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Land reform has been the main policy response of government to correct the sharp inequalities in the distribution of land ownership in the Philippines. The historical records show that the process of disposal of State lands has heavily favored households with economic and political power. These households had undue advantage over the common populace in acquiring property rights through the Spanish system of royal grants and the American system of land cadastre. The result has been the ownership of big landholdings by few families and the rise of haciendas or family estates comprising several hundreds and thousands of hectares.
This paper examines the effect of land reform and land transfer actions of farmer beneficiaries on land ownership concentration. A case study of two rice-growing villages was used to track down ownership changes over a period of time. Land reform has succeeded in the break up of huge estates in rice-growing villages but has not effectively improved land ownership concentration due to evasions tactics of landlords who have retained a significant portion of lands to the family through land schemes that are apparently legitimate under the land reform laws. Land transfer actions of farmer beneficiaries have not necessarily worsen the current land ownership concentration but in the absence of progressive land tax, these actions can lead to widening land concentration.
