Antonio L. Ledesma, Sl

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.

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