July 22, 1987
PROCLAMATION NO. 131
INSTITUTING A COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM
WHEREAS, we have proclaimed the revival and development of the full potential of Philippine agriculture to be an economic priority of our new democracy so as to provide a firm foundation for the industrialization of our economy, and thereby assure the genuine independence of our country;
WHEREAS, it is necessary to make our new democracy meaningful by increasing the productivity of the farming sector and increasing the incomes of farmers, regular farmworkers, and other farmworkers;
WHEREAS, the essential element in any policy of agricultural revival and development is a comprehensive and realistic agrarian reform program;
WHEREAS, such an agrarian reform program will encourage the shift of capital from land to industry;
WHEREAS, realizing these imperatives, the President declared in the 1986 Presidential campaign that she would undertake an agrarian reform program;
WHEREAS, there is need for all to address agrarian reform in the spirit of cooperation, harmony, and understanding, a spirit which must pervade the process as a whole, in its voluntary as well as non-voluntary aspects, for the country faces problems and challenges that require national unity;
WHEREAS, agrarian reform indispensably entails the participation of all concerned in the planning, organization, and management of the program;
WHEREAS, the entire Filipino people, together with all government agencies and private organizations, must extend priority support and full cooperation to implement this program effectively;
WHEREAS, there is a need for the program to be realistic and flexible in order to succeed, to take account of differences from place to place, from community to community, so that no single and rigid prescription would be unfairly and unwisely applied to all regardless of special features and circumstances, and to be within the present and foreseeable capabilities of the nation;
WHEREAS, the program further requires available funding that is definite as to source and timing;
WHEREAS, the education, re-orientation, and motivation of farmers, regular farmworkers, and other farmworkers in their new role and responsibilities, along with steps to ensure that the program will result in increased productivity and better income for the beneficiaries, are also called for;
WHEREAS, all these and other infrastructure requirements must further be provided for by other legislation and measures;
WHEREAS, the President recognizes as a partner to this continuing undertaking the co-equal Branch of the Congress of the Philippines, whose Senate is elected at large and therefore speaks for the nation, and whose House of Representatives articulates the needs and problems of the constituencies and sectors in the land;
WHEREAS, in the last analysis, the times undeniably a call for change, and the need to undertake the agrarian reform program can no longer wait so that no alternative lies but to adopt a program that is workable, sufficiently funded and above all, aimed to succeed, for the nation can no more afford its failure than its lack;
WHEREAS, the forces of history and the Constitution, the pressing needs of the times, the capabilities of the present, and the age-old aspirations of the Filipino people demand such agrarian reform program.
WHEREFORE, the Constitution of the Philippines provides the following:
"ARTICLE II
"DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND STATE POLICIES
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"Sec. 21. The State shall promote comprehensive rural development and agrarian reform."
"ARTICLE XXII
"NATIONAL ECONOMY AND PATRIMONY
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"Sec. 1, par. 2: The State shall promote industrialization and full employment based on sound agricultural development and agrarian reform. . . ."
"ARTICLE XIII
"SOCIAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
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"AGRARIAN AND NATURAL RESOURCES REFORM
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"Sec. 4. The State shall, by law, undertake an agrarian reform founded on the right of farmers and regular farmworkers, who are landless, to own directly or collectively the lands they till or, in the case of other farmworkers, to receive a just share of the fruits thereof. To this end, the State shall encourage and undertake the just distribution of all agricultural lands, subject to such priorities and reasonable retention limits as the Congress may prescribe, taking into account ecological, developmental, or equity considerations, and subject to the payment of just compensation. In determining the retention limits, the State shall respect the right of small landowners. The State shall further provide incentives for voluntary land-sharing."
"Sec. 5. The State shall recognize the right of the farmers, farmworkers, and landowners, as well as cooperatives, and other independent farmers' organizations to participate in the planning, organization, and management of the program, and shall provide support to agriculture through appropriate technology and research, and adequate financial production, marketing, and other support services."
"Sec. 6. The State shall apply the principles of agrarian reform or stewardship, whenever applicable in accordance with law, in the disposition or utilization of other natural resources, including lands of the public domain under lease or concession suitable to agriculture, subject to prior rights, homestead rights of small settlers, and the rights of indigenous communities to their ancestral lands.
"The State may resettle landless farmers and farmworkers in its own agricultural estates which shall be distributed to them in the manner provided by law."
xxx xxx xxx
"Sec. 8. The State shall provide incentives to landowners to invest the proceeds of the agrarian reform program to promote industrialization, employment creation, and privatization of public sector enterprises. Financial instruments used as payments for their lands shall be honored as equity in enterprises of their choice."
"ARTICLE XVIII
"TRANSITORY PROVISIONS
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"Sec. 22. At the earliest possible time, the Government shall expropriate idle or abandoned agricultural lands as may be defined by law, for distribution to the beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program."
NOW, THEREFORE, I, CORAZON COJUANGCO AQUINO, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby order:
SECTION 1. Scope. — Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is hereby instituted which shall cover, regardless of tenurial arrangement and commodity produced all public and private agricultural lands as provided in the Constitution, including whenever applicable in accordance with law, other lands of the public domain suitable to agriculture.
SECTION 2. Agrarian Reform Fund. — There is hereby created a special fund, to be known as The Agrarian Reform Fund, an initial amount of FIFTY BILLION PESOS (50,000,000, 000.00) to cover the estimated cost of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program from 1987 to 1992 which shall be sourced from the receipts of the sale of the assets of the Asset Privatization Trust and receipts of sale of ill-gotten wealth received through the Presidential Commission on Good Government and such other sources as government may deem appropriate. The amounts collected and accruing to this special fund shall be considered automatically appropriated for the purpose authorized in this Proclamation.
SECTION 3. Implementation. — The provisions for the mechanisms needed initially to implement the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program are set forth in Executive Order No. 229, dated 22 July, 1987, which is a companion measure to this Proclamation.
SECTION 4. Effectivity and Repealing Clause. — This Proclamation shall take effect immediately upon its approval and repeals or amends accordingly all laws, issuances, decrees or any part thereof inconsistent with its provisions.
APPROVED, in the City of Manila, Philippines, this 22nd day of July, 1987.