AGRARIAN LAW AND SOCIAL LEGISLATION | PROVISIONS TOPIC 1-3
1. Concept of Social Justice
A. Constitutional Provision
Article II, Section 10
The State shall promote social justice in all phases of national
development.
Article XIII, Section 1
The Congress shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures
that protect and enhance the right of all the people to human dignity,
reduce social, economic, and political inequalities, and remove cultural
inequities by equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the
common good.
To this end, the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, and
disposition of property and its increments.
Article XIII, Section 2
The promotion of social justice shall include the commitment to create
economic opportunities based on freedom of initiative and self-reliance.
3. Basic Principles of Agrarian Reform
A. Constitutional Provisions
Article II, Section 21
The State shall promote comprehensive rural development and agrarian
reform.
Article XII, Section 1
The goals of the national economy are a more equitable distribution of
opportunities, income, and wealth; a sustained increase in the amount of
goods and services produced by the nation for the benefit of the people;
and an expanding productivity as the key to raising the quality of life for
all, especially the underprivileged.
The State shall promote industrialization and full employment based on
sound agricultural development and agrarian reform, through industries
that make full and efficient use of human and natural resources, and
which are competitive in both domestic and foreign markets. However,
the State shall protect Filipino enterprises against unfair foreign
competition and trade practices.
In the pursuit of these goals, all sectors of the economy and all regions of
the country shall be given optimum opportunity to develop. Private
enterprises, including corporations, cooperatives, and similar collective
organizations, shall be encouraged to broaden the base of their
ownership.
Article XIII, Section 4
The State shall, by law, undertake an agrarian reform program 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 retention limits, the State shall
respect the right of small landowners. The State shall further provide
incentives for voluntary land-sharing.
Article XIII, Section 5
The State shall recognize the right of 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.
Article XIII, Section 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
Article XIII, Section 7
The State shall protect the rights of subsistence fishermen, especially of
local communities, to the preferential use of local marine and fishing
resources, both inland and offshore. It shall provide support to such
fishermen through appropriate technology and research, adequate
AGRARIAN LAW AND SOCIAL LEGISLATION | PROVISIONS TOPIC 1-3

financial, production, and marketing assistance, and other services. The 


State shall also protect, develop, and conserve such resources. The That such reclassification shall be limited to the following percentage of
protection shall extend to offshore fishing grounds of subsistence the total agricultural land area at the time of the passage of the
fishermen against foreign intrusion. Fishworkers shall receive a just share ordinance:
from their labor in the utilization of marine and fishing resources.
(1) For highly urbanized and independent component cities, fifteen
Article XIII, Section 8 percent (15%);
The State shall provide incentives to landowners to invest the proceeds (2) For component cities and first to the third class municipalities, ten
of the agrarian reform program to promote industrialization, percent (10%); and
employment creation, and privatization of public sector enterprises. (3) For fourth to sixth class municipalities, five percent (5%):
Financial instruments used as payment for their lands shall be honored as
equity in enterprises of their choice. Provided, further, That agricultural lands distributed to agrarian reform
beneficiaries pursuant to Republic Act Numbered Sixty-six hundred fifty-
B. Land Classification seven (R.A. No. 6657). otherwise known as "The Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Law", shall not be affected by the said reclassification and the
Article XII, Section 3
conversion of such lands into other purposes shall be governed by
Lands of the public domain are classified into agricultural, forest or
Section 65 of said Act.
timber, mineral lands, and national parks. Agricultural lands of the public
domain may be further classified by law according to the uses which they
(b) The President may, when public interest so requires and upon
may be devoted. Alienable lands of the public domain shall be limited to
recommendation of the National Economic and Development Authority,
agricultural lands. Private corporations or associations may not hold such
authorize a city or municipality to reclassify lands in excess of the limits
alienable lands of the public domain except by lease, for a period not
set in the next preceding paragraph.
exceeding twenty-five years, renewable for not more than twenty-five
years, and not to exceed one thousand hectares in area. Citizens of the
(c) The local government units shall, in conformity with existing laws,
Philippines may lease not more than five hundred hectares, or acquire
continue to prepare their respective comprehensive land use plans
not more than twelve hectares thereof by purchase, homestead, or grant.
enacted through zoning ordinances which shall be the primary and
Taking into account the requirements of conservation, ecology, and
dominant bases for the future use of land resources: Provided. That the
development, and subject to the requirements of agrarian reform, the
requirements for food production, human settlements, and industrial
Congress shall determine, by law, the size of lands of the public domain
expansion shall be taken into consideration in the preparation of such
which may be acquired, developed, held, or leased and the conditions
plans.
therefor.
(d) Where approval by a national agency is required for reclassification,
Section 20, LGC - Reclassification of Lands. 
such approval shall not be unreasonably withheld. Failure to act on a
proper and complete application for reclassification within three (3)
(a) A city or municipality may, through an ordinance passed by the months from receipt of the same shall be deemed as approval thereof.
sanggunian after conducting public hearings for the purpose, authorize
the reclassification of agricultural lands and provide for the manner of (e) Nothing in this Section shall be construed as repealing, amending, or
their utilization or disposition in the following cases: (1) when the land modifying in any manner the provisions of R.A. No. 6657.
ceases to be economically feasible and sound for agricultural purposes as
determined by the Department of Agriculture or (2) where the land shall
C. R.A. 6657, as amended by RA, 9700
have substantially greater economic value for residential, commercial, or
industrial purposes, as determined by the sanggunian concerned:
SEC. 2. Declaration of Principles and Policies. — It is the policy of the
Provided,
State to pursue a Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The
AGRARIAN LAW AND SOCIAL LEGISLATION | PROVISIONS TOPIC 1-3
welfare of the landless farmers and farmworkers will receive the highest
consideration to promote social justice and to move the nation toward
sound rural development and industrialization, and the establishment of
owner cultivatorship of economic-size farms as the basis of Philippine
agriculture.
“The State shall promote industrialization and full employment based on
sound agricultural development and agrarian reform, through industries
that make full and efficient use of human and natural resources, and
which are competitive in both domestic and foreign markets: Provided,
That the conversion of agricultural lands into industrial, commercial or
residential lands shall take into account, tillers’ rights and national food
security. Further, the State shall protect Filipino enterprises against
unfair foreign competition and trade practices.
“The State recognizes that there is not enough agricultural land to be
divided and distributed to each farmer and regular farmworker so that
each one can own his/her economic-size family farm. This being the
case, a meaningful agrarian reform program to uplift the lives and
economic status of the farmer and his/her children can only be achieved
through simultaneous industrialization aimed at developing a self-reliant
and independent national economy effectively controlled by Filipinos.
“To this end, the State may, in the interest of national welfare or defense,
establish and operate vital industries.
“A more equitable distribution and ownership of land, with due regard to
the rights of landowners to just compensation, retention rights under
Section 6 of Republic Act No. 6657, as amended, and to the ecological
needs of the nation, shall be undertaken to provide farmers and
farmworkers with the opportunity to enhance their dignity and improve
the quality of their lives through greater productivity of agricultural
lands.
“The agrarian reform program is 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 the priorities and
retention limits set forth in this Act, taking into account ecological,
developmental, and equity considerations, and subject to the payment of
just compensation. The State shall respect the right of small landowners,
and shall provide incentive for voluntary land-sharing.
“As much as practicable, the implementation of the program shall be
community-based to assure, among others, that the farmers shall have
greater control of farmgate prices, and easier access to credit.
“The State shall recognize the right of 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.
“The State shall recognize and enforce, consistent with existing laws, the
rights of rural women to own and control land, taking into consideration
the substantive equality between men and women as qualified
beneficiaries, to receive a just share of the fruits thereof, and to be
represented in advisory or appropriate decision-making bodies. These
rights shall be independent of their male relatives and of their civil status.
“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.
“By means of appropriate incentives, the State shall encourage the
formation and maintenance of economic-size family farms to be
constituted by individual beneficiaries and small landowners.
“The State shall protect the rights of subsistence fishermen, especially of
local communities, to the preferential use of communal marine and
fishing resources, both inland and offshore. It shall provide support to
such fishermen through appropriate technology and research, adequate
financial, production and marketing assistance and other services. The
State shall also protect, develop and conserve such resources. The
protection shall extend to offshore fishing grounds of subsistence
fishermen against foreign intrusion. Fishworkers shall receive a just share
from their labor in the utilization of marine and fishing resources.
AGRARIAN LAW AND SOCIAL LEGISLATION | PROVISIONS TOPIC 1-3

“The State shall be guided by the principles that land has a social
function and land ownership has a social responsibility. Owners of
agricultural land have the obligation to cultivate directly or through labor
administration the lands they own and thereby make the land productive.

“The State shall provide incentives to landowners to invest the proceeds

of the agrarian reform program to promote industrialization,
employment and privatization of public sector enterprises. Financial
instruments used as payment for lands shall contain features that shall
enhance negotiability and acceptability in the marketplace.

“The State may lease undeveloped lands of the public domain to qualified
entities for the development of capital-intensive farms, and traditional
and pioneering crops especially those for exports subject to the prior
rights of the beneficiaries under this Act.”