Philippines - Rural growth and development revisited : agrarian reform for broad-based rural growth

In regard to the Philippines, the principal purpose of this paper is to provide recommendations for actions that would enhance agrarian reform's contribution to broad-based rural growth. The paper is divided into two sections: the first reviews agrarian reform and program accomplishments to date; the second focuses on seven recommendations for enhancing the agrarian reform. The seven recommendations are: increase agrarian reform communities (ARCs) and ARC-like mechanisms; prioritize landholdings to be covered; increase human and other resources in Department of Labor Reform provincial offices (DLRPOs) with largest land acquisition and distribution (LAD) balances; boost funding for agrarian reform; hasten decision-making on cases and promote early resolution of issues; adopt common criteria for beneficiary selection under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) and Free Patent Law; and approve the Land Administration and Regulatory Authority (LARA) bill, National Land Use Act (NLUA) and Agricultural Credit Act (ACA).