Pre-colonial Economic and Land Systems

Pre-colonial Era Land Ownership

• Land was communally owned by barangays (30-100 families)
• Chiefs administered barangays
• Everyone had access to land and shared resources
• "Stewardship" concept valued the relationship between humans and nature.

Pre-colonial Era Land Cultivation

• Kaingin system (slash and burn)
• Land was cleared by burning before planting crops
• Land was sometimes plowed and harrowed before planting.

Pre-colonial Era Economic System

• Food was primarily for family consumption
• Barter trade occurred between neighboring communities
• Trade with foreign traders (Chinese, Arabs, Indians, Japanese, Europeans) involved luxury goods exchange .

Pre-colonial Era Land Leasing/Selling

• The Maragtas Code mentions a land sale involving Panay Island.
• There was no record of widespread land leasing practice.
• Some pre-colonial laws mention lease of cultivated land but without details on how it was practiced

Spanish Era Land Cultivation

• Pueblo agriculture was introduced; land was divided and given to families.
• Land was distributed to native Christianized families.
• Cultivated land was typically 4-5 hectares .
• There was no landless class in the pueblo agricultural system.

Spanish Era Land Ownership

• Native families were landholders, not landowners.
• Landholdings belonged to the Spanish King, and they paid colonial tributes as agricultural products.

Spanish Era Agrarian Tenancy

• Spanish crown awarded large tracts of land to the friars, military and encomenderos.
• Natives became tillers, working for a share of crops, without ownership rights.
• Friars lands, repartimentos for land granted to Spanish military officers as compensation for their services; encomiendas - very large areas of land given to Spaniards (encomiendero) to manage and have the right to receive tributes from the natives tilling it. Natives within these areas became mere tillers without rights to land and were under the Spanish monarch's authority.
• The hacienda system developed, and more people lost their lands to become tillers.
• Encomienda system involved abuse of tillers, excessive tributes and requiring them to surrender their harvests and render service.

American Era - Land Issues

• The Americans focused on land reform due to peasant unrest.
• The Philippine Bill of 1902 set limits on land ownership, permitting individuals to own a maximum of 16 hectares of land and corporations 1,024 hectares.
• The Torrens System of land registration was introduced to address issues of land ownership documentation
• Homestead Act (1903) gave land to tenants, but many lost their land due to various circumstances and the system was not implemented nationwide due to limitations of resources.
• A number of land reforms were introduced such as the first public land act, later the Second Public land Act of 1919 that limited agricultural lands, and the Friar Land Act

Commonwealth Era Land Issues

• Tenancy and land ownership became more sharply contrasted based on wealth, with landlords becoming richer due to the increased power from land ownership.
• Powerful landowners often controlled the political landscape.
• Farmers often lacked access to credits and faced hardships in selling crops.
• Political power shifted between landlords and tenants.

Japanese Era Land Issues

• Landlords were sometimes overpowered by peasants
• Land was sometimes taken from landlords and given to peasants
• Land ownership ultimately returned to the landlords after the war

Government Initiatives on Agrarian Reform

• Laws were introduced to address land issues such as the Homestead Program, which aimed to break up large estates and distribute land to individual farmers.
• The Rice Tenancy Act legalized the 50/50 crop-sharing system in an attempt to provide security of tenure.

Later Agrarian Reforms

• Policies focusing on land distribution and improving tenants' rights emerged.
• Land ownership and tenancy policies evolved over periods with various successes and failures, involving conflicting interests of landlords and tenants.
• Specific policies focused on land redistribution and regulating relations between landlords and tenants emerged over time.