Proclamation No. 131 Instituting A Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program

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:
“ART. II
‘DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND STATE POLICIES
xxx
“Sec. 21. The State shall promote comprehensive rural development and agrarian reform.”
“ART. XXII
“NATIONAL ECONOMY AND PATRIMONY”
xxx
“Sec. 1, par. 2: The State shall promote industrialization and full employment based on sound
agricultural development and agrarian reform, x x x”
“ART. XIII
“SOCIAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS”
xxx
“AGRARIAN AND NATURAL RESOURCES REFORM”
xxx
“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
“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.”
ART. XVIII
TRANSITORY PROVISIONS
xxx
“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.
(SGD) CORAZON C. AQUINO
President of the Philippines
By the President:
(SGD) JOKER P. ARROYO
Executive Secretary

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