Choosing a Mechanism for Land Redistribution in the Philippines

Authors

Andre Sawchenko

Abstract

The Philippines' Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program needs changes because it is not efficiently achieving social justice for the rural poor in the present, nor is it establishing a framework for equitable economic growth in the future. A land reform program in the Philippines can accomplish its objectives only to the extent that it redistributes land. Market assisted land reform, the recently developed land reform model being championed by the World Bank, provides little hope for the quick and extensive redistribution of land needed in the Philippines. The best way for the Philippine government to modify its land reform program is to refocus on expediting land redistribution under the mandatory redistribution model that is currently in place. Greater political will, created by firm resolve and collaboration among and between government officials and grassroots peasant organizations, will be required. This Comment recommends several additional policy modifications to better meet the land reform objectives in the context of an expedited land redistribution.

First Page

681

Recommended Citation

Andre Sawchenko, Comment, Choosing a Mechanism for Land Redistribution in the Philippines, 9 Pac. Rim L & Pol'y J. 681 (2000).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj/vol9/iss3/7