New Agrarian Emancipation Act

Last updated
New Agrarian Emancipation Act
Coat of arms of the Philippines.svg
Congress of the Philippines
  • An Act Emancipating Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries from financial burden by condoning all principal loans, unpaid amortizations and interests and exempting payment of Estate Tax on agricultural lands awarded under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
Territorial extentFlag of the Philippines.svg  Philippines
Enacted by House of Representatives of the Philippines
Enacted by Senate of the Philippines
Signed byPresident Bongbong Marcos
SignedJuly 7, 2023
Status: In force

The New Agrarian Emancipation Act, officially designated as Republic Act No. 11953, is a bill passed by the 19th Congress of the Philippines and signed by President Bongbong Marcos on July 7, 2023. The law frees more than 600,000 farmers from debt. The Act complements the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, which condones farmers with awarded lands from amortizations, including interest and surcharges. [1] About 610,054 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) tilling 1.173 million hectares of land are seen to benefit from this law. [2] The Philippine government will pay the remaining balance of the direct compensation due the landowners under the Voluntary Land Transfer (VLT) or the Direct Payment Scheme (DPS) amounting to ₱206.2 million. [3] The law covers PHP57.56 billion in agrarian arrears. [4]

Contents

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corazon Aquino</span> President of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992

Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People Power Revolution, which ended the two-decade rule of President Ferdinand Marcos and led to the establishment of the current democratic Fifth Philippine Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imee Marcos</span> Filipina politician and former actress (born 1955)

Maria Imelda Josefa Remedios "Imee" Romualdez Marcos is a Filipina politician and former actress serving as a Senator since 2019. She is the daughter of Ferdinand Marcos and former first lady Imelda Marcos and the older sister of the current president, Bongbong Marcos. She previously served as governor of Ilocos Norte from 2010 to 2019 and as representative of Ilocos Norte's 2nd district from 1998 to 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land Bank of the Philippines</span> Bank in the Philippines

Land Bank of the Philippines, is a government-owned bank in the Philippines with a special focus on serving the needs of farmers and fishermen. While it provides the services of a universal bank, it is officially classified as a "specialized government bank" with a universal banking license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miriam Defensor Santiago</span> Filipina politician, lawyer, and author (1945–2016)

Miriam Palma Defensor-Santiago was a Filipino scholar, academic, lawyer, judge, author, and stateswoman who served in all three branches of the Philippine government: judicial, executive, and legislative. Defensor Santiago was named one of The 100 Most Powerful Women in the World in 1997 by The Australian. She was known for being a long-serving Senator of the Republic of the Philippines, an elected judge of the International Criminal Court, and the sole female recipient of the Philippines' highest national honor, the Quezon Service Cross.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bataan Nuclear Power Plant</span> Nuclear power plant in the Philippines

The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant on the Bataan Peninsula, 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of Manila, Philippines. Completed but never fueled, it is located on a 3.57 km2 (1.38 sq mi) government reservation at Napot Point in Morong, Bataan. It was the Philippines' only attempt at building a nuclear power plant. It was mothballed due to safety concerns in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 and issues regarding corruption. The Letter of Instruction No. 957, s. 1979 was signed by the late President Ferdinand Marcos and was published on November 13, 1979, in which it states that the continuation of the construction was not possible due to potential hazards to the health and safety of the public; however, the Marcos administration eventually supported the project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Philippines (1986–present)</span> Aspect of history

This article covers the history of the current Philippine republican state following the 1986 People Power Revolution, known as the Fifth Philippine Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Peter Cayetano</span> Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from 2019 to 2020

Alan Peter Schramm Cayetano is a Filipino lawyer and diplomat serving as a Senator since 2022 and previously from 2007 to 2017. He was the Senate Minority Leader from 2010 to 2013, and later Senate Majority Leader from 2013 to 2016. He also served as the Representative of Taguig–Pateros from 1998 to 2007 and from 2019 to 2022 and was the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2019 until his resignation in 2020. He also served as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 in the cabinet of President Rodrigo Duterte, after unsuccessfully running for vice president in the 2016 elections as Duterte's running mate.

The Mendiola massacre was an incident that took place in Mendiola Street, San Miguel, Manila, Philippines on January 22, 1987, in which state security forces under President Corazon Aquino violently dispersed a farmers' march to Malacañang Palace in protest for the lack of government action on land reform.

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, more commonly known as CARP, is an agrarian reform law of the Philippines whose legal basis is the Republic Act No. 6657, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL). It is the redistribution of private and public agricultural lands to help the beneficiaries survive as small independent farmers, regardless of the “tenurial” arrangement. Its goals are to provide landowners equality in terms of income and opportunities, empower land owner beneficiaries to have equitable land ownership, enhance agricultural production and productivity, provide employment to more agricultural workers, and put an end to conflicts regarding land ownership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hacienda Luisita</span> Sugar plantation in Tarlac, Philippines

Hacienda Luisita is a 6,453-hectare sugar plantation located in the province of Tarlac, Philippines. The hacienda spans 11 barangays in three towns of Tarlac province. Most of the original farmworkers reside in 10 villages – Barangays Balete, Cutcut, Lourdes, Mapalacsiao, Asturias, and Bantog in Tarlac City; Barangay Motrico in La Paz town; and Barangays Parang, Mabilog and Pando in Concepcion town. The original estate includes the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) sugar mill and a golf course. The eleventh village is Barangay Central in Tarlac City which houses the CAT sugar mill, the St. Martin de Porres Hospital and the Our Lady of Lourdes Church. It features Luisita Golf and Country Club, a golf course and Las Haciendas de Luisita Subdivision, a 5-interconnected luxury subdivision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidency of Corazon Aquino</span> Philippine presidential administration from 1986 to 1992

Corazon Aquino became the 11th President of the Philippines following the People Power Revolution or EDSA 1, and spanned a six-year period from February 25, 1986, to June 30, 1992. Aquino's relatively peaceful ascension to the Philippine presidency signaled the end of authoritarian rule of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, and drew her and the Filipino people international acclaim and admiration.

Land reform in the Philippines has long been a contentious issue rooted in the Philippines's Spanish Colonial Period. Some efforts began during the American Colonial Period with renewed efforts during the Commonwealth, following independence, during Martial Law and especially following the People Power Revolution in 1986. The current law, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, was passed following the revolution and extended until 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Romualdez</span> Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines since 2022

Ferdinand Martin Gomez Romualdez is a Filipino businessman, lawyer and politician serving as the Speaker of the House of Representatives since July 25, 2022. He is also serving as the representative for the 1st district of Leyte since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2016. He formerly served as the House Majority Leader from 2019 to 2022, and unsuccessfully ran for senator in the 2016 elections. He is a first cousin of President Bongbong Marcos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidency of Rodrigo Duterte</span> Philippine presidential administration from 2016 to 2022

Rodrigo Duterte became the 16th President of the Philippines on June 30, 2016, succeeding Benigno Aquino III. He was the first president from Mindanao, the first president to have worked in all three branches of government, and the oldest to be elected. He won the election amid growing frustration with post-EDSA governance that favored elites over ordinary Filipinos. His tenure ended on June 30, 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilocos Norte tobacco excise tax funds controversy</span> Corruption scandal involving former Governor Imee Marcos, Mark Chua and the Ilocos 6

In May 2017, the House of Representatives of the Philippines began an investigation into alleged misuse of tobacco excise tax funds in the province of Ilocos Norte from 2010 to 2016, representing the first two gubernatorial terms of Imee Marcos, who was serving her third and last gubernatorial term at the time the investigation was initiated. Marcos, her longtime partner Mark Chua, and six Ilocos Norte local officials - Pedro Agcaoili, Eden Batulayan, Josephine Calajete, Encarnacion Gaor, Genedine Jambaro, and Evangeline Tabulog - were implicated in the investigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sagay massacre</span> Part of the 2017–19 Negros Island killings

The Sagay massacre occurred when a group of gunmen shot and killed nine sugarcane farmers, including four women and two children, while they were eating dinner in a makeshift tent on a farm in Sagay, Negros Occidental, on October 20, 2018. The farmers were members of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), and the massacre may have been motivated by ongoing conflicts over land reform in the Philippines.

2022 in the Philippines details notable events that occurred in the Philippines in 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic, which largely defined the preceding two years, continued into 2022.

The first 100 days of Bongbong Marcos's presidency began on June 30, 2022, the day Bongbong Marcos was inaugurated as the 17th president of the Philippines.

The Negros famine took place on Negros island in the Philippines in the mid-1980s, during the waning days of the Marcos dictatorship, and was a key moment in the history of sugar production in the Philippines, as well as the broader political history of the Philippines. Caused by the Marcos administration's efforts to control sugar production through the NASUTRA monopoly held by Marcos crony Roberto Benedicto and by a sudden crash in international sugar prices, it created what popularly came to be known as a "social volcano", with tensions culminating in the Escalante massacre, and with negative effects still felt even after the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies during the 1986 People Power Revolution.

2023 in the Philippines details notable events that have occurred, or are scheduled to take place, in the Philippines in 2023. The COVID-19 pandemic, which largely defined the preceding three years, continued into 2023, albeit not as much compared to the previous years.

References

  1. "Marcos enacts debt forgiveness law for 610k farmers". Philstar.com. July 7, 2023. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
  2. Manahan, Job (July 7, 2023). "Marcos signs law condoning P57-billion debt of agrarian reform beneficiaries". news.abs-cbn.com. ABS-CBN News. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
  3. Bajo, Anna Felicia (July 7, 2023). "Marcos signs New Agrarian Emancipation Act". GMANetwork.com. GMA News Online. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
  4. Gita-Carlos, Ruth Abbey (July 7, 2023). "PBBM signs New Agrarian Emancipation Bill into law". pna.gov.ph. Philippine News Agency. Retrieved July 7, 2023.