The Role and Effectivity of Philippine Peasant Movements in Initiating and Implementing Genuine Agrarian Reform (1988-1998)

Abstract

History could attest that the peasantry ever since had been oppressed. Since the colonial times, where the very root of the agrarian dilemma began, up until the present, the conditions of the peasants had hardly improved. Although every new administration since Quezon had claimed in the “centerpiece” of their administration, the results of the implementation of their agrarian laws prove otherwise. In the light of the intensifying land grabbing, reconcentration of lands and oppression of the peasantry the militant sectors decided to take the matters into their hands through initiating the implementation of their version of genuine agrarian reform. Gained through lobbying and mass mobilizations, the peasants eventually earned the CARP. However, due to the very politicians themselves being landlords, this law, like its legislative predecessors, is riddle with loopholes. Peasant movements play a very decisive role in initiating and implementing genuine agrarian reform. They help raise the consciousness and provided ideology for the peasants, They also hold the responsibility of educating their fellow farmers, disseminating information, and facilitating the articulation of grassroots demands. The peasant movements and organizations serve as the voice and representative of the peasantry. The effectivity of the peasant movements in initiating and implementing genuine agrarian reform is generally relative and shortened due to strength of their antagonists who employe tactics to muffle and negate whatever success the movements gained. In the final analysis, agrarian reform, in order to be really genuine and successfully implemented would have to come from peasant movements.