Macroeconomic Benefits from Genuine Agrarian Reform

A paper presented by Ms. Rosario Bella Guzman of IBON Foundation, on May 20, 2009 during the deliberation by the Philippine House of Representatives Committee on Agrarian Reform on House Bill No. 3059 or Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB).

We cannot overemphasize the macroeconomic benefits of implementing a genuinely redistributive agrarian reform program, not only as we study the development history of industrialized countries but also and more especially as we look around our Asian neighbors. Despite their return to market economies in the case of erstwhile socially planned economies such as China and Vietnam or their adherence to globalization in the case of Thailand, Korea, Taiwan and others, our Asian neighbors are reaping far more benefits than our country does from implementing agrarian reforms that are not necessarily comprehensive and complete with all the elements of being genuine but definitely better than the CARP.

The basic elements of genuine agrarian reform, which are well captured in House Bill 3059, will immediately bring major shifts in the Philippine economy. These shifts, which the CARP (along with proposed reforms and extension) will never achieve, shall lay the foundation for the just appropriation of social surplus that shall fuel the engines of Philippine industrialization.