading house, or an husk." oil mill to supply them with mag-Upon is a hired laborer who gathers coconut produce within a coconuts harvested by a mag­ specified period of time and at kakawit. The root word is a specified price. ipon which means "to suki is an arrangement which gather." permeates commercial trans­ poblacion is the "urban center" or the action where the market is town proper of a municipali­ imperfect. Risk is reduced ty. through the extension of pakikisama is a Filipino behavior pattern credit by the coconut buyer to which stresses good relations a potential group of pro­ and avoidance of stressful ducers. The lending risks are confrontations. It can also be mitigated by sanctions which a means of establishing a sit­ control personalized and uation where a reciprocal multiple relations. Suki is bas­ relationship would ultimately ed on mutual trust between ensue. the buyers and producers and sari-sari store is a small retail store which on mutual economic advan­ carries a variety of goods tages ensuing from 'the rela­ both dry and fresh. The word tionship. literally means "variety." A CASE STUDY OF THE IMPLEMENTATION AND IMPACT OF OPERATION LAND TRANSFER IN A FARMING VILLAGE: 1972-1979

CORAZON C. PANGANlBAN

This case study of Barrio Bukid was implementation of Operation Land undertaken for the purpose of looking into Transfer, and an assessment of the impact of the implementation of the Operation Land the agrarian reform program on the economic Transfer program, and its likely impact on conditions of the farmers. the material conditions of farmer­ Agrarian Conditions Prior beneficiaries. As is well known, the Opera­ to Operation Land Transfer tion Land Transfer program is part of the government's efforts at land reform which Barrio Bukid's foremost patron at the was given renewed impetus in the early turn of the century was from San Miguel, 1970s, land reform having been declared the Bulacan. His extensive landholdings were cornerstone of the social reconstruction en­ spread out in Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, and visioned under the New Society. Isabela. He had close to 600 hectares of Barrio Bukid is located in Nueva Ecija, agricultural lands, 85 percent of which was the province that has served as the pilot area concentrated in Barrio Bukid. for the land reform program in earlier years, Old .farmers described him as having and which has been given the largest institu­ been kind and generous. He was easy with tional support for land reform. Field in­ loans, the rasyon (food rations for sub­ vestigation in the barrio was carried out bet­ sistence allowance), and other advances dur­ ween January to mid-March 1979, some 6 ing the lean months, particularly at the onset years after the initiation of the Operation of the planting season and those preceding Land Transfer program. Providing basic in­ the harvest. He was, also responsive to the formation for the study were 56 farmers, farmers' need to improve their livelihood by also representing 56 percent of the identified allowing them to clear and transform virgin tenant-beneficiaries of Operation Land lands into farming areas. The benevolenceof Transfer in the barrio. All 56 farmers were this landlord was considered representative permanent residents of Barrio Bukid, whose of the patrons at that period, when land was farm holdings were located in the barrio abundant and farm labor scarce. itself. Towards the 1930s, the "Don" as the In interviews and other discussion ses­ patron was fondly called, left the ad­ sions, farmers were asked to relate their ex­ ministration of his hacienda to his eldest periences with the Operation Land Transfer son. The new landlord initiated the practice program, the past and current socioecono­ of giving loans at exorbitant interest rates, mic data on their households and farms, as which became popularly known as the talin­ wellas the conditions obtaining in the barrio duwa (three for two or at 50 percent interest) prior to the implementation of Operation and takipan (to the brim or at tOO percent in­ Land Transfer. Subsequent sections of the terest). After World War II, 'he stayed in paper present a brief historical review of Manila, and consequently, had less contacts agrarian conditions in the study barrio with his tenants. The care of the hacienda before 1972, the processes involved in the. was left to an enkargado (overseer) who was, Second Viewfrom the Paddy III more often that not, indifferent to the ten­ mode of relations was favorably received, on ant's predicaments. It was no longer easy account of their dissatisfaction with the in­ for tenants to get the customary rasyon and ability of their tenants to comply with finan­ the other extras which served as ameliorative cial obligations. The landlords expected that measures in their times of great need. At the the new land reform law would exert pressure same time, the landlord became more on the tenants to meet their responsibilities demanding, asking for the prompt payment which the new tenurial status required. of the tenants' debts and his share of the But the process leading to the breaking of harvests. bonds ended with feelings of dissatisfaction An old farmer articulates the popular and defeat on the part of the tenants. This sentiments of the tenants during the period: was an inevitable consequence of the "Magulo ang buhay ng isang kasama. landlord's demands for lease rentals higher Magmula noong 1945, sari-sari and kundis­ than those stipulated by law. On their part, yones ng mga propriyetaryo. Ang mga the lessees attempted ways and means to ar­ kasama'y ginagawang tanga, at katakut­ rive at a compromise in resolving the issueof takot ang mga patubo." (A sharecropper's lease rental even at their own expense. As a life was troublesome, various conditions had case in point, a former lessee cited his par­ been set by the landlords from the year 1945; ticular experience in the settlement of lease the sharecropper was made a fool of and, in­ rent. As R.A. 3844 defined it, lease terest rates were exorbitant.) payments should be equivalent to 25 percent In the 1950s, the second-generation of the average net rice yield per hectare, landlord decided to make his children heirs covering the three-year period prior to the to his real property in Nueva Ecija. The area promulgation of the Code. Net yield was comprising Barrio Bukid was given to two of derived after deducting the cost (expressedin his children and his common-law wife. They cavans) of seeds, harvesting, threshing, maintained the kasama (tenancy) system loading and other processing operations. although the sharing scheme was changed to During that period (the 1960s),a respondent the 70-30 proportion. These changes are farmer recalls that, with an average gross reflective of the historical trend in Philippines harvest of 30 cavans per hectare (the com­ agrarian relations as pointed out by Kerkvliet mon rice yield in Nueva Ecija then), net rice (1974) and Scott (1976). yield was 18 cavans per hectare. The Convinced of the futility of restoring the legitimate lease rent should have been 4.5 traditionally paternalistic relations with their -cavans per hectare. This was so because with landlords, the tenants had long wished for a an average gross harvest of 30 cavans per change in their tenurial status from share hectare, 12cavans were usually spent on pre­ tenancy to leasehold. They finally found cessing costs leaving a balance of 18 cavans support in R.A. 3844, a land reform law pro­ as net yield. To cope with the demands of the mulgated in 1967. A year later, this peasant landlord for a lease rent of 10 cavans per mobilization acquired legitimacy when the hectare, the lessees expressed willingness to 21 Nueva Ecija towns were proclaimed a pay 6 cavans. Such negotiations, however, land reform area. ended with the farmers being overruled by As regards the implications of leasehold the decision of the landlord to collect 8 as a new mode of relationship, a tenant cavans a hectare for lease payments. leader recalled that the tenants were willing Conversion to leasehold was also a prob­ to assume the risks and responsibilities lem as shown by the fact that when leasehold which leasehold entailed as long as it was declared nationwide by Republic Act brought about a breaking of bonds with the 6389 in 1972, 38 percent of the farmers in landlords. Concomitantly, they also hoped Barrio Bukid remained sharecroppers. Of that the government would effectively pro­ those who shifted to leasehold, 62 percent vide them the support which their new role had only oral lease arrangements with their would require. landlords. The non-compliance with the On the part of the landlords, this demand legally-sanctioned written leasehold con­ of the kasamas (tenants) for a different tracts or even the issuance of rental receipts II2 Panganiban: Case Study: Implementation and Impact ofOLT by the landlords would prove to be a major 56 farmers, only 26 had started amortizmg obstacle for the lessees when the opportunity their land. Another 16 farmers also had towards owner-cultivatorship came their received their CLTs but had not started to way within another agrarian reform setting. pay amortization dues. The remaining 14 farmers continued to identify themselves as Operation Land Transfer: lessees because they had not been issued their Problems ofImplementation CLTs. Of the three groups of farmers, clearly Located in the showcase province, Barrio disadvantaged were the 14 lessees who could Bukid was among the earliest villages to be not avail of the promise of land ownership covered by the New Society's agrarian which the CLT symbolized. Neither could reform program under P.D. 27 in 1972. The they avail of the loan privilege provided by mechanism for the transfer of land to the ac­ P.D. 315, which authorized the use of CLTs tual tiller, otherwise known as Operation as collateral for farming loans, assuming Land Transfer, was launched a year after, that the value of the farmholding has already and consisted of four procedural steps, been determined. The farmer-lessees claim namely: that they had raised the question of the non­ (1) the identification of prospective issuance of their CLTs at a meeting with tenant beneficiaries and their land­ Ministry of Agrarian Reform (MAR) lords; representatives who were enforcing"Assault (2) the sketching and parcellary map­ Operation Land Transfer" in the province. ping of the respective farm hold­ According to the farmers, the Ministry ings of identified tenant bene­ spokesman explained that printing imperfec­ ficiaries; tions may have caused the delay in the is­ (3) the distribution of certificates of suance of their CLTs, The spokesman, land transfer (CLTs) to tenant however, did not seem to have ready answers beneficiaries; and to the farmers' questions as to why they were (4) the conduct of land valuation pro­ not apprised of the status of their CLTs ceedings between landlords and earlier, and as to how long it would take tenants. government agencies to correct the printing deficiencies in their CLTs, Considering that the land transfer pro­ Among the 16 amortizing owners who gram was launched in Barrio Bukid 6 years had not started amortization payments, back, and given the political significance at­ some also encountered problems regarding tached to the distribution ofCLTs, it was ex­ their CLTs. Five farmers complained that pected that the first three steps of Operation their CLTs had erroneous entries, ranging Land Transfer would have been completed from incorrect location of farm parcels to at the time of the study (1979). Certificates misinformation on farm size. Others could of land transfer bestow a salutary effect on not retrieve their CLTs which they had certificate holders, who become officially naively entrusted to a tractor dealer and to a recognized as the "deemed" owners of the government lending agency as collateral for land. On the other hand, the non-completion the purchase of tractors. It is to be noted of the fourth procedural step in 1979 may be that these farmers acquired their loans at the understandable considering the time needed time when the provisions of P.D. 315 were for landlords and tenants to negotiate the interpreted liberally, allowing CLT holders sensitive issue over land values. with unresolved land valuation problems to The tenure status of the 56 farmer avail of farming loans. The local Samahang respondents in the study provides some clue Nayon president, however, disclosed that, as to how well Operation Land Transfer pro­ later on, the provisions of the decree were ceeded in Barrio Bukid, and related informa­ strictly enforced, leaving only those with set­ tion on the problems faced by farmers in the tled land valuation eligible for the loan process of acquiring land ownership. Of the privilege. Second Viewfrom the Paddy 113

Because their CLTs had not been issued land. As a conciliatory measure, the farmers to them, or because of the erroneous entries said that they had agreed to another adjust­ in these, all 30 farmers (the 16 amortizing ment by raising the average productivity owners and the 14 lessees) had unresolved figure to 50 cavans, Correspondingly, land land valuation problems. The information value was increased to P4,375 a hectare. needed for determining the value of their Despite the adjustment, however, the farms was to have been based on the data in­ landlords continued to question the propriety dicated in the CLT. Nonetheless, they had of the BCLP procedures. They insisted that a participated in the Landlord Tenant Produc­ more acceptable basis for land valuation tion Agreement (LTPA) 1 procedures con­ should consider the current productivity ducted in the barrio in 1973. According to potential of the farms, including the benefits the farmers, their landlords had insisted on a derived from irrigation servicesestablished in price of P12,000 per hectare for unirrigated 1975. Given these factors, a hectare of farm rice farms, whereas the farmers were willing should cost P12,000 as they had requested in to buy these at P5,000 per hectare. Finding earlier LTPA proceedings. this unacceptable, landlords attempted to in­ Land valuation issues were resolved only timidate the farmers by saying that their for the 26 amortizing owners who had been farms would be confiscated by the govern­ amortizing their lands since 1975. This group ment if they refused to accept the price set by of farmers were the tenants of the second the landlords. Since the farmers also refused generation propriyetaryo, his common-law to yield to the landlords' demands, the initial wife, and his two children, each of whom LTPA deliberations ended in a stalemate. had vast landholdings in the barrio. Even Four years later in 1977, the farmers con­ among these farmers, the land valuation cerned were summoned by the Court of proceedings they had been through were not Agrarian Relations in Gapan, for another without problems. As described by them, the round of LTPA meetings. Leaving their determination of the price of land proved to farm activities and using their meager be an arbitrary and cumbersome process, resources, the farmers went to Gapan only to with the landlords essentially dictating the be disappointed by the postponement of the terms of land valuation based on the estab­ meetings because the landlords failed to ap­ lished margin of profit prevalent in Nueva pear. Ecija. Again in early 1979, the Barrio Commit­ LTPA negotiations for this group of far­ tee on Land Production (BCLP) took up the mers were initiated also in 1973 and were issue of land valuation. The committee, in finalized in 1974, after almost a year of hag­ accordance with P.O. 27 used average farm gling. Farm price for unirrigated land was productivity as the basis for determining the fixed between P7,000 to P7,500 per hectare. value of rice farms. The farmers who were Notwithstanding the settlement, the farmers consulted on the matter readily provided the felt demoralized because they could not needed information regarding the average credit as amortization payments (as the law harvest ofan unirrigated farm during the dry provides) the lease rentals they had paid to seasons (when palay yields are higher) cover­ their landlords since October 1972. For one, ing the three years prior to October 1972. most of them had no supporting receipts for Based on the productivity figures drawn by their lease rental payments. Where receipts the farmers, the average yield of an unir­ were available, however, the landlords re­ rigated farm was 35 cavans per hectare. This fused to acknowledge them as the equivalent was further adjusted to 40 cavans to make it of amortization-dues. In most cases, the lease comparable to the normal crop yields in the payments made by the farmers from 1972 to neighboring barrios. Attesting to the validity 1974 were credited not as amortization of the farmers' accounts, the MAR represen­ payments but as compensation for past debts. tative indicated that rice farms in the area Further, it is to be noted that of the 26 should cost P3,5oo per hectare, based on the farmers, 12 agreed to the P7,000 per hectare P.O. 27 formula for determining the value of price ofland, but 14dissented. The reason for 114 Panganiban: Case Study: Implementation and Impact of OL T

their dissent is given in the following account. Land Transfer: one is landlord obstruc­ According to these disgruntled farmers, tionism; and the other, the vacillating, slip­ the land valuation process was resolved in an shod work orientation of the agrarian unprecedented short period of time, a reform implementors. The formulation and development which they had welcomed implementation of Operation Land Transfer believing that the price of their farms would at a time when it was politically expedient to be P4,000 per hectare as verbally agreed engage in a crash land transfer program may upon in earlier LTPA meetings. After the so­ have also contributed to implementation called "settlement," a team coordinator of problems. The casual and sporadic im­ the MAR then asked them to sign the forms plementation of the program has led farmers necessary to formalize the agreement. Trust­ to wonder how long it would take them to ing the MAR representative, the farmers own their lands and whether or not they signed the documents without reading the would eventually acquire these at a fair contents. These were soon followed by price. another document which was supposed to finalize their agreement as regards the value The Impact ofAgrarian of the land they would amortize. Upon ex­ Reform on Farmers' amination, however, they discovered that Conditions the land price written in the document was not P4,000 but fry,OOO per hectare. Farm production data available from Confronted with this issue, and realizing both the 26 farmers with CLTs who have the odds against them the farmers never­ been amor-tizing their lands, and the 14 re­ theless mustered enough courage to expose maining lessees allow us to compare the the anomaly to the MAR officer-in-charge. material conditions of these two sets of As they recall, the MAR official angrily farmers and assess the advantages that berated them for being irresponsible because amortizing ownership may have over they repudiated the validity of the official leasehold. documents they had signed. Dismissing the At the time of the study, both amortizers farmers' claim, he declared that he found no and lessees were cultivating two-hectare ·legal grounds to act on the tenants' com­ farms on the average. Production data for plaints since all the supporting land valua­ the 1978dry season were chosen as the bases tion documents had already been signed and for comparison since dry season yields are were now being processed in preparation for normally higher than those in the wet season the release of the schedule of amortization owing to the prevalence of typhoons in the payments. area. The barrio captain points out, In an interview with a provincial Land however, that even the dry season crops may Bank official, the official admitted that be depleted substantially on account of rat anomalies of this kind did happen. He nar­ and brown greenhoppers' infestation which rated accounts of tenants in other land ruin the ripened palay. reform areas being required to sign blank Table 1 shows that the amortizers pro­ LTPA related documents, and of landlords duced significantly higher yields (63.7 conniving with unscrupulous government cavans/ha.) than lessees (37.8 cavans/ha.). personnel in order to get a better deal in the The higher palay production among amor­ land valuation agreement. A landlord couple tizers is due principally to the efficient irriga­ also confided that there have been cases of tion support on their farms and their ap­ government employees in the agrarian plication of more fertilizers and pesticides. reform sector conniving with landlords for a Investigation reveals that the farms of the more favorable land valuation resolution, in lesseeswere not provided adequate and effi­ exchange for supplemental emoluments. cient irrigation by the National Irrigation The foregoing accounts of the farmers in Administration (NIA). Only one lessee was Barrio Bukid suggest two reasons for the dif­ satisfied with the irrigation service, 29 per­ ficulties in the implementation of Operation cent complained that their farms were only Second View from the Paddy l/5 partially irrigated, and 21 percent claimed ing them a surplus of only to cavans that their farms had too much water since representing 15.6 percent of total rice yield. the irrigation network was installed in their For the lessees, total factor shares come up barrio. On the whole, the data on farmers' to 58 cavans, representing virtually 100 per- production tend to support earlier conten- cent of their total rice yield, and leaving tions indicating increase in rice production them a deficit of some 0.2 cavans, to derive from the utilization of a sound ir- The figures indicate that while the lessees rigation system and other farm inputs, than are worse off in terms of productivity and from tenurial reform alone. surplus, the amortizers' surplus records do Although their palay production was en- not show them to be in a substantially better hanced by the use of modern farm techno- position than the lessees. Their higher out- logy, the amortizers were not found to have lays for each of the costs of farm production substantially higher net incomes than the appear to have depleted the gains they made lessees. As illustrated in Table 1, both amor- in palay production. tizers and lessees observe it uniform pattern Since surpluses are either nonexistent or of factor shares arrangement with the minimal, amortizers and lessees continue to highest factor share being spent on labor (17 be in debt, with the amount incurred for cavans for amortizers and 12 for lessees); farm production or household consumption followed by current seed-fertilizer-pesticide in 1978 not differing significantly between inputs (16 for amortizers, 12 for lessees); the two groups of farmers. Further, Table 2 capital and equipment expenses (14 for shows that both amortizers and lessees en- amortizers and to for lessees); and lease Or countered difficulties in the repayment of amortization payments (7 for amortizers and their loans. The amortizers could pay only 23 4.5 for lessees). Total factor shares of the percent of their crop loans and 21 percent of amortizers come up to 54 cavans, eonstitut- their household loans, while lessees paid 14 ing 84 percent of their total rice yield; leav- percent and 28 percent of their crop and Table 1. Factor sItares of rice output pel' heetare for.two-hectare farm..size, amortizers versus lessees, 1973 dryseason.

Factor sltares1

I, Larn? 7.2 (11.3) 4.5 (11.9) 11. Labor 17.2 (27.0) 12.2 (32.2) uprooting 2.2 1.4 transplanting 3.4 3.3 weeding U 1.3 harvesting/threshing 9.0 5.4 hauling U 0.7 Ill. Current inputs 15.7 (24.6) 11.6 (30.7) seeds 4.3 4.1 fertilizer> 7.8 5.2 pesticides 3.6 2.3 IV. Capital 13.7 (21.5) 9.8 (25.9) tractor 3.0 3.9 irrigation fees 3.0 0.3 Samahang Nayon fees 0.3 0.2 interest. 4.8 4.8 costof sacks 1.2 0.6 threshilli 0.5 0.6 Total factor shares 53.8 (84.4) 38.0 (100.0) V. Surphis 9.9 (15.6) -0.2

Ipercentage shares are shown in parentheses. 2£quivalent amortization payments for amortizers and lease rental for lessees. ~reshing of palay is done by machine. J/6 Panganiban: Case" Study: Implementation and Impact oj OL T

Table 2. Related data on production and household loans among amor­ tizers and lessees, Crop Year 1978.

AOs* with CLTs, amortizing Lessess

A. Production Incurred debt P 3,799.75 .. 3,199.00 Interest 655.39 (17.2) 847.00 (27.2) Amount Paid 1,033.33 (23.2) 535.70 (13.5) Debt outstanding 3,421.81 3,430.30 B. l:iousehold Incurred debt 190.00 199.00 Interest 52.77 (27.7) 47.000 (23.6) Amount paid 50.00 (20.6) 67.86 (27.6) Debt outstanding 192.77 178.14

·amortizing owners

Table 3. Record of lease rental/amortization of farmer respondents: average amount paid and amount due, in Cllvans (1972·1978).

Lease rentall Amount Amount Percentage Amortization record Due Paid of amount due paid

Previous lease rentals, amortizers 1972 20.7 cavans 17.9 cavans 86.5 . 1973 20.7 15.5 74.9 1974 20.7 15.0 72.5

Current amortization payments: amortizersl 1975 32.8 0.5 1.8 1976 32.8 1.2 3.7 1977 32.8 1.8 5.5 1978 32.8 5.8 17.7

Lease rentals: lessees 1975 18.8 9.6 51.1 1976 18.4 8.0 43.5 1977 18.4 8.6 46.7 1978 19.1 9.4 49.2

ITwo old land reform farmers included; two farmers whose amor­ tization payments started in 1979, not included. Second View from the Paddy l/7 household loans, respectively. The debt tions in the proportion of rentals paid, lessees outstanding for farm use for both tenurial are shown to have paid 50 percent or close to groups was approximately P3,4OO. (For 50 percent of their lease rentals between 1975 household use, the debt outstanding was Pl93 to 1978. The poorer performance of amor­ and P178 for amortizers and lessees, respec­ tizers may be due partly to their higher amor­ tively.) tization costs. As amortizers they had to pay The high interests on crop and household 33 cavans per year as against the 21 cavans loans shown in Table 2 reflect the inadequacy they used to pay as rental when they were still and the restrictive conditions of government lessees. The amortizers also paid 14 cavans credit, leading amortizers and lessees to avail more for amortization than the current lessees of the credit servicesof private moneylenders who paid the equivalent of only 19cavans per at usurious interest rates. The farmers also year for their lease rentals. Additionally, the admitted resorting to the practice of selling a increases in the costs of production and the portion of their farm inputs (seeds, fertilizers, cost of living in general are likely to have and pesticides) to meet their consumption re­ eroded the farmers' economic conditions. For quirements. This diversion of farm loans into them, the promise of emancipation would home consumption funds usually resulted in probably remain unfulfilled unless a more decreased production and in their inability to realistic and meaningful agrarian policy is fully repay their crop loans. formulated and systematically operation­ Finally, providing a measure of the alized. economic conditions ofamortizers and lessees are their records of lease rental and amortiza­ tion payments shown in Table 3. Comparing Notes the past and present performance of the amortizers in paying their land dues, one CORAZON C. PANGANIBAN is a research notes that the farmers were better able to cope fellow at the Research for Development Depart­ with the payment of land rentals when they ment, Development Academy of the Philippines. were still lessees. Between 1972 to 1974, they She holds an M.A. in Asian Studies from the paid over 70 percent of their lease rental. But University of the Philippines. The former high when these lessees turned amortizing owners school teacher and collegeinstructor has authored they had paid less than a tenth of their amor­ Rural Development Strategies: The Philippine tization dues for each year between 1975 to Case with Eliseo Rocamora at the Institute of 1977. Their best amortization performance Philippine Culture, and The Promise and Per­ formance oj the Emancipation oj Tenants' De­ was for the year 1978, and even then, they are cree: A Case Study oj a Farming Village: shown to have paid only about 18 percent of 1972-1979 (Masteral Thesis). their total amortization dues for the year. In general, current lesseesperformed better IThe LTPA is a mechanism set up by the Ministry of Agrarian Reform whereby the in remitting their lease rentals than amor­ landlords and their tenants negotiate and agree on tizers. Wliile Table 3 shows yearly fluctua- the price of the farm in money terms. Part IV: BOTTOM-UP APPROACHES

ORGANIZING IN A PEASAN1 COMMUNITY: THE MALABON·KAINGIN EXPERIENCE

LARRY M. ZURITA

Government and private sectors have The Project undertaken countless development efforts in line with an agrarian reform mobilization An action-research project entitled "Im­ campaign. Familiar-sounding catch phrases proved Organization of Small Farmers for form part of these contemporary rural Intensified Rice Production" I makes possi­ development efforts: "countryside develop­ ble my community work. A general concern ment," "small farmer development," and of the project is to examine how intensified "concern for the disadvantaged rural popu­ ~gricultural production increases organiza­ lace," to name a few. However, the litany of tional demands from farmers, requiring co­ grievances coming from peasants still seems operative and collective problem-solving to be endless. One farmer sums it up: "it is endeavors. Specifically, the project studies barely a month sincewe had our harvest. .. how the different ways of organizing facili­ yet we, the producers of the staple food, the tate or block farmers' abilities to meet the planters of rice, have nothing to eat •.." challenges created by recent agricultural Why do the benefits of agrarian reform technology. Two approaches of social or­ not reach the farmers who need them most? ganizing commonly found in rural develop­ Why do farmers still experience abject ment work are being monitored, namely, the poverty in the midst of long-standing and "bottom-up" and the "top-down." The massive agricultural development efforts? main difference between the two ap­ This suggests that the agricultural environ­ proaches lies in the primary structuring of ment may not always be amenable to tech­ initiative: the "bottom-up" approach nical and social solutions designed by "ex­ derives the initiative of action from the perts." The multifarious agricultural system members of a farmers' organization, while requires farmers' collective involvement. the initiative in the "top-down" approach is Organizational formation can give effective deemed to come from institutions implemen­ voice to farmers' needs and priorities. It was ting development programs. In line with the "top-down" approach, In thi~ ~ght that I conducted my community orgamzmg work for 25 months, from the Economic Development Foundation !\ugust 1978 to September 1980. (EDF) maintains compact farms in the following barangays: Pamaldan and Ibabaw Bana in the municipality of Aliaga; and Background Polilio and Cinco-cincoin Cabanatuan City. On the other hand, the Agency for Com­ I am a community organizer here in munity Educational Services (ACES) Nueva Ecija, My work seeksto establishpar­ organizes, with the use of the "bottom-up" ticipatory and effective people's organiza­ approach, four adjacent barangays: Mala­ tion by means of which the community resi­ bon-Kaingin, Imbunia and Marawa in the dents can enter the sphere of decision mak­ municipality of Jaen; and H. Romero in the Ing in matters affecting their lives. municipality of Zaragoza (Figure 1). Second Viewfrom the Paddy 119

Legend: C!ty and Capital o City Municipality ••

o C m ~

I'AMPANGA BULACAN

Figure 1. Mapof Nueva Eeija, 120 Zurita: Organizing in a Peasant Community

Barangay Setting According to recollections of the older residents, this place used to be uninhabited. I have been ACES' community organizer During the first decades of the 19OOs, in Barangay Malabon-Kaingin since August migrants from the other towns of the prov­ 1978. This villageis flanked on the northwest ince formed two settlements. Migrants called by Bgy. H. Romero (Zaragoza), on one settlement Malabon because this co­ the northeast by Bgy. Rajal Norte (Sta. cupied the land owned by a resident of Ma­ Rosa), on the southwest by Bgy. Marawa labon town in the outskirts of Manila. The (Jaen), and on the southeast by Bgy, Im­ other settlement acquired the name Kaingin bunia (Jaen). The Cagayan Valley road and in reference to the slash-and-burn farming the Tarlac-Sta. Rosa highway make her ac­ method used in this place. Settlers painstak­ cessible from Cabanatuan City. In contrast, ingly cleared the place. As the land became a narrow dirt road serves as the lone passage­ arable, the farmers found themselves under way inside this village of 128 households. a prevalent mode of agrarian agreement, the Houses, which are either of the native type landlord-tenant relationship. or concrete, are arrayed in two major In the late 1940s up to the mid-1950s, clusters. The clusters account for the two peasant unrest spread throughout Nueva districts (sitios) of the community, namely, Ecija and other Central Luzon provinces. Malabon and Kaingin. Each district boasts The wave of the Huk movement caught the of a chapel. A barangay hall stands in Ka­ two settlements. Many residents joined the ingin, as the seat of village affairs. A canal ranks of the various Huk units. Fields were of the National Irrigation Administration left untilled as a government counterin­ (NIA) separates the two districts (Figure 2). surgency campaign forced the evacuation to

«.ROMERO

RAJALNORTE

~: , , Houses .. , Chapel II

Figure 2. MapofMalabon-Kaingin. Second View from the Paddy /2/ neighboring town centers of those who were The low income of the Malabon-Kaingin left behind. Eventually, the Huk movement farmer forces him to obtain loans. His prin­ died down simultaneously with the introduc­ cipal sources of credit are: the rural banks, tion of community development projects. private moneylenders, and relatives, He uses Again residents tilled the soil. the loans for consumption and production However, a general disorder which ap­ purposes with the latter getting the main peared in the backwash of agrarian unrest bulk. The farmer practices monoculture rice did not spare Malabon-Kaingin. Cattle rust­ farming of the high yielding variety during lers frequently raided the area. Election cam­ the wet and dry seasons. Farming is paigns of public officials aroused intense characterized by intensive and extensive use rivalries, often violent ones. Malabon of fertilizers and pesticides. Fields are became a Liberal Party bailiwick while Ka­ prepared with the use of rented tractors ingin was a Nacionalista Party stronghold. It while wage laborers do the planting and was in this atmosphere that the residents suc­ harvesting. Threshing is done by mechanized cessfully sought the accreditation of the threshers. The farmer generally sells his pro­ village as a full-fledged barrio of the duce to private buyers. Municipality of Jaen in 1969. Prior to ac­ Landownership is heavily concentrated creditation, Malabon-Kaingin was a district in to-absentee landowners who own varying of Barrio Imbunia. Earlier, it had been a sizes of estates (hacienda). Only two of the district of Barrio Marawa. farmers are owner-cultivators. Five pay Bgy. Malabon-Kaingin is typical of amortizations to the Land Bank of the southern Nueva Ecija. The total village land Philippines (LBP), four maintain a 70~30 of close to 300 hectares is flat and principally sharecropping relationship with their land­ planted to rice. Agriculture is the main owner while the rest are either agricultural source of livelihood. The family heads' wage laborers (landless workers) or lessees. primary employment is farming (Table I). In As per land valuation procedures of the other cases, they engage in secondary agrarian reform program the value of all sources of income popularly known as tenanted farmland in the community is "sideline." Other members of the family already .determined.z The program coverage earn additional income from farming as of agrarian reform in the village is sum­ hired agricultural laborers. marized in Table 2.

Table 1. Nature of employment and monthly income of family heads (Malabon­ Kaingin, 1978).

Family heads Average gross income Nature of employment No. Ofo ('/mo.)

Primary Agriculture 38 89Ofo P621 Construction 1 2 240 Service 1 2 180 Commercial 1 2 500 No primary employment 2 5 Total 45 looOfo

Secondary Hired farm employment 5 12Ofo P181 Nonfarm employment 1 2 205 Self-employment 2 5 217 No secondary employment 35 81 Total 43 looOfo

Source: Baseline survey. 122 Zurita: Organizing in a Peasant Community

Table 2. Operation Land Transfer indicators in Bgy. Maiabon-Kaingin 1980(in percen­ tages).

Tenants covered 1 Land covered1

Land Transfer Certificates 23 18 Land Valuation LTP,\ 7 S BCLP 93 9S Emancipation Patents o o

lOut of Operation Land Transfer scope (71 tenants, 245 hectares). 2Inc!udes those with still unreleased land transfer certificates.

Community Organizing tatives from the various estates. This sig­ nalled the interaction of organized farmers Overview with several agrarian reform implementing In 1976,some farmers in the villagewere agencies: the Ministry of Agrarian Reform respondents to a court case filed by their (MAR), Land Bank of the Philippines, and landowner. To cope with the situation, the the Bureau of Lands. farmers organized themselves into an infor­ In summary, the organization of farmers mal group. As a prerequisite for the dismis­ here in Malabon-Kaingin was born out of a sal of the court case, the group worked for need to tackle agricultural problems, land valuation through the Barangay Com­ specifically those concerning land redistribu­ mittee on Land Production (BCLP). By tion (seeTable 3). 1979, the land value was established and the dismissal of the court case consequently fol­ Farmers versus Landowner: lowed. The Court Case The initial successes of the informal group paved the way for the involvement of other community residents in the land issue. August 1978. I start my organizing work Farmers from other estates in the village by integrating with community residents. In undertook group activities which tackled the course of my integration, the residents various issues of tenurial reform (e.g., is­ point to a court case filed 2 years ago by suance of land transfer certificates, amor­ landowner against his tenants as one of the tization schedules, leasehold agreements, community problems. and others). The Samahang Nayon (Farmers' 1976. Landowner A wants to raise the Association), a precooperative organized by lease payments of his estate from 6 cavans of the government in connection with agrarian palay per hectare per year to 15 cavans per reform, also got involved in activities related hectare every planting season. He contends to the land problem. that the introduction and subsequent use of The residents did not limit their activities the irrigation system has substantially in­ to the land issues. Specificgroups of farmers creased the farmers' yield. Eight of 20 also dealt with other agricultural issues, such tenants sign a contract with Landowner A in as problems with credit facilities of the rural agreement to his demand. The other 12 op­ banks, marketing with the National Grains pose the scheme; they continue to pay the Authority (NGA), inadequate irrigation original rent. The landowner sues the un­ structures, and agricultural technology. compromising tenants in the Court of Ag­ Other community issues tackled were instal­ rarian Relations (CAR). He seeks the CAR's lation of electricity and income-generating assistancein ordering the 12farmers to agree projects. with the rental increase and in collecting the Early in 1980, the farmers actively in­ farmers' rent balance. Landowner A also volvedin the land problem organized a coor­ taps his military connections; Integrated Na­ dinating body composed of elected represen- tional Policemen regularly accompany the second Viewfrom the Paddy /23 estate's overseer in collecting lease evaluation of every group action, court ap­ payments. pearances to attend hearings, and trips to It becomes a matter of course for the 12 MAR's team office in Jaen proper. The farmers to confront the situation by organiz­ farmers make these trips to personally secure ing themselves. Whether to face the overseer documents needed in court hearings. accompanied by the police, or to attend In one of the meetings which we hold in court hearings, or to meet litigation ex­ the residence of a farmer-respondent, a penses, the farmers act as one group. The 12 member of the group suggests that the ser­ avail themselves of the services of a court­ vices of a private law practitioner be sought. appointed lawyer from the MAR. They also Others spontaneously voice out dissatisfac­ transmit a number of telegrams to Mala­ tion with the MAR lawyer's performance canang, requesting the intervention of the and accept the suggestion. It is October President of the Republic in the case. Three when the nine farmers hire the services of a farmers withdraw from the 12 as the finan­ private lawyer. Through consultations with cial cost of fighting the lawsuit proves too him, we get to know of a possible tactical much for them. move leading to case dismissal. If the value ofthe land could be established according to From courtease to land valuation: Issuedevelopment the provisions of the Agrarian Reform Code, the farmers would be classified as September 1978. I pick up the court case deemed owners of the land. Hence, a motion as an organizing issue. I regularly engage the for the dismissal of the court case could be respondents of the case in individual conver­ filed. Furthermore, payments can be made sations to evoke from each one his perceived to the Land Bank instead of to the land­ assessment, solutions, or plans pertinent to owner. 'the issue. I also join all the meetings afld Estate A tenants decide to go to MAR's caucuses which we hold in preparation and central office in Quezon City to ask for land

Date Land issues Other issues

1978 August Estate A court case Meeting of Irrigators' Groups re: irrigation structures Typhoon Kading: meeting of traditional leaders December Mobilization to MAR central office for land valuation 1979 January Operation Assault Installation of NIA structures Organization of BCLP Income-generating projects (e.g., hog raising) June Approval of BCLP Court case dismissal Membership to Nueva Ecija Electric Cooperative Mobilization of Estates F, G, Difficulties with credit and H (CLTsl Meeting with Assemblyman Montemayor on price Meeting with Land Bank of palay Mobilization of Estates C, D, Simultaneous rat poisoning and E (leasehold contracts) December Meetings with MAR Regional Director and Team Leader 1980 January MAR responds to resolution Difficulties with agricultural credit Series of simultaneous meetings Farmers' class and mobilizations Marketing with NGA Group crop management: synchronous planting 1980 May Formation ofa coordinating body . Mobilization of coordinating body to MAR central office June Meeting between farmers' organization and agrarian reform agencies September Simultaneous meetings and mobilizations on installation of electricity 124 Zurita: Organizing in a Peasant Community

valuation through the BCLP. We conduct Aside from the committee sessions, there are role plays to prepare for the mobilization. also informal meetings which the four elected However, financial constraints postpone the tenant-representatives, the Samahang Nayon trip twice. It is December when the mobiliza­ President, and the nine respondents in the tion pushes through. The 10 of us meet the court case regularly conduct to plan out Director of MAR's Bureau of Agrarian moves for the land valuation proceedings. Legal Assistance (BALA). He explains that They obtain documents from the Bureau of land valuation proceedings via the BCLP are Agricultural Extension (BAEx), Bureau of now under the jurisdiction of the regional Agricultural Economics (BAEcon), and NIA offices of the Ministry as per MAR to support the average production data of the Memorandum Circular No. 26. In accord­ village. In a majority vote, the BCLP pegs the ance with role plays done back in the average production at 59 cavans per hectare. village, one of us requests for a letter order­ ing MAR's regional office in San Fernando, Land valuation and court case Pampanga, to organize the -BCLP in Bgy. dismissal: Major victories Malabon-Kaingin, The Director grants the request. Before we proceed to San Fernando to deliver the order, we have it duplicated, as The months of March and April 1979 it is now standard operating procedure for mark our persistent work for the approval of the farmers to duplicate all the group's the BCLP-determined production data. I documents. join the nine tenants of Estate A in a series of mobilizations to the different offices of Issue escalation via institutional MAR for processing, endorsement, and final intervention approval of the data. It is 30 May when January 1979. MAR launches Operation MAR's Region III Director finally approves Assault in order to speed up its land reform the average production data of the village. implementation. The operation has the The approval results in the fixing of the following components: records updating, value of all tenanted riceland in Malabon­ completion of parcellary map sketching, and Kaingin at P5,162.50 per hectare.s However, land valuation proceedings. However, we the land value is not applicable in one estate' learn that Malabon-Kaingin is not included where the tenants had a previous land valua­ in the selected barangays where the Opera­ tion agreement with their landowner. CAR tion will be conducted. The Estate A group dismisses the court case filed by landowner dispatches three members to MAR's Jaen of­ A against his tenants in June. fice. Armed with the duplicate copy of the letter from the BALA Director, the three Involvement of farmers from other pressure MAR to conduct their first opera­ estates: Result of 'Victories tion in Malabon-Kaingin. By February MAR's Operation Assault July 1979. The community residents res­ team, in coordination with the Samahang pond to the developments by tackling land­ Nayon, holds a meeting with community related issues which are peculiar to their residents. The team proposes that LTPA pro­ specific needs. I am with 24 tenants of ceedings be used in land valuation. Com­ Estates F, G, and H when they embark on munity residents do not agree with the pro­ a mobilization to the Registry of Deeds in posal. Consequently. MAR organizes the Cabanatuan City. For purposes of support­ BCLP.3 The committee holds formal sessions ing the tenants' eligibility to receive Cer­ in the Kaingin chapel with community tificates of Land Transfer (CLTs), we secure residents in attendance. Landowner A, one of copies of titles of the lands which they till. two landowner representatives in the BCLP, We proceed to MAR's office in Jaen. Pre­ walks out in one of the sessions. He later files senting the land hectarage indicated in the a written protest with MAR, but this is not titles, the tenants demand for the release of entertained since the date of filing is beyond their CLTs from the MAR Team Leader. the prescribed number of days for protests. .After a prolonged discussion with the Second Viewfrom the Paddy 125

farmers, the Team Leader issues a certificate Philippines this coming harvest in lieu of the still unavailable CLTs. The cer­ season. This is so because land value tificate states that: was established through the a. All tenants of Estates F, 0, and H Barangay Committee on Land Pro­ are eligible recipients of CLTs; duction and was subsequently ap­ b. As per MAR Memo Circular No.6, proved by the Ministry of Agrarian being eligible for land transfer and Reform on May 30,1979. According with the land properly valued, the to MAR Memo Circular No.6: tenants can pay their lease to the "The value of the land will be Land Bank of the Philippines; and established on the day the Secretary/ c. There is no retention claim by any Minister or his authorized repres­ of the landowners of the abovemen­ entative finally approves the tioned estates. "average production data" which The farmers also request that MAR mail was determined by the BCLP or on copies of the certificate to the landowners the day both the farmer and the lan­ concerned. downer sign the LTPA." Almost simultaneous with the activities "Lease payments to the owner of the of the tenants from Estates F, 0, and H, the land covered by Operation Land nine farmers from Estate A make their first Transfer will end on the day the payment to the Land Bank. At the farmers' value ofthe land is determined. After request, the bank officials give an orienta­ the land valuation, the tenant will tion in the village on the rules and regula­ pay his lease/amortizations to the tions of their institution. The officials ex­ Land Bank of the Philippines or its plain that: (a) all residents of Malabon­ authorized representatives . . ." Kaingin are eligible to pay their lease rentals This resolution will serve as our to the bank; (b) lease payments to the Land response to any landowner's invita­ Bank, though entered as "farmers' tion/request to meet with us on sub­ deposits" will automatically be considered jects covered by the above. amortizations upon release of amortization. Victory is the fruit of our per­ schedules; and (c) lease payments made to sistence! the landowner, which is normally in kind, Long live the farmers]! will also be considered amortizations but will 9 p.m. 26 October 1979. Barangay be liquidated at '35 per 50 kg. cavan of Hall of Malabon-Kaingin, Jaen, palay. Nueva Ecija, Witnessed by the Tenants of Estates C, D, and E join the Barangay Captain and the Samahang bandwagon. Together, we visit the MAR Nayon President. team office and demand the completion of A farmer delivers a copy of the statement to their leasehold contracts. With the acquisi­ MAR's office in Jaen. Other copies are tion of written leasehold contracts, the distributed to community residents. farmers change their status from sharecrop­ per to lessees. A meeting that we hold in October cli­ Landowners' reaction to farmers' maxes all the activities. More than 40 collective effort farmers congregate in the barangay hall. In a November 1979. The farmers' actions show of solidarity and in anticipation of elicit a variety of responses from the land­ probable reactions from the landowners, the owners. Landowner B negotiates with his farmers compose a resolution concerning tenants no less than five times. As a result, their intention to pay their lease to the Land both parties agree that payments to the Land Bank. Bank will be postponed in exchange of: lease We, the farmers of Bgy. Malabon­ receipts which were never given before, writ­ Kaingin are starting to pay our lease ten leasehold contracts and fixing of rentals to the Land Bank of the leasehold to a lower amount. Landowner a 126 Zurita: Organizing in a Peasant Community confronts and threatens her tenants with an IRRI technician to launch a farmers' class court cases. Five out of her 16 tenants agree on agricultural technology in the village. In to pay her the lease rental on condition that all the activities, the farmers still act in receipts from 1972 up to the present will be groups: Estates A and B, Estates C, D, and E, issued. Other farmers of Estate G refuse to and Estates F, G, and H. enter into any agreement. Landowner F filesa case in court of nonpayment of lease rentals Organization of a coordinating body against one of his tenants. April 1980. The tenurial issues are Problems/limitations of revitalized. MAR's office in Quezon City land reform responds to a resolution earlier sent by the farmers demanding the release of CLTs and December 1979. Together with a delega­ amortization schedules. The office's res­ tion of 15 farmers from various estates in ponse is contained in a letter which lists the Malabon-Kaingin, I attend an inter-ba­ names of qualified recipients of land transfer rangay meeting in Bgy. Marawa. MAR's certificates. But, the list is incomplete. Region III Director is one of the speakers. Besides there is no mention of amortization He categorically states that the BCLP deter­ schedules. mined land value is immaterial unless the The farmers react by holding simulta­ Minister of MAR signs the document. The neous meetings and mobilizations: tenants Director also adds that even with the of Estates F, G, and H on issuance of CLTs; Minister's approval, the landowners have Estates C, D, and E tenants on their inclu­ the constitutional right to seek redress from sion in MAR's master list of land transfer the courts of law if they are not in agreement eligibles and tenants of Estates A and B on with the established land value. amortization schedules. To clarify certain A week later, the Team Leader of MAR legal entanglements pertaining to the imple­ pays us a visit in the village. He cautions the mentation of land reform, the farmers from community residents that only those who all the estates invite a law student to hold a have actual possession of CLTs can avail consultation forum in the village. The series themselves of the benefits of land valuation of activities culminates in the formation of a (e.g., lease payments to the Land Bank). The coordinating body composed of repre­ Team Leader further notes that lease pay­ sentatives from each estate. ments to the bank can be credited as land The following month, I join a mobili­ amortizations only if the landowners agree zation of the nine elected representatives and with the BCLP decision. This is so because some volunteer farmers to MAR's central for amortization schedules to be processed, office. We undertake the mobilization to the landowners have to be in agreement. He personally present written complaints advises the farmers to negotiate the land regarding: value with their respective landowners. a. the nonissuance of CLTs and amor­ The farmers are frustrated. tization schedules; b. noninclusion of tenants qualified A lull in activities related for land transfer in MAR's master­ to land issues list; c. the plight of tenants who were not The months following the farmers' issued lease receipts by their land­ meeting with the Regional Director and owners; and Team Leader witness the shift of farmers' d. the status of farmers who, while activities from land to other agricultural paying lease rentals to the land­ issues. Estates F, G, and H tenants act on owners, exceeded the determined difficulties with credit facilities of the rural value of the land. bank. Later, the tenants ofEstates C, D, and The Deputy Minister of MAR orders the E get busy in a marketing endeavor with the District Officer in Cabanatuan to look into National Grains Authority. Also, the far­ the farmers' complaints and to personally mers, through the .Samahang Nayon, invite submit a report. Second View from the Paddy /27

Interaction between farmers' organizations economic development. During my stay in and agrarian reform line agencies Malabon-Kaingin 1 realized that the unsuc­ cessful experience with an armed struggle Based on the assessment that implement­ bred cynicism and wariness of collective ac­ ing agencies of agrarian reform interpret the tion among the Nueva Ecija peasantry. rules and provisions of the program dif­ "After the Huk movement," articulated ferently, the farmers of Malabon-Kaingin one farmer," we became like cats sprayed decide to invite the concerned agencies to a over by boiling water . . ." However, it was meeting. Neighboring barangays who are also the peasant unrest which generated a beset with similar difficulties are also definite response from the government: the notified. delivery of goods and services via countless It is August 1980when the following per­ development projects. Nueva Ecija became a sons convene in the Kaingin chapel: (a) virtual development basket. A dependency MAR representatives (team, district, and relationship between the center and periphery central office), (b) Land Bank personnel was fostered, so much so that peasants, (the Operations Manager of the Cabanatuan equated development with provision of goods Office and a technician), and (c) farmers' and services. As my community organizing organizations from five barangays (Mala­ work responded to the situation. a particular bon-Kaingin, Marawa, Carmen, H. organizing strategy evolved and initial dif­ Romero, and Sto. Tomas). Groups of far­ ficulties were encountered. mers from the different barangays take turns in airing their problems and in seeking Community Organizing Process clarification on the provisions concerning land reform. Representatives of the agencies The first phase of my "bottom-up" oblige with explanations of land reform pro­ organizing work was integration with com­ visions and a promise to act on the farmers' munity residents. I encountered difficulties: problems. farmers were either suspicious of me as an September 1980. Representatives of anti-government organizer or expectant of MAR, Land Bank, and the Bureau of Lands material doleouts. Faced with the dilemma of meet again with the farmers of Malabon­ being misunderstood, I proceeded to deal in­ Kaingin upon the latter's invitation in the tensively with individual community chapel. Topics of discussion are CLTs, members. I went on house-to-house visits, ate BCLP, amortization schedules, retention with the families, helped in house and field provisions, and emancipation patents. Far­ chores, attended weddings and wakes, and mers hand in their written recommendations discussedissues as wellas trivialities. I had to for a more effective implementation of do all that in order to elicit problems and agrarian reform to the representatives of .perceived solutions from the residents. agencies present. One recommendation is for With the community's acceptance of me the agencies to sit down with the represen­ as one of its members (taga rito), problems tatives of the farmers' organization in were openly discussed, evaluated, and acted Malabon-Kaingin for purposes of designing upon collectively. Meetings and caucuses a mechanism which will make the BCLP an were held for planning, strategizing, and effective instrument of the agrarian reform assessment purposes. Mobilizations and program. The meeting ends with a promise negotiations with institutions were con­ from the agency representatives to meet ducted. Eventually, with regular problem­ regularly with the farmers. solving exercises, group action was expand­ ed. The "wait and see" attitude diminished. Reflections Activities confronting the various agricultural issues provided fresh oppor­ My organizing work in Nueva Ecija con­ tunities for community interaction. Prob­ fronted two peculiarities of the region: first, lems were tackled on a community-wide the historical prominence of the mass move­ basis in contrast to the former practice of ment for agrarian change; and second, the confronting problems individually or in proliferation of pilot programs of socio- 128 Zurita: Organizing in a Peasant Community small groups. The formation ot a core and concrete gains are needed in the initial leadership structure provided the much stages of organizing to build the organizer's needed coordination of activities. credibilityas a change agent, and to convince As a community organizer, my primary the residents that their condition is not objectives were: hopeless and can be changed. With the given peculiarities of the com­ a. for the residentsto acquire the prob­ munity, I considered the following in issue lem solving skills of: ground­ pick up: work/legwork; problem identifica­ a. felt needs or perceived problems as tion and prioritization; preparation drawn out from the residents; and handling of meetings and b. a sense of urgency to act on the caucuses; mobilizations/negotia­ problems owing to threats imposed tions, and evaluation/reflection ses­ on the residents' well-being (e.g., sions; fear of imprisonment/punishment b. for the residents to acquire an at­ as in the land issue); titude where collective action is c. extent of the problem or number of preferred; and residents affected (e.g., during the c. the formation of an organization integration phase of my work, it was capable of handling and tackling my analysis that the residents were community problems/issues with eagerly awaiting the outcome of the maximum participation among the test case in relation to their own land residents. problem); and d. the resident's willingness to act on Issue Pick Up the problem or, more important, the The multi-issue approach, with land as availability of residents already act­ the primary concern, characterized the ing on the problem. organizing strategy in Malabon-Kaingin. Historical and emotional attachment of the From among a host ofcommunity problems residentsto a particular issuewasanother fac­ expressed by the residents, I started with tor which I considered. In Malabon-Kaingin, land as an organizing issue. The issue was where the farmers had taken part in an armed complex. It was procedural in nature: focus struggle for land ownership, the land issue was on pressuring the agencies to implement was as real as it could ever be. "During the the step-by-step procedures of land reform. time of unrest," one farmer pointed out, "we Also, the ultimate objective of landowner­ generously shed blood to confront the prob­ ship could be met only after a long lapse of lem ... now, I don't see any reason why we time, if ever. Given the disadvantages of the should not act. H land issue, other interventions via nonland But an important dimension which I activities (e.g., technology, credit, overlooked in issue pick up was my marketing, and others) were given attention preparedness to handle the issue. Adequate to maintain the levelof interest and mass ac­ knowledge of land reform provisions, court­ tion. However, the nonland issues were room and legal procedures, and operations seasonal in nature and were undertaken in a of institutional targets were necessities in fragmented manner. handling the land issue to easilyspot and use The way issues were picked up in the com­ situations to one's advantage and to max­ munity was contrary to the norms of classical imize organizing gains. It was an expensive organizing. This theory specifies that issues exercise to learn the issue demands at the move from a simple (e.g., social service same time with the farmers. Tactical delivery or income-generating project) to a maneuvering and anticipation of responses complex subject matter. The rationale is for suffered. A certain amount of purposiveness the knowledge-attitude-skills (K-A-S) learning and deliberation required by community to be smooth, not overwhelming. It is to be organizing was lost. From the Malabon­ noted that there is a greater possibility of Kaingin experience, I learned a gaining substantial victories or concrete lesson-s-organizing should never be a hit-and­ material gains from simple issues. Victories miss endeavor. Second View from the Paddy /29

Reactivating and Working with The situation was averted in Malabon­ Traditional Organizations Kaingin by the organic evolution of ~he organization. Farmers undertook collective The organizing strategy also utilized the problem-solving activities in informal estate traditional and existing organizations in the groups. The relatively small sizes (average community: the Samahang Nayon was ac­ membership of 15) facilitated extensive and tivated and the Barangay Council, though qualitative K-A-S learning. Aside from.being sporadic in involvement, held general decentralized, the estate groups gave birth to assemblies which dealt with expressed com­ informal leaders-leaders who had never munity concerns. Factors which heavily held formal leadership positions before. Fur­ favored working with traditional and exist­ thermore, the formation of an informal ing community organizations were the leadership structure was a deviation from the following: usual authoritarian pattern of leadership. a. the residents reacted against The estate groups' coordinating body vested organizations not sanctioned by the equal opportunity and power in each leader government; representative. b. the residents perceived the existing The increased level of awareness of the organizations as links with outside residents pressured the traditional organiza­ institutions; tions, specifically the Samahang Nayon, to c. government agencies preferred deal­ respond. Initially uninvolved in the land ing with farmers' groups as legal en­ issue, the Sarnahang Nayon later coor­ tities rather than informal ones; dinated the activities of the informal groups. d. as a community organizer, I avoided When the core leadership structure of the in­ projecting and espousing objectives formal groups was formed, the Samahang which might be misconstrued as in­ Nayon cosponsored activities with the infor­ imical to national development mal organization. There was a marked shift goals; and in the nature of tasks of the Samahang e. with specific expectations and a Nayon from mere information dissemina­ timetable spelled out by the funding tion to preoccupation with community needs agencies it was more efficient to utilizing the organizing process. Thus, the work with what existed than create source of initiative was also changed: from new organizations. the national government as coursed through However, the use of traditional com­ its local units, to the community residents' munity organizations is commonly deemed own efforts. The aggressive manner of the inconsistent with "bottom-up" community members' criticisms of traditional leaders, organizing tenets. A traditional community even in the latters' presence, and the active organization, such as the Samahang Nayon, participation of members in group activities usually features a centralized administra­ were yardsticks of the merger of traditional tion an authoritarian leadership, and a and informal leadership structures com­ passive membership. Also, it has a definite plemented by a critical membership. function of implementing preset action plans and programs of the government agency Working with Institutions with which it is affiliated. It is argued that since the traditional leader-elites possess the Another thrust of the organizing strategy built-in advantages of training background which I utilized in Malabon-Kaingin was to needed in problem-solving activities (e.g., build the farmers' capacity to interact with negotiations with targets outside the com­ institutions on an equal footing. Thus, local munity), the difference in the leaders' and organizations were encouraged to deal with members' K-A-S learning would eventually public and private agencies. I expected that become too great. With the locus of func­ the target agencies, faced by the constant tions and power entrenched in a centralized pressuring group actions, would yield by leadership, the organization's role as mere allowing the farmers' organizations to per­ implementor of preset action plans would be form the "fundamental role of actively con­ reinforced. tributing to policy changes. J3Q Zurita: Organiz,ing in a Peasant Community

The responses of institutions concerned difficulties of the peasants keep on mounting with agrarian reform to the farmers' in spite of sophisticated development in­ demands attested to the impact made by the struments. This belies the usual belief that organizing process. The agencies considered the problem lies in the peasants' being the farmers' resolutions, and sat down, backward tillers of the land, that their lives discussed and negotiated within the com­ can be made better solely or principally by munity setting. But so far, farmer-institution the adoption of modern technology. interaction has been limited to the former Out there in the fields of Malabon­ pressing the latter to implement agrarian Kaingin is a message: unless there is genuine reform policies. people's participation, there will always be In the experienceof Malabon-Kaingin, it oppressive structures besieging the peasantry. was indispensable to get the central offices' And, unless there is genuine people's par­ intervention to make institutions respond to ticipation, the sea of development efforts can­ the farmers. Agrarian reform personnel in­ not drown the peasants' litany of frustration terpreted the land reform provisions dif­ and discontent. ferently and even in a conflicting manner, depending at what level they were operating (e.g., national, regional, district, team) and NOles what agency they worked for (e.g., MAR, Land Bank, Bureau of Lands). This was made more blatant by the lack of coordina­ LARRY M. ZURITA is holder of aBachelor's tion among implementing agencies. Seem­ Degree in community development from the ingly, the institutions were not ready to deal University of the Philippines, and project with the farmers on a partnership basis. For documentor for a research study at the Institute its part, the farmers' organization stillseemed of Social Work and Community Development, awed by "authorities" and obviously needed Universityofthe Philippines. He isthe Communi­ more experience to be able to pursue objec­ ty Organizer in the CO-operations he describes in tives with militant determination. the present article. IThe project started in July 1978. The first 28.months Prospects were funded by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). After this the Ministry of Agriculture (MA) took The Malabon-Kaingin Farmers' Organiz­ over. As of late J98J, the project was still ongoing. ing Achievements may not yet be conclusive 2Tbe Ministry of Agrarian Reform specifies that the as the community organization is still in its value of all tenanted corn and riceland will be based on the average prnduction data which are determined via: (a) formative stage, with a loose organizational a Landowner-Tenant Production Agreement (LTPA), or structure. If it is to become a people's (b) Barangay Committee on Land Production (BCLP). organization, strengthening is needed: sus­ 3Tbe Barangay Committee on Land Production is tained reinforcement and critical support. composed of the Barangay captain, the Samahang But, the organization's strong attribute in an Nayon President, two representatives of owner­ cultivators, two representatives of owner-cultivators, two active and critical membership com­ representatives of land-owners, four tenant represen­ plemented by a participatory leadership pat­ tatives, and a MAR technician who acts as a secretary. tern is a clear indication of the farmers' The functions of the BCLP are: capacity to participate and be treated on an a. Classifying the rice and cornland within the barangay; equal footing with public and private institu­ b. Establishing the average production of3 normal tions. More than anything else, the crop years of each class of rice and cornJand Malabon-Kaingin experience affirms the within the barangay immediately preceeding 21 need for farmers' collective participation in October1972; and efforts seeking to uplift their conditions ­ c. Performing other tasks MAR may assign. <70 arrive at the land value, the Land Reform for­ participation where the farmers can decide mula is used: average production x 2.5 x 135. All and work on their needs and priorities. farmland in Malabon-Kaingin, except the parcel owned The persistence of indebtedness, the by two owner-cultivators, were given this value, since prevalence of marginal conditions, and the they arequalified for land transfer. However, the majori­ insignificance of tenurial reform remain· ty of tenants have not been issued land transfer cer­ tificates. familiar features of the rural scenario. The PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH FOR COMMUNITY-BASED AGRARIAN REFORM: A MINDANAO EXPERIMENT

ANTONIO J. LEDESMA, S. J.

Throughout the decades of the 50s and 60s, other regions of the country. On the other Mindanao was called "the land of prom­ hand, settler families may be encountering ise." It was an invitation for land-hungry other land problems characteristic of Min­ farmers from other parts of the archipelago danao and not included within the scope of to come to the southern island and settle on OLT or LHO-such as non-titling of lands which for the most part remained cultivated parcels in the first place, unoccupied, unclaimed, and untilled. Today sharecropping on declared lands, eviction that promise of Mindanao has been blurred from landholdings and subsequent pro­ by the recurring conflicts among settler letarianization under corporate farms, and families, indigenous tribal communities, log­ displacement of long-standing peasant com­ ging companies, transnational corporations, munities. and their armed groups. Thus, three tendencies have often Owner-cultivators on family-size farms disturbed me in the course of my fieldwork -the paradigm for land reform-are still a research on agrarian reform: (1) Policies minority among the peasant households of already set determine the focus of research the southern Philippines. Indeed, on activities, instead of the other way around; balance, it has been stated that Mindanao (2) Individual beneficiaries rather than entire may be witnessing land reform in reverse. communities provide the basis for evaluating With its untapped resources and the impact of agrarian reform; and (3) Of­ geographical location below the typhoon ficial tallies of program accomplishments belt, more lands in Mindanao may have gone gloss over crucial differences among under the effective control of logging and barangays, much less the actual process of mining concessionaires and agri-business agrarian reform implementation at the corporations than to small farmers since the village level. New Society's agrarian reform in 1972. It was in this light that I was interested to This ongoing reform program limits its explore the possibilities of participatory scope to rice and corn share tenants and has research in providing an alternative ap­ concentrated on the land problem in Luzon proach to official head counts or even to the and the Visayas. Under Operation Land more objective type of academic research Transfer (OLT), for instance, the four Min­ that I had engaged in earlier. As proposed, danao regions comprise only 21.7 percent of this kind of participatory research would all target beneficiaries in contrast to 29.1 spring from and lead towards community­ percent for Central Luzon alone. Likewise, based agrarian reform. under Operation Leasehold (LHO), the Min­ Unlike research done by outside agen­ danao regions include only 18.4 percent of cies, "participatory action research" is best all beneficiaries in contrast to 20.5 percent described by the three elements in its for the Ilocos region alone (Table I). designation: (I) it is participatory in that In one sense, the percentages indicate data-gathering, analysis, and reporting are that the tenancy problem may not be as done by and for the local communities. widespread in the southern Philippines as in themselves; (2) it is action-oriented in that 132 Ledesma: Participatory Researchfor Community-based Agrarian Reform Table 1. Regional scope of Operation Land Transfer and Leasehold by tenant·beneficiaries, 1979 the original settlers, comprise about 5 percent (in percentages). of the population. Muslims comprise another 10 percent. The rest are Christian settlers Region OLT LHO coming from other parts of Mindanao, the Visayan islands, and some areas of Luzon. I I1ocos 6.9 20.5 Roughly 80 percent of these Christian II Cagayan Valley 8.8 9.4 families consider themselves Roman Catho­ III Central Luzon 29.1 12.1 IV Southern Tagalog 6.3 9.6 lic. Although the ethnic groupings tend to V Bicol 9.4 7.7 blend with one another, several kinds of VI Western Visayas 8.8 7.4 village communities are discernible accord­ VII Central Visayas 5.0 9.1 ing to ecological conditions-small farmers VIII Eastern Visayas 3.9 5.7 IX Western Mindanao 5.5 6.8 engaged in upland mixed farming, lowland X Northern Mindanao 4.7 3.9 rice farmers on both rainfed and irrigated XI Southern Mindanao 4.3 5.0 areas, small fishermen along coastal waters XII Central Mindanao 7.2 2.7 and fishponds, and plantation laborers for All Regions 99.9 99.9 rubber and logging companies. With the spread of the Gagmayng Kristohanong Katilingban (Basic Christian Source: Ministry of Agrarian Reform, OLT and Communities or BCCs) since 1975, the LHO updated program scope as of May 31,1979. parish has developed a network of around 250 neighborhood cells (seldas), grouped in­ research findings are utilized immediately by to 70 barangay - or sitio - wide chapel com­ local communities to help solve problems of munities (kapilyas), and further federated land tenure, poverty, injustice, etc.; and (3) into 10 sub-parish zones (sonas). Local lay it is research in a systematic manner adher­ leaders guided the BCCs: 150 kaabags to ing to the basic norms of social science in­ conduct the weekly chapel services, 200 vestigation. alagads to facilitate the weeklyBible-and-life sharing sessions, and 40 katekistas to in­ The Siay Parish Experiment struct the children. Various auxiliary teams in each zone also attended to the. specific For a period of 9 months in 1981, I coor­ needs of the local communities ranging from dinated this participatory researchproject in a ecclesial seminars to discussions on Catholic rural parish in Zamboanga socioeconomic activities to sectoral organiz­ del Sur Province. Originally coterminous ed. As assistant to the parish priest, I with the boundaries of Siay municipality worked on the participatory research project before its subdivision, this rural parish now with nine parish workers and other volunteer encompasses the two municipalities of Siay researchers from these BCC structures (see and Payao and portions of two other Appendix). municipalities, Imelda and Diplahan. Shaped like an upright rectangle with The Research Process jagged edges, Siay parish is intersected from east to west by 20 kilometers of unpaved Community-based research was in­ provincial highway. Its northern and troduced within the existing network of southern extremities are connected by seldas, kapilyas, and sonas. In general, the another 40 km. of gravel road that follow three phases of social science research were the contours of the Sibuguey river and carried out: several mountain ranges. In geographical ex­ 1. Data gathering, whichinvolvesprepara­ tent, Siay parish approximates one-third the tion of the research instrument, pre­ size of Cavite province, also resembling its testing, and the actual survey on a ran­ rolling topography. About half of Siay's dom or purposive basis; barangays are still inaccessible by road. 2. Data tabulation, which involves editing Siay parish comprises 50 barangays with of forms, and the construction of tables a population of around 45,000. Subanons, and graphs; and Second View from the Paddy /33

3. Data analysis and reporting, which in­ because of the general desire of local volvethe interpretation of the tabulated residents to obtain a consensus over their data and their orderlypresentation, par­ present situation. This is one instance where ticularly to the local communities that research if done by outsiders would be participated in the research. regarded as suspect, but if community-based Parish workers and local researchers ac­ could be a powerful tool in conscienticizing tively collaborated and undertook most of and mobilizinga community over their most the work in all three phases of the research pressing problems. process. Various research topics were ex­ 2. Barangay mapping: Local artist'S pro­ plored at different time periods. The scope duced sketch maps of their barangays-« of the research also varied covering either a Balian, Kima, Maligaya, Balingasan, Para­ group, a barangay, or several zones within dise, and Natan. These provided valuable in­ the parish structure. formation for the residents by indicating Research Instruments natural boundaries, farm parcels, location of houses, irrigation canals, forested areas, Research activities varied and started etc. In some cases, the barangay map took from the expressed needs of local com­ on the nature of a local document. munities. These ranged from health prob­ For instance, the residents of Barangay lems to issues in land tenure reform. Maligaya, an upland settler area, now have Depending on the questions raised and local a graphic record of the number of house­ resources, we utilized one or a combination holds and cultivated farm parcels within of research methods such as group consulta­ their boundaries, a sharp contrast to the map tions, random surveys, price-monitoring, presented to the Bureau of Forestry by a notebook record-keeping, barrio mapping, private company interested in extending its chronological documentation, and individ­ logging concession in the same area. Accord­ ual narratives by participant-observers. ing to reports, this company map did not in­ Research outputs were mimeographed in the dicate at all any households or tilled lands form of written reports, documents, and in­ within the claimedarea. formation sheets. These were then given Aside from their map, Maligaya local back to the local communities for their researchers drew up a socioeconomic profile reflection and action. Some of the more of their barangay based on a 25 percent ran­ noteworthy research instruments adopted dom sample survey completed within 2 are described below along with summary ac­ weeks. Some of the data are highly instruc­ counts of research activities in different tive for the village folk themselves. Among barangays, all the farms included in the sample survey, 1. Barangay profile: A two-page form 54 percent have been declared while the rest was devisedto help kapilya core groups draw are occupied only. Although no farmlot has up a socioeconomic profile of their village. been titled, 82 percent of the surveyed Results were uneven, since much of the data household heads consider themselves like total farm area in the village had to be "owner"-cultivators, 4 percent are share based on estimates. As a preliminary in­ tenants, whileanother 14percentoccupytheir quiry, however, this form served to focus the present farms without any rentals. attention of local leaders on their own com­ 3. Census: Three zones out of ten in the munities. parish undertook a complete household cen­ A specialized questionnaire was prepared sus of all Bee members. The census includ­ by a parish worker to aid barangays in­ ed biodata and socioeconomicvariables that terested in studying their land situation af­ gave a profile of Bee households. Because fected by a mining reservation or a logging the census form was given only to selda concession.Although random surveysin two members in the Bee, the results could not barangays in Payao municipality were post­ be said to represent the entire barangay. poned due to initial misgivings of local of­ Nonetheless, some of the findings were ficials, these studies may yet continue revealing-s-e.g., the high dependency ratio in. /34 Ledesma: Participatory Research far Community-based Agrarian Reform

Table 2. Bio-data of households, three parish zones, Slay 1981.

San Lucasl San Jose2 San JuaJfJ

1. Census households 332 209 176 2. Dependency ratio4 0.78 0.90 0.65 Educational attainment: 3. Of husband 4.6 6.1 5.1 4. Of wife 5.3 6.4 5.3 5. Infant deaths 131 95 40 6. Live births 1,784 1,226 1,034 7. Infant mortality rate per loooS 73 77 39

INine kapilyas: Magsaysay, Maligaya, Makatol, Bato, Laih, River­ side. Monching, Gusawan, and Siloh, ~Four kapilyas in the pQblocion: San Vicente, Sta. Maria, Fatima, and Cristo Rey. 3Six kapilyas: San Jose. Lalat, Mahayhay, Mirangan, Coley and Balucanan. 4Uneconomically productive age groups below 15 years and above 64 years divided by the economically productive age group, 15-64years. 51nfant deaths divided by live births x 1000. most barrios, the higher educational attain­ The most widespread among these consulta­ ment of housewives compared to household tions was the series ofmeetings among small heads, and the high infant mortality rates in farmers. Usually involving about 25-50 the more remote barrios (Table 2). farmers in the barangay areas, the consulta­ Data-gathering was done through the tions consisted of an introductory talk, small alagads for their own selda members. group discussions, and sharing of problem Tabulation was completed in about five ses­ areas and suggested solutions. Oftentimes, sions at the Siay parish formation center by a participants expressed the need for a locally­ smaller team of parish workers together with based organization. The minutes of these 2-3 volunteer alagads from each of the three one-day consultations (or small group inter­ .zones. Columnar pads, pencils, and three views) constitute a valuable record of local hand calculators were all that was needed to problems, felt needs, and aspirations. Bet­ complete the tabulations. Analyzing the data ween June 1980 and May 1981, 15 of these for a written report proved to be more taxing small farmer consultations were conducted for the local researchers, but was facilitated in 13 barangays throughout the parish. by the tabulation work already done. Stand­ In terms of frequency, the most pressing ardized measures like averages, percentages, problems expressed by the small farmers in and ratios gave local researchers a starting these interviewsfocused on a mining reserva­ point for comparing their communities with tion (mentioned in 10 of the 13 barangays) one another. affecting practically the entire parish and neighboring municipalities. Also cited often Among the Subanons, another parish was the problem of pests and rats (men­ worker, himself a Subonon, designed and tioned in 10 barangays). Thus the two major pre-tested a special census form preparatory problems of small farmers centered on land to the consultation and sectoral organizing tenure and farm management. Other prob­ of these tribal Filipinos. lems discussed were: vacant lands increasing 4. Sectoral consultations: As part of the the problem of rats, lack of capital and cur­ BCCs' action program, consultations of oc­ rent inputs, lack of knowledgein the newrice cupational sectors were conducted by parish technology, controlled prices, and high in­ workers in strategically-located barangays. terest rates for loans. Second View from the Paddy 135

Table 3. Land tenure profile of three rice-growing zones, Siay 1981.

Sibu~y SUmpoli Siay-lmelda All Valley. Valier Highway Zone-' Zoues

l. sample households (no.) 24 15 20 59 2. Land Tenure (OJo of households) a. Owner cultivator 29 27 2S 27 b. Lessee 13 13 35 21 c. Share tenant 50 40 25 40 d. Others 8 20 15 14 3. Basis for land claim: (0J0 of households) a. Titled 17 73 20 32 b. Declared 83 27 75 66 c. Occupied only 0 0 5 2 4. Average farm size (ha.) 2.1 3.6 1.3 2.2 5. Palay yield, wet season (cav.lha.) 44.6 53.6 54.2 50.1 6. Irrigated farms: (OJo of households) 17 80 35 39

Ilncludes barangays Sampoli, Paradise. Pilar. Maniba. Camanga, Balagon. and Bu~an. Includes barangays Guinoman, Ditay, and Natan. 3Includes barangays Balucanan, Lower Coloran, Coloy, Lalat, San Jose, and Mirangan.

In the Sibuguey Valley, Ministry of barangays. The surveywent beyond the BCC Agrarian Reform personnel conducted their eeelesial structure to include all farm own sectoral consultations among small households, regardless of religious affilia­ farmers concerning a proposed scheme con­ tion. Master lists of households and random verting the rice-growing plain from a mining samples (one name per 20 households) were reservationto a resettlementarea. Ifendorsed obtained through the help of local BCC by the majority of rural households, this leaders. Tabulations and analysesofthe data resettlement scheme would give MAR the werecarried out by the parish workers acting authority to allocate lands only to actual as research assistants together with volunteer tillers, deprivingearlier claimants from gain­ local leaders. ing title to lands cleared and cultivated The findings in the Sibuguey Valleypro­ through tenants (P.O. 152). vide benchmark information for the affected During the half-day consultations, the communities prior to the completion of in­ discussions were often heated as original frastructure projects like roads and an ir­ settlers-turned-small landlords voiced their rigation network by the Philippine­ objections to the proposal. Landless tenants, Australian Development Assistance Pro­ on the other hand, expressed their support. gramme (PADAP). The surveyalso provides The land problems in Central Luzon were background information for the MAR reset­ being replicated in Mindanao. Despite tlement scheme. decreesabolishing share tenancy throughout. Compared to the two other rice-growing the country, peasant stratification was once areas within the parish, the survey findings more taking place. indicate that the Sibuguey Valley has the 5. Survey questionnaire: A random highest incidence of share tenancy (SO per­ survey was carried out in three ecological cent), the lowest number of titled farms (17 zones within the parish. This was the most percent), the lowest percentage of irrigated ambitious among the studies in the par­ farms (17 percent) together with the lowest ticipatory research project, covering 15 average palay yield (44.6 cav/ha) (Table 3). 136 Ledesma: Participatory Research.jor Community-based Agrarian Reform

Table 4. Prices of basic commodities In Poblacion lind BlIrangllY Siles, Slay, Februllry 1931.

Slay PlIYllo Balian Buillwan Commodity Measure Pobillcion PobJaclon bllrangay barangllY

PaIay kg. PU5 n05 PLiO PLiO Rice kg. 2.50 2.80 2.60 2.80 Corn, unmilled kg. 1.20 LiO 0.85 LiO Dried fish (1st) kg. 14.00 12.00 8.50 12.00 Sugar, red kg. ~.60 2.50 3.00 3.30 Edible oil bottle 2.50 3.00 3.50 3.00 Milk (Liberty) can 3.00 3.00 3.50 3.25 Gas bottle 1.40 1.40 1.80 1.50 Soap (Super wheel) bar 1.20 l.30 1.60 1.30 SaIt kg. 1.00 1.00 1.20 1.00

Farm management forms suited to two paring net incomes and community welfare kinds of farms-on lowland rice areas and across time. upland terrain-were distributed to in­ 7. Record-keeping: Several Bee mem­ terested farmers. If done on a random sam­ bers at the selda and kapilya levels have ple basis, these forms can also be utilized by started cooperative activities for credit and local researchers to compare their farm consumer needs on a small scale. Usually, management situation after each cropping one member is in charge of keeping all perti­ season. Some farmers also expressed their nent records on a notebook or accounting desire to compare the viability of planting ledger. Despite the considerable variation in the traditional varieties of rice again vis-a-vis the manner of keeping records - some on the modern seeds, in the light of their recur­ loose pieces of paper, others on notebook rent difficulties in obtaining farm inputs and pages without any ordering, etc. - these checking rat infestation. local records provide an insight into how 6. Price-monitoring: In selected sites, barangay cooperatives can and do keep the recording of current market prices pro­ records of sales, loans, cash on hand, and vides an on-the-spot record of price varia­ total assets. tions across time and space-ee.g., between In their own sectoral consultations, small poblacion and barangays, cooperatives and fishermen in Siay as well as in other parts of private stores, and by monthly intervals. the province expressed different problems, After several experiments, a revisedform for e.g., piracy along coastal waters; encroach­ both buying and selling prices of basic com­ ment ofbaby trawlers; inequitable credit and modities was used (Table 4). marketing arrangements with middlemen Several coops (Mirangan, Riverside, (leers); and lack ofgovernment implementa­ Balagon, Balian) with records of their selling tion of fishing regulations. prices in previous years were able to trace the In Kapilya Riverside, small fishermen general increase in relative prices of key organized themselvesas a result of these con­ commodities across a 3-year or 5-year sultations. They prepared their own constitu­ period. In Siay poblacion, a sari-sari store tion and federated with a national service owner reconstructed a 25-year record of network for small fishermen. Their elected prices of commodities out of his old records president and his wife completed a report of and receipts. their socioeconomic activities comprising a Price records provide an index for the ac­ gasoline cooperative and a consumers' coop tual cost of living in specific localities across store. years. Ifcombined with farming costs (such 8. Documentation and affidavits: Siay as fertilizers), local researchers will be able parish has had its share of justice and peace to assess for themselves the variations in issues over the past few years. Local leaders price ratios, a more relevant gauge for com- are trained by the parish staff to document Second View from the Paddy 137 these cases, execute affidavits of eyewitnes­ this village since 1973 narrated the sustained ses and affected parties if necessary, and struggle of a small group of Boholano sett­ mobilize the concerned communities lers to stay on their land despite tremendous towards a common course of action. odds such as floods, rat infestation, the One extended case involving the com­ poisoning of farm animals due to improper plaints of the residents of Barangay use of chemicals, peace and order problems Mahayhay against their barangay captain ex­ and the consequent evacuation of almost a emplified how recourse to disciplinary action quarter of the village households. was first channelled through barangay and municipal officials before being raised to Participatory Research in Retrospect higher authorities. In Payao municipality, Nine months are too short a time for ex­ two incidents involving the excesses of a ploring all the possibilities for participatory P.C. soldier and his companions were research among local communities. Yet the documented through affidavits of the ag­ research experience has already indicated grieved parties, preparatory to filing a case several positive factors: against him before higher authorities in 1. Local communities are keenly in­ Pagadian and Manila. A sharp contrast bet­ terested in studying their own situation, par­ ween how these events were reported 2 ticularly in cases of land conflicts and weeks later in a Manila newspaper and how livelihood problems. With a fairly high they were actually perceived by the local literacy rate, rural households can and do populace was provided by excerpting both keep local records. In many instances, these newspaper account and affidavits in the local communities have been able to mobi­ parish newsletter. lize themselves for action, based on the find­ Other earlier incidents involving not only ings from their participatory research. documentation but also mobilization of the 2. Alagads and other local leaders are ef­ affected kapilyas or sonas included: the fective contact persons for facilitating refusal of local residents to pay a house oc­ community-based research, especially for cupancy fee which was later found to have the data-gathering phase. Volunteer tabu­ been fabricated by local officials for their lators at the local levels can also be trained, own gain; the efforts of several barangays particularly with the aid of hand calculators. along a newly-openedPADAP road to lower 3. In contrast to census or research ac­ the excessive rates charged by jeepney tivities done by outside agencies, partici­ drivers; and the cancellation ofa fiesta Mass patory research (katiJingbanong pagtukl) is in a company-owned chapel because of the seen as the communities' own undertaking. refusal of management to provide workers a Results are immediately given back to them, copy of their collective bargaining agree­ interviewers are known by local residents, the ment. language of the research is ordinarily in the 9. Local histories and participant ac­ vernacular, and the questions raised have first counts: Vignettes of local history-either of been suggested by the communities through the entire pastoral program in the parish or consultations. local communities-were recounted by a 4. The grassroots data gathered may parish worker couple and a kaabag, who prove to be more reliable and accurate, if on­ were participant observers. ly because both interviewers and respondents A barrio study of Natan discussed three know and trust each other. Likewise, some of interconnected activities among small rice the data are more astonishing than official farmers with a higher level of self­ government records-s-e.g., infant mortality organization-a communal farming project rates are higher atthe barangay level than the to minimize rat damage, an irrigators' cases reported at the municipal level. association with locally-constructed canals, On the debit side, participatory research and a group decision to invite new tillers for has encountered these problems: the extensivelands left vacant in the area. As I. The need for more training and super­ written down by a local leader, the history of vision of.local interviewers, tabulators, and 138 Ledesma: Participatory Researchfor Community-based Agrarian Reform report writers has been expressed by local Indeed, this is all the more reason that researchers themselves. agrarian reform in its total sense be 2. Small samples are open to wide varia­ community-based in order that local com­ tions in estimating mean averages and munities may be able to address their specific percentages. Statistical tests have not been problems. As delineated by policy-makers employed. A number of research reports themselves, agrarian reform-in contrast to were more descriptive rather than analytical the more limited phrase of "land reform"­ in their presentation. includes a package of services that include 3. Local researchers' biases may limit infrastructure development, land tenure im­ the applicability of their findings and con­ provement, resettlement, cooperatives, clusions, e.g., regarding the performance credit and marketing support, and farmers' and credit-worthiness of their coops. organizations. Yet, government programs Notwithstanding these limitations, ap­ tend to be compartmentalized under prenticeship learning of research skills has bureaucratic offices; peasants' problems on developed among parish workers and barrio­ the other hand are often more concrete and based researchers. Because participatory wide-ranging. In this sense, authentic research is more a tool than an end in itself, agrarian reform for local communities, par­ the research process becomesas important as ticularly as highlighted by their par­ the research findings themselves. ticipatory research, may require an Paradoxically, by objectifying, measur­ altogether different emphasis from what ing, and pinpointing their problems through government policy has uniformly decreed the research process, local communities have for the entire country. become more subjectively aware, i.e., con­ A prerequisite for community-based ag­ scientieized, about their life-situation and rarian reform is a sense of community are more ready to respond to these prob­ among rural households. In Siay, this sense lems. In this sense, participatory research of community among rural households was becomes an effective tool in the hands of fostered to a great extent by the BCC local communities for their own develop­ pastoral approach of a Church organization. ment and liberating action. The advantages of this approach were almost self-evident-the dedication and Community-Based Agrarian Reform voluntary services of local leaders (alagads, kaabags, etc.) motivated by Christian ideals; The participatory research project among the weekly Bible-and-life sharing sessions BCCs in this Mindanao parish was not which provided an informal forum for rural limited to a particular government program households to discuss their pressing prob­ like agrarian reform. However, it is not dif­ lems; and the support services provided by ficult to see how most of the actual problems the parish staff which were decentralized surrounding small farmer communities have throughout the 10zones and reached down to some relation to agrarian reform, particular­ the grassroots selda level of the BCCs. ly with regard to land tenure. The vast ma­ Church affiliation, however, is not the jority of peasant tillers in Siay do not have ti­ only channel for community-based agrarian tle to their lands, because their lands are reform. Other non-government organiza­ either under a mining reservation dating tions, e.g., a farmers' association, can serve back to the Commonwealth period, or in­ the same purposes, provided they answer cluded under some logging concession, or some common need of the local populace. already claimed by earlier settlers. Neither is Even in the Siay setting, many of the issues it any comfort for these settler families to addressed through the BCCs eventually went realize that the Ministry of Agrarian Reform beyond ecclesial structures onto sectoral has no jurisdiction over their problems, but organizing ofall small farmers, regardlessof rather other government offices like the religious affiliation. Bureau of Forestry, or the Bureau of Mines, or the Bureau of Lands. Second View from the Paddy /39

In the contemporary view on rural were all mimeographed and distributed to the development and agrarian reform, much BCCs.) stress has been laid on people's participation Abalona, Meliton, "The credit union that failed in the development process-as a dynamic in Siay Parish." 5 pages. and corrective for social change. Par­ Bacay, Dolores and Ernesto. "Story of the River­ ticipatory research can be viewed as integral side cooperative." 8 pages. Bobo, Rudy and Virgilio del Rosario. "Story of to this people's participation, specifically in the rice bank in Barangay Balagon." 5 pages. the planning and evaluation of programs Casas, Bert. "Reports from small fishermen." 2 affecting the local communities' welfare and, pages. at times, very existence. Drapiza, Ben. "Chronology of the people's ac­ tivities in Barangay Mahayhay of obtaining justice and peace." 2 pages.' Notes Gallega, Benigno. "Chronology of justice and peace cases in Payao municipality." 2 pages. Julujo researchers. "Household census of three ANTONIO J. LEDESMA, S.J. has a doctorate in zones." 7 pages. development studies from the University of Wis­ Luspo, Anlano. "Additional recollections to the consin-Madison. His dissertation on Landless story of Siay." 5 pages. Workers and Rice Farmers won first prize in the Mendio, Lolita and Vicente. "An account of the (PES) dissertation contest of 1981. He is concur­ Mirangan consumers' coop." 8 pages. rently a faculty member of the College of Olila Rodrigo and Eusebio DoldoI. "Research on Agriculture, Xavier Universityin Cagayan de Oro the ownershipof land in BarangayMaligaya," City and consultant for Food and Agriculture 3 pages. Organization (FAO) and Economic and Social Rosario, Virgilio del and Rudy Bobo, "Account of Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on the Balagon consumers' coop." 5 pages. small farm development and agrarian reform. Suladay, Rene. "Farmer's consultations in Siay parish." 2 pages. Suladay Rene and Ben Drapiza. "Research on the Appendix situation of lowland rice farmers in three Participatory research reports zones." II pages. in Siay, 1981 Torre, Nicanor de lao "The story of Natan." 6 pages. (Note: All reports, except the last item, were writ­ Yap, Lito and Nene, "A pastoral recollection ... ten in Bisaya Cebuano, the local language. These Siay parish." 5 pages. Part V: APPENDIX

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE PHILIPPINE AGRARIAN REFORM AND RELATED AREAS*

FRANK HIRTZ

Part I Aniban ng mga Manggagawa sa Agricultura 1976 Towards the partnership of Aguirre, J.S., W.C. Depositario, and L.S. agricultural workers and government Aspiras in development. Labor Review I 1975 Some implications on whether or not (4): 119-24. to implement Operation Land Transfer (OL1) to areas below 24 i.n seven prov­ Asian NGO vinees, College, Laguna. 1979 Coalition for agrarian reform and rural development: The case for alter­ ARI, PCARR, UPLB native development of the people, Alcachupas, R.C. for the people, by the people. Report 1975 Land valuation: Policy implications on no. 6. Philippine NGO Report. agrarian reform in the Philippines. FAO/MAR Paper presented at the Second Agricultural Policy Conference, 10-12 Association of Major Religious Superiors in the July, Continuing Education Center. Philippines 1975 The sugar workers of Negros. Manila: ARI, PCARR, UPLB Association of Major Religious Alix, J.C. Superiors in the Philippines. 1975 The impact ofagrarian reform on pro­ Atienza, F.M., and D.E. Funkel ductivity and income. Quezon City: 1974 Determining the economic family size . Bureau of Agricultural Economics. farm for land reform areas. Journal of Alix, J.C. Agricultural Economics and Develop­ 1979 Demographic forecasts and agrarian ment 4(2):107-29. reform. Paper delivered at the Collo­ PCARR quium on Alternative Agrarian Reform Policies for the Future. Quezon City: Baeungan, F.M. Bureau of Agricultural Economics. 1976 The security of tenure law in the Philippines. Quezon City: U.P. Law PCARR Center. Alix, J.C., and others U.P. Law 1980 A study of farming systems among Operation Land Transfer beneficiaries Bacungan, F.M., ed, under the agrarian reform programme. 1975 Agrarian reform and law: First in­ Quezon City: Bureau of Agricultu ral stitute on agrarian laws, 1974. Quezon Economics. City: V.P. Law Center. ARI, PCARR Angsico, J.C. 1978 Socioeconomic changes after eleven Barrameda, J. V. years ofagrarian reform: A resurvey of 1974 Compact farming in Camarines Sur. Plaridel (Bulacan) farmers. Quezon Appendix to SSRU Research Report City: Institute of Philippine Culture, Series, no. 2. Naga City: Social Survey Ateneo de Manila University. Research Unit, Ateneo de Naga. ARI, FAO/MAR, PCARR ARI, PCARR, FAO/MAR Second View from the Paddy 141

Bauzon, L.E. stratification in coconut farms and, in­ 1974 Rural history. land tenure and the tercrops in the Philippines. Negros hacienda complex: Some ARl, PCARR, UPLB preliminary notes. PSSC Social Conti-Panganiben, C. Science Information 1(4-7):21-23. 1979 The promise and performance of the ARt. PSSC emancipation of tenant's decree: A case study of a farming village, Bauzon, L.E. 1972-1979. M.A. thesis. Philippine 1976 Philippine agrarian reform: 1880-1965. Center for Asian Studies, University of the revolution that never was. the Philippines. UP/tSEAS Occasional Paper. no. 31. Dagondon, V.M. Dillman. Quezon City: College of Arts 1979 Judges of the Courts of Agrarian Rela­ and Sciences. tions: Their knowledge and attitudes Berte. J.C. towards agrarian reform. M.S. thesis. 1974 Effects ofthe agrarjan reform program Community Development, University on farm productivity. Diliman, of the Philippines. Quezon City. ARt, PCARR FAO/MAR Dalisay, A.M. 1976 Economic issues in land reform: The Berte. J.C. Philippine case. ARI. UPLB Occa­ 1976 Operation Land Transfer. problems of sional Papers, no. 4. implementation. Fort Bonifacio. Rizal: NDC of the Philippines. AR1, PCARR ARt, PCARR Depositario, W.C. 1978 Tenurial systems in the sugar industry. Besa, G. 1975 Rights and obligations under the ARI emancipation decree (P.D. 27) and Domingo, J.T. related issuances. In Agrarian reform 1973 Contemporary changes in agrarian and law: First institute on agrarian structure in the Philippines. laws, 1974. Froilan M. Bacungan, ed. ARl, UPLB Quezon City: U.P. Law Center. Pp, 61-76. Domingo, J.T. 1974 Comparative agrarian reform pro­ Cando, S.M. gram. ARI-UPLB Seminar Papers on 1973 An economic analysis of Presidential Agrarian Reform. Decree 27. Quezon City: Program in Development, School of Economics, ARI University of the Philippines. Doria, N. castillo, G.T. 1975 The implications of agrarian reform: 1975 Diversity in unity: The social compo­ Theory of the absolute state. Solidarity nent ofchange in rice farming in Asian 9:51-65. villages. In Changes in rice farming in PCARR selected areas for Asia. College, Laguna: International Rice Research Dorner, P. Institute. pp. 347-60. 1975 The experience of other countries in land reform: Lessons for the Philip­ Claver, F.F. pines. Land Tenure Center, no. 48. 1973 Sharing the wealth and the power: ARt Agrarian reform in a southern Philip­ pine municipality. Ph.D. dissertation. Esman, M.J. Boulder, Colorado. 1978 Landlessness and near-landlessness in ARt developing countries. Special series on landlessness and near-landlessness. Clemente, F.A. New York: Rural Development Com­ 1975 Land tenure systems and social mittee Center for International Studies , Council University. 142 Hirtz: Bibliography on the Philippine Agrarian Reform

Estrella, C.F. Food and Agriculture Organization 1973 New thought for agrarian progress. 1979 Evaluation of agrarian reform im­ Solidarity 8(5):12-16. plementation: A case study of Barangay Bunga, Carranglan, Nueva Estrella, C.F. Ecija. By C. Narayanasamy. 1974 The meaning of land reform. Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House. FAO/MAR Estrella, C.F. Food and Agriculture Organization 1975 Agrarian reform: Key to Asia's 1980 Agrarian reform in Pangasinan: A ten­ development and freedom. ARI Occa­ tative appraisal. By F. Hirtz and H. sionalPaper, no. 1. Keynotebefore the Meliczek. ILO Meeting of Experts on Tenancy FAO/MAR Legislation, 23 October, Philippine Village Hotel. Fernando, E.M. 1975 Constitutional issues in agrarian ARI, UPLB reform. In Agrarian reform and law: Estrella, C.F. First institute on agrarian laws, 1974. 1974 Agrarian reform in the New Society. Froilan M. Bacungan, ed, Quezon Ci­ 3rd edition. ty: U.P. Law Center. Pp. 188-204. Estrella, C.F. Fernandez, P.V. 1975 The Philippine agrarian reform pro­ 1974 Agrarian reform laws in the Philip­ gram: Three years after the issuanceof pines. In Seminar papers on agrarian the tenants' emancipation decree. reform. pp. 1-36. Quezon City: Ministry of Agrarian ARI, UPLB Reform. Fernandez, P.V. FAO/MAR 1975 Emancipation of tenants' decree. Tala Estrella, C.F. Agrarian Law Series, no. 1. Quezon 1978 Tenant emancipation in the Philip­ City: Tala Publishing Services. pines. Quezon City: Public Informa­ ARI tion Division, Ministry of Agrarian Reform. Fernandez, R., and others 1979' Law in the mobilization· and par­ FAO/MAR ticipatory organization of the rural Evangelista, M. poor: The Kagawasan case. Quezon 1977 The implementation of General Order City: Institute of Philippine Culture, No. 47 in some selected corporate Ateneo de Manila University. farms as it relates to the agrarian Flores, T.G., and C. Francisco reform program. M.S. thesis. NDCP. 1975 Socioeconomic profile of tenants and Fabian, M.A., A. Rodriguez, and J. Berte Iandlords/landowners in the Philip­ 1973 Modern agrarian reform in the Philip­ pines. FAO, UPLB. pines: The history of F.A.R.M. ARI, PCARR Manila: Filipino Agrarian Reform Movement. Garcia, M.P., Jr. 1978 An overview of agrarian reform and Food and Agriculture Organization taxation in the Philippines. 1974 Surveyon tenant's reaction to P.O. 27. ARI, PCARR By S. Rajaram. Garcia, N.P., Jr. Food and Agriculture Organization 1979 The impact of Operation Land Transfer 1977 Asian survey of agrarian reform and on land tenure,' distribution, and rural development "Starong from reform: An overview. Below" - Regional project findings and recommendations. ARI FAO/MAR German, M.A. 1980 The agrarian law in the New Society. Second View from the Paddy 143

Diliman, Quezon City: U.P. Law Horakova, E. Center. 1973 Problems of Filipino settlers. Oeca, sional Paper, no. 4. Singapore: In­ Guzman, P.S. de stitute of Southeast Asian Studies. 1975 Agrarian reform and democracy. Solidarity 9(3): 35-41. PCARR Hanisch, R. Ibanez, E.C., and M.M. Reinoso 1977 Decision-making processes and prob­ 1977 An analysis of private idle lands. lems of implementation of land ARI, PCARR, UPLB reform in the Philippines. Part I. Asia Quarterly 4:305-22. Ibay, B.P. 1975 Jurisprudence on agrarian relations, PCARR vol, II, no. 1. Manila: Solidaridad Harkin, D.A. Publishing House. 1974 Some economic aspects of land reform ARI under P.D. 27. ARI International Labour Organization 1974 Sharing in development: A program of Harkin, D.A. employment, equity, and growth for 1976 Land reform, land use changes, and the Philippines (Ranis Report). capital gains. Occasional Paper, no. 7. Geneva: International Labour Agrarian Reform Institute. Organization. Harkin, D.A. FAO/MAR 1976 Strength and weaknesses of the Philip­ pine land reform: SEADAG papers on Indolos, M. problems of development in SEA no. 1976 A three-pronged policy for land tax 75-5, Occasional Papers, no. 3. Col­ reform. Solidarity 19(5-6):41-54. lege, Laguna: Agrarian Reform In­ Institute of Environmental Planning stitute, University of the Philippines at Los Banos, 1975 New Pantabangan: A study of resettle­ ment. Quezon City: University of the Philippines. ARI, PCARR FAO/MAR Harkin. D.A. 1976 Agrarian reform change and the Kerkvliet, B. Filipino responses. Solidarity 1973 Agrarian conditions in Luzon prior to 10(1):13-31. martial law. Bulletin of Concerned SEA Scholars 5(2):36-40. Harkin, D.A. 1976 Philippine agrarian reform in the Kerkvliet, B. perspective of three years of martial 1974 Agrarian conditions since the Huk law. Research Paper 8, no. 6. rebellion: A barrio in Central Luzon. Madison, Wisconsin: Land Tenure In Political change in the Philippines: Center. Studies of local politics prior to martial ARI, PCARR law. Benedict J. Kerkvliet, ed. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii. Hayami, Y. Pp. 1-76. 1978 Anatomy of a peasant economy: A rice village in the Philippines. Kerkvliet, B. 1974 Land reform in the Philippines since ARI, IRRI, PCARR the Marcos coup. Pacific Affairs Hickey, G.C., and J.L. Wilkinson 47:286-304. 1977 Agrarian reform in the Philippines. Kerkvliet, B. Report of a Seminar, 16-17December, 1977 The Huk rebellion: A study of peasant Rand Corp., Washington, D.C. revolt in the Philippines. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hirashima, S., ed, 1977 Hired labor in rural Asia. Tokyo: In­ Kerkvliet, B. stitute of Developing Economies. 1979 Land reform: Emancipation or- 144 Hirtz: BibliograjJhy on the Philippine Agrarian Reform

counterinsurgency? In Marcos and Ledesma, A.J. martial law in the Philippines. David 1980 Land reform in East and Southeast A. Rosenberg, ed. Ithaca: Cornell Asia: A comparative approach. Philip­ University Press. Pp, 113-44. pine Studies 28:305-43; 451-81. Kikuchi, M., N. Fortuna, and Y. Hayarni Lopez, R. 1978 Polarization of a Laguna village. IRRI 1974 Agrarian reform: Its sociocultural im­ Agricultural Economics Paper 77-1 1. plication in the Philippines. Paper Paper presented at the Village Level presented at a lecture-discussion in the Studies Workshops, 1972, Los Banos, Agrarian Reform Institute, University Laguna. of the Philippines, Dillman, Quezon ARI, PCARR City. ARI, PCARR King, D.J. 1975 Agrarian reform and its relationship to Lynch, F. development research needs in the 1973 What rice farmers of Camarines Sur 1970's. Madison, Wisconsin: Land say they want from the Philippine Tenure Center. government. SSRU Research Report FAO/MAR Series, no. 1. Naga City: Social Survey Research Unit, Ateneo de Naga. Krinks, P. 1974 Old wine in a new bottle: Land settle­ Lynch, F. ment and agrarian problems in the 1974 Rice-farm harvests and practices in Philippines. Journal of Southeast Camarines Sur: Do compact farms, Asian Studies 5(1):17-24. Masagana 99, and the Samahang Nayon make a difference? SSRU Labayen, B.R. Research Report Series, no. 2. Naga 1981 The history of resettlement in the City: Social Survey Research Unit, Philippines. Discussion Paper, Ateneo de Naga. Workshop on Public Land Policy. Tagaytay City: DevelopmentAcademy Maceda, M.M. of the Philippines. 1974 A survey of landed property concepts and practices among the marginal FAO/MAR agriculturists of the Philippines. Ladejinsky, W. Philippine Quarterly of Culture and 1975 Agrarian reform in the Philippines. In Society 2(1-2):5-20. Agrarian reform as unfinished IPC business. Lous J. Walinsky, ed, Pp. 550-57. Madronio, S.T. 1974 Agrarian reform in the Philippines in FAO/MAR recent decade (1963-1973). M.S. thesis. Ledesma, A.J. Universityof Wisconsin-Madison. 1978 Case study of landless rural workers in PCARR rice farms. Paper presented at the Workshop on Landless Rural Madronio, S.T. Workers, sponsored by the Philippine 1978 Mobilization of the peasantry toward Council for Agriculture and Resources development through agrarian reform. Research, Los Banos, Laguna. Paper prepared for the 1978 Country Review and Workshop on Agrarian PCARR Reform Implementation held at the Ledesma, A.J. Asian Institute of Tourism, Dillman, 1980 Landless workers and rice farmers: Quezon City. Peasant subclasses under agrarian FAO/MAR reform in two Philippine villages. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Madronio, S.T. Wisconsin-Madison. n.d. Institution building as a major compo­ nent of agrarian reform program: The ARI, IPC, PCARR Philippine experience.Paper presented Second View from the Paddy 145

before Land Reform Training Institute beneficiaries in the Philippines. Paper Alumni in a Special Seminar at LRTI, presented before the Workshop on Ac­ Taoyuan, Taiwan. cess Development and Distributive FAOIMAR Justice co-sponsored by the Institute ot Southeast Asian Studies and the Inter­ Makil, LoP.R., and P. Fermin national Legal Center (New York), 31 1978 Landless rural workers in the Philip­ July to 2 August, Singapore. pines: A documentary survey. Quezon FAO/MAR City: Institute of Philippine Culture, Areneo de Manila University. Medina, J.C., Jr. Mangahas. M. 1978 Attempts at establishing economic 1979 Why are we reluctant to set numerical family-size farms in the Philippines: equity target? (Comments on The agrarian reform experience. Paper 1978-1982 five-year development written for the Policy Workshop on plan). IEDR no. 79. the Future Viability of Small-Scale. Farming, Institute of Social Studies, Mangahas, M., V.A. Miralao, and R. Pahilanga­ The Hague, Netherlands. de los Reyes 1976 Tenants, lessees, owners: Welfare im­ Mercado, C.M., and others plications of tenure change. Quezon 1976 Communication study on agrarian City: Ateneo de Manila University reform, vol. I. Joint project of UP­ Press. IMC/PCARR/DARIARES/UPLB­ ARt. ARI, IPC, FAO/MAR, PCARR, UP PCARR Marcos, F.E. 1979 President F.E. Marcos on agrarian Montemayor, J.M. reform. Dillman, Quezon City. 1973 Agrarian systems and agrarian reforms: A problem of conceptualiza­ FAO/MAR tion. Philippine Journal of Public Ad­ McLennan, M.S. ministration 17(1):1-17. 1973 Peasant and haeendero in Nueva Ecija: ARI The socioeconomic origins of a Philip­ pine commercial rice-growing region. Montemayor, J.M. Ph.D. dissertation. University of 1973 Agrarian problems and prospects. California, Berkeley. Solidarity 8(5):26-29. ARI, PCARR ARI Mears, L.A., and others Montemayor, J.M. 1974 Rice economy of the Philippines. 1975 Participation of rural workers in the Quezon City: University of the Philip­ development process: A case study of pines Press. the Philippines. ARI, UPLB Medina, J.C., Jr. 1973 Integrated approach to agrarian Montemayor, J.M. reform: The NELRIDP. Occasional 1975 Compact farming: A study in Paper, no. 5. institution-building. College, Laguna: ARI, PCARR, UPLB Agrarian Reform Institute, University of the Philippines. Medina, J.C., Jr. PCARR 1975 Dimensions and strategies of the agrarian reform program. Solidarity Montemayor, J.M. 9:42-49. 1975 Asian survey on agrarian reform and rural development (ASARRD). Nueva Medina, J.C., Jr. Ecija Area Study Papers. College, 1976 Agricultural credit in agrarian reform Laguna: Agrarian Reform Institute, programs. Solidarity 10(1):53-58. University of the Philippines at Los Medina, J.C., Jr. Baftos. 1976 Access needs of agrarian reform .. ARI, PCARR, UPLB 146 Hirtz: BibliograPhy on the Phitipptne Agrarian Reform

Montemayor, J.M. Montemayor, J.M., and A.A. Tolentino 1975 Agrarian reform implementation: Ex­ 1977 A study of landowner's actual and in­ periences and problems. Occasional tended use of Land Bank bonds and Papers, no. 2. College, Laguna: other forms of compensation. Agrarian Reform Institute, University FAO/MAR,PCARR,UPLB of the Philippines at Los Banos. PCARR Montemayor, J.U. J975 The coverage, scope and interrelations Montemayor, J.M. of existing agrarian leglstatlon, In J975 The economic, social, and political ra­ Agrarian reform and law: First in­ tionale of agrarian reform. In Agrarian stitute on agrarian laws, 1974. Froilan reform and law: First institute on Bacungan, ed. Quezon City: U.P. agrarian laws, 1974. Froilan M. Law Center. Pp, 39-60. Bacungan,ed. Quezon City: U.P. Law ARI,IPC, PCARR Center. Pp, 205-13. Montemayor, J.U. Montemayor, J.M. J975 Progress and problems of the Philip­ 1976 Major issues in agrarian reform pine agrarian reform under martial research in the Philippines. In Con­ law. ference on strategic factors in rural development in East-Southeast Asia. Montemayor, J.U. PCARR 1976 The Philippine agrarian reform pro­ gramme. Manila; Rex Bookstore. Montemayor, J.M. 1977 A socioeconomic study on the Montemayor, J.U. economic and noneconomic burden of 1980 Seven years of agrarian reform under the recipients of CLT. martial law. Occasional Papers, no. 8. College, Laguna: Agrarian Reform In­ ARI, PCARR, UPLB stitute. Montemayor, J.M. FAO/MAR J977 Terminal report on the land tenure and Montgomery, J.D. management problems in corporate 1974 Allocation ofauthority in land reform farming study. program: A comparative study of ad­ ARI, UPLB ministration processesand outputs. Montemayor, J.M., and I.C. Bato Montgomery, J.D. 1975 The impact of the CP-IBRD first and J976 Land reform and popular participa­ second credit programmes: A tion: Some possibilities for the Philip­ sociologicalanalysis. Laguna: Depart­ pines. Solidarity 10(1):66-73. ment of Land Tenure and Manage­ Munoz, A.R. ment, Agrarian Reform Institute, 1973 The agrarian challenge. Solidarity University of the Philippines at Los 8(5):16-26. Banos. ARI, FAO/MAR, PCARR Munoz, A.R. 1979 The Philippine experience on small Montemayor, J.M., and E.F. Escueta farmer development - "consultation 1977 A sociological study on the economic at the grassroots." The Philippine and noneconomic burdens of the reci­ FAO/ASARRD Experience, Quezon pients of the Certificate of Land City. (FAO/PR 811; PHI177/p-12). Transfer. College, Laguna: Agrarian FAO/MAR Reform Institute, University of the Philippines at Los Banos. Nicolas, AM. R. FAO/MAR 1975 Some aspects of Operation Land Transfer: A comparative analysis of Montemayor, J.M., and M.P. Garcia small landowners and OLT tenant 1977 Tenant-tillers refusing to be deemed beneficiaries. owners or to accept the Certificate of ARI, FAO/MAR, PCARR, UPLB Operation Land Transfer. ARI, PCARR, UPLB Nollede, J.N. 1976 Principlesof agrarian reforms and tax~ Second View from the Paddy 147

ation. 6th and revised editior; Manila: and cases. Philippine Agricultural National Bookstore. Situation, no. 4. Olson, G.L. ARI,PCARR 1974 U.S. foreign policy and the Third Penalosa, R.P. . World peasant: Land reform in Asia 1974 A history of agrarian reform in the and Latin America. New York: Philippines. Unitas 47(4):441-72. Praeger Press. Perera, M.S. . Ople, B.F. 1973 Agrarian reform and cooperatives. 1976 The landless rural workers. Labor Review 1(4):9-14. ARI, PCARR, UPLB Ordono, E.O. Perfecto, I.T., ed, 1973 Income distribution through land 1974 Seminar papers on agrarian reform. reform. The Philippine Statistician College, Laguna: Agrarian ~~fo~ In­ 22(3-4):40-54. stitute, University of the Phlltppmes at Los Baftos. IPC ARI, UPLB Pangaa, R.S. . 1979 Resource management: Case studlesof Philippines (Republic) Department of Agrarian five Operation Land Transfer families. Reform MS, Family Resource Management, 1973 Vital documents on agrarian reform University of the Philippines at Los under the New Society. Quezon Oty: Baftos. Public Information Division, Depart­ ment of Agrarian Reform. ARI, PCARR Philippines (Republic) Ministry of Agrarian Panganiban, C.C. Reform . 1979 The promise and performance of the 1980 Primer on agrarian reform. Diliman. emancipation of tenant's decree: A Quezon City: Public Information Divi­ case study of a farming village. M.A. sion. Ministry of Agrarian Reform. thesis. University of the Philippines. ARI, FAOIMAR, IPC, PCARR Pijuan, E.R. '. 1980 Our land reform: Its legal ~es, Panganiban, L.C. Central Lawbook Publishing. 1972 Land reform administrative pro­ cedures in the Philippines: A critical Pinpin, F.D., ed, analysis. Madison, Wisconsin: Univer­ 1974 Philippine laws on agrarian reforms. sity of Wisconsin. 2nd edition. Manila: National Bookstore. PCARR Po, B. Panganiban, L.C. . 1977 Rural or~tions and rural develop­ obli~tion -1980 Management as perceived ment in the Philippines: A documen­ by agrarian team leaders and their tary study. Quezon City: Institute ~f association with selected personal and Philippine Culture. Ateiteo de Mamla organizational variables. Ph.D. disser­ University. tation. Manuel L. Quezon University. ARI,IPC Patalinjug, J.P., Jr. 1981 Situational analysis on administrative Po, B. issues re: land allocation and titling. 1980 Land reform policies and their im­ Paper presented during the Land plementation in the Philippines. In Policy Workshop held at the Develop­ Land reform: Some Asian experiences, ment Academy of the Philippines, vol. IV. Inayatullah. ed. Kuala Lum­ Ta~ytay City. pur: Asian and Pacific Development Administration Centre: FAO/MAR FAOIMAR Paulino, L. 1973 Family size farm determination: Issues Po. B. 1981 Policies and implementation of land J48 Hirtz; Bibliogratlhy on-the Philippine Agrarlon Reform

reform in the Philippines: A documen­ Roumasset, l.A. tary study. Quezon City: Institute of 1917 Risk, uncertainty and agricultural Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manita development. ADC Seminar Report. University. no. IS. Southeast Asian R.e!ional {PC Center for Graduate Study and Researcb in Agriculture and tbe Qayyum, A. Agricultural Development Council. 1916 Imperatives of development for landless rural workers. Philippine Roumasset. J. Labor Review 1(4):125-32. 1979 Sharecropping. production exter­ nalities and thetheory ofcontracts. In­ PCARR stitute of Economic Development and Qnerol, M.N. Research Discussion Paper. 00. 7906. 1914 Land reform in Asia. Manila: Quezon City: Institute of Economic Solidaridad Publishing House. Development and Research, SChool of Economies, University of the Philip­ FAO/MAR. pines. Rajaram, S. Ryan, B.H. 1974 Survey On tenants' reaction to 1974 Procedures and work flow: Operation Presidential Decree27. Quezon City. Land Transfer within the Planning FAO/MAR. Services, DAR.. USAID. Manila. Reed, B.P. FAO/MAR. 1980 Agrarian reform and rural reconstruc­ Ryan. B:H. tion: A seminar teport. 1914 Work flow studyoflandowners' sworn Reinoso, M.M. statement in DAR PIannina Services. 1916 An evaluation of tbe implementation USAID, Manila. ofOperation Land Transfer. FAO/MAR. ARl 8acay.O.J. Relnoso, M.M. 1913 Small farmer credit in the Philippines. 1979 History of. agrarian reform in the AID Spring Review of Small Farmer Philippines. Credit, vol. 13. Washington, D.C.: ARl, PCARR "seney for International Develop­ ment. Reinoso, M.M•• N.C. Canacias. and N.C. Jimenez Salazar, T.B. 1976 An analysis of land reform grievances 1976 Determination of the decree of attain­ and resolvina procedures. ment of the food and total threshold by the amortizing owner under P.D. ARI, PCAR.R.,UPLB 27. Quezon City: School of Reinoso, M.M., N.A. Jimenez, and C.R. Economies. University of the Philip­ MasaUanes pines. 1917 An evaluation ofOLT procedures. PCARR ARI, PCARR. UPLB Salgado, P.V.O.P. Reinoso, M.M•• and others 1974 Religious aspect ofland reform. Unitas 1917 A survey of private agricultural aban­ 47(4):S09-22. doned land. san Andres, R•• and J.F.I. mo ARI. PCARR, UPLB 1978 Beyond share tenancy: A socioeconomic study of the effects of Rocamora, J.B., and C. Conti-Panganiban agrarian programs in the Bicol River 1915 Rural development strategies: The Basin, Canlarines Sur.. 1974 and 1917. Philippine case. Quezon City: Institute Quezon City: Institute of Philippine of Philippine Culture. Ateneo de Culture. Ateneo de Manila University. Manila University. FAO/MAR., IPC. PCAR. ARI, IPC, PCARR Second Viewfrom the Paddy 149

Sanderatne, N.E.H. municipality: Policy, organizations 1974 The political economy of Asian and conflict. Ph. D. dissertation. agrarian reform: A comparative Claremont Graduate School. analysis with case studies ofthe Philip­ ARt pines and Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Ph.D. dissertation. University of Wisconsin, Srinilta, M. Ann Arbor University. 1977 Some socioeconomic factors. Associa­ tion with repayment behavior of OLT­ sandoval, P.R. beneficiaries in San Miguel, BuJacan. 1976 Land reform: Patterns, objectives and economic issues. Journal of ARt, PCARR, UPLB Agricultural Economics and Develop­ ment 6(1). Stamer, F.L. 1974 The land reform programme - let ARJ them eat promises. Far Eastern Economic Review 83(2):26-29. Santiago, A.M. 1974 Urban land policy in land reform areas. In International seminaron urban land St~nwyk, M.A. Van use, policy, taxation and economic 1975 A study ofPhilippine farmer organiza· development. pp. 265-95. tions. Manila: U.S. Agency for Inter­ national Development. Santiago, S. 1978 Procedures of land valuation. San Fer­ nando, Pampanga. Sturtevant, R.D. 1972 Rural discord: The peasantry and na­ FAO/MAR tionalism. Solidarity 7:2741. .Santos, G.S. Suwanakiri, K. 1974 Legal aspects of agrarian reform. 1979 Socioeconomic profile of Operation Unitas 47(4):52342. Land Transfer (OLT) beneficiaries of Santos, G.S. the agrarian reform in Bay, Laguna, 1975 Critical survey ofSupreme Court deci­ Philippines. sions on agrarian reform. In Agrarian ARI, PCARR, UPLB reform and law: First institute on agrarian laws, 1974. FroiJan M. Tablante, N.B. Baeungan, ed, Quezon City: U.P. Law 1974 Agrarian reform and cooperatives. Center. Pp. 148-87. Unitas 47(4): 543-58. Santos, G.S. Takahashi, A. 1977 Legal systems for the future: The COurt 1975 The Philippines: Agrarian reform of Agrarian Relations. Paper before and under martial law. Geneva: presented on a colloquium on Alter­ .International Labour Organization. native Agrarian Retorm PObcies as Takahashi, A. cited on the 14th Annual Report ofthe Executive Judge, pp, 10, 12, 13. 1975 The land reform in Asia, with partic­ ular reference to Pakistan, the Philip­ PCARR pines, and Thailand. Geneva: Interna­ Sein, L. tional Labour Organization. 1976 Agrarian reform and urbanization in the Philippines. Solidarity 10(1):59-65. Takahashi, A. Sieat, L.M. 1977 Rural labor and agrarian changes in 1975 The political rationale of agrarian the Philippines. In Hired labor in rural reform. In Agrarian reform and law: Asia. S. Hirashima, ed. Tokyo: in­ First institute on agrarian laws, 1974, stitute of Developing Economies. Pp. Froilan M. Bacungan, ed. Quezon Ci­ 97-105. ty: U.P. Law Center. Pp. 16-38 PCARR SiUiman, G.S. Takahashi, A. 1975 Agrarian reform in a Philippine 1979 The link between community studies 150 Hirtz: Bibliography on'the Philippine Agrarian Reform

and history: Peasants "and a changing pects for development. Country society. Southeast Asia Studies Economic Report, Washington, D.C. Monograph, no. 21. In Perspectives on Philippine historiography. J .A. Wurfel, D.O. Larkin, ed. NewHaven: YaleUniversi­ 1911 Martial law in the Philippines: The ty. Pp. 47-54. methods of regime survival. Pacific Affairs 50(Spring). Takigawa, T. 1974 A note on the agrarian reform in the Wurfel, D.O. Philippines under the New Society. 1971 Philippine agrarian policy today: Im­ IEDR Discussion Paper, no. 74-17. plementation and political impact. Quezon City: Institute of Economic ISEAS Occasional Paper, no. 46. Development and Research, School of Singapore. Economics, University of the Philip­ PCARR pines. Yap-Diangco, N.L. Thiesenhusen, W.C. 1918 An appraisal of achievements of the 1974 What changing technology implies for agrarian reform program under mar­ agrarian reform. Land Economics tial law. M.A. thesis. Department of 50(1):1-16. Also an LTC Reprint, no. Political Science, Far Eastern Universi­ 116. ty. Thiesenhusen, W.C. FEU 1975 Development and equality: Partners or Yaneza, F. rivals. Solidarity 9(3):7-19. Also an 1915 Operation Land Transfer under the LTC Reprint, no. 128. land reform program of the New Umehara, H. Society. Undergraduate thesis. Univer­ 1974 A hacienda barrio in Central Luzon: A sity of the Philippines. case study of a Philippine village. Zimmerly, G.A. Tokyo: Institute of Developing 1980 The landless laborers: Access to Economies. agricultural credit, extension, and in­ PCARR frastructures. Impact 1:245-56. Valdes, A.T. PCARR. 1973 The economic significance of the land reform program to rice productivity. Valeroso, M.L. Notes 1971 Some factors associated with nonpay­ ment of land amortization by Opera­ tion Land Transfer beneficiaries in FRANK HIRTZ of Bonn, West Germany, holds Nueva Ecija. M.A. thesis. University an M.A. in sociology. His publications focus on of the Philippines at Los Baftos. the sociology oflaw and on sociological problems PCARR of law in South and West Africa. He did evaluative research on land reform problems for Viloria, L.A., and others the Ministry of Agrarian Reform, Philippines in 1914 Study of growth centers and areas for 1980-81,under the auspices ofthe United Nations future urban expansion in land reform Development Programme-Food and Agriculture area. Diliman, Quezon City: UP In­ Organization (UNDP-FAO). His special interests stitute of Planning, Department of revolve around empirical methods and partici­ Agrarian Refontl. patory research, political economy of peasant PCARR societies and law and development. World Bank 1916 The Philippines: Priorities and pros- "'This is an abridged version of the author's original bibliography. OTHER IPC PUBLICATIONS

1. IPC Papers No.2: Four Readings on Philippine Values ed. by Frank Lynch, S.J. and Alfonso de Guzman II 2. IPC Papers No.4: Modernization: Its Impact in the Philippines I ed. by Walden F. Bello and Maria Clara Roldan 3. IPC Papers No.6: Modernization: Its Impact in the Philippines III ed. by Walden F. Bello and Alfonso de Guzman II 4. IPC Papers No.7: Modernization: Its Impact in the Philippines IV ed. by Walden F. Bello and Alfonso de Guzman II 5. IPC Papers No.8: Psychology of Modernization in the Rural Philippines by George M. Guthrie 6. IPC Papers No.9: Estancia in Transition: Economic Growth in a Rural Philippine Community by David L. Szanton 7. IPC Papers No. 10: Modernization: Its Impact in the Philippines V ed. by Frank Lynch, S.J. and Alfonso de Guzman II 8. IPC Papers No. 12: The Filipino Family, Community and Nation by Emma E. Porio, Frank Lynch, S.J. and Mary R. Hollnsteiner 9. IPC Papers No. 13: Rural Organizations in the Philippines by Blondie Po and Cristina Montiel ed. by Marie S. Fernandez 10. IPC Papers No. 14: The Philippine Poor I: Two Monographs by William J. Keyes and Simeon G. Silverio, Jr. ed. by Marie S. Fernandez 11. Society, Culture and the Filipino ed. by Mary R. Hollnsteiner and Marie S. Fernandez 12. Mobilizing the Rural Poor through Community Organization by Mary R. HoUnsteiner 13. Land Reform Program in East and Southeast Asia: A Comparative Approach by Antonio J. Ledesma, S.J. 14. Kagawasan: A True Story by Richard Fernandez, et al. (in comics form) available in English, Tagalog and Cebuano versions 15. Women and Men in Development: Findings from a Pilot Study by Virginia A. Miralao 16. Toward a Social Forestry-Oriented Policy: The Philippine Experience by Perla Q. Makil SECONOUiew fromlhe Paddy

This collection of field-level studies is a companion volume to the first View from the Paddy published by the Institute of Philippine Culture in 1972. It also serves as a complement to offici al statements on the progress of agrarian reform and reminds the reader of the notable difference between the normative and empirical approaches . in agrarian reform studies - a distinction stressed by the editor of the first View: It dwells more on the implementation of agrarian reform than on its legislation, thus also complementing current text­ books on agrarian reform which usually stress the existing laws and regulatio ns while understating the obstacles to implementation.