Land ownership and the current rice crises in Philippines: The political underpinnings of this agrarian question By Faina C. Abaya-Ulindang, Ph.D.

 

This study focuses on the centrality of rice production in the agrarian history of the Philippines. Rice scarcity was one of the reasons why the American colonialists opened agricultural colonies in Mindanao, a southern island in the country. During the Commonwealth, President Quezon opened similar settlements in Cotabato through the National Land Settlement Administration. His administration was besieged by peasant and labor unrests that rice warehouses in the province of Pampanga were forced opened by hungry peasants causing rice riots. His “Social Justice’ program believed in land distribution to attenuate this collapsing economy and reduced the problem as a peace and order issue.

                The current issue of unaffordable rice price has caused much damage to the political clout of President Bongbong Marcos whose election campaign was to reduce rice price to twenty pesos per kilo. Activists blamed privatization of rice importation while economists from the University of the Philippines support Rice “Tarrification” Law which privatized the importation as good for the country and the problem of  unaffordability of rice is just temporary.

                This paper explores the reason of the rice crisis beyond   rice importation. It would trace historically this perennial   problem that had apparently gave rise to the wave of agrarian solutions such as land reform. Particularly, this paper will attempt to answer the following:

1. Is there a relationship between land ownership and rice productivity?
2. How do agrarian policies impact on the country’s political climate, historically?
3. How vulnerable are the people to the rice problem and how do they adapt to this situation?

This paper will approach the rice issue by using the historical method of collecting empirical evidence available on the ground and inside the academe.