Legacy of the Past, Promise of the Future: Land Reform, Land Grabbing, and Land Conversion in the Calabarzon
Author(s)
Bankoff, Greg
Abstract
The Philippines faces an uncertain future in the 1990s, unsure which path offers the best solution to the country’s manifold economic, social, political, and environmental problems. On the one hand, the legacy of the past demands that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) be fully implemented and that ownership of the country’s agricultural lands be more equitably vested in the hands of those who cultivate the soil. On the other hand, the promise of the future has convinced the Ramos administration that the Philippines can join the ranks of the Newly Industrialized Countries (NIC) by the year 2000. In this article I examine the, politics surrounding the implementation of CARP in the Calabarzon, the judicial mechanisms employed to circumvent its provisions, and the social and environmental consequences of converting rice land to nonagricultural use. Central to my thesis is the conviction that land reform, apart from any considerations of social justice, appears to be a necessary component in the process of industrialization in, a late-developing capitalist economy.
