TO: | Secretary Alejandro Melchor Executive Secretary |
Secretary Conrado Estrella Department of Agrarian Reform | |
Secretary Cesar Virata Department of finance | |
Secretary Arturo S. Tanco, Jr. Department of Agriculture & Natural Resources (The Director, Bureau of Agricultural Extension) | |
Governor Gregorio Licaros Central Bank of the Philippines | |
Mr. Basilio Estanislao President, Land Bank | |
Secretary Jose Roño Department of Local Governments & Community Development (Undersecretary Orlando Sakay Undersecretary for Cooperatives Undersecretary Rosendo Marquez Undersecretary for Community Development) |
"1. | Cash patient of 10% and balance in 25-year tax free 6% Land Bank bonds; | |
"2. | Payment of 30% in preferred shares of stock issued by the bank and balance in 25-year tax-free 6% Land Bank bonds; | |
"3. | Full guarantee on the payment of the fifteen (15) equal annual amortizations to be made by the tenant/farmer; | |
"4. | Payment through the establishment of annuities or pensions with insurance? | |
"5. | Exchange for government stocks in government-owned or controlled corporations or private corporations where the government has holdings; | |
"6. | Such other modes of settlement as may be further adopted by the Board of Directors and approved by the President of the Philippines"; and |
(1) | That as a basic policy, the actual tillers of the laid, the tenant-farmers ,in agricultural land principally devoted to rice and corn production, shall be the actual owners of the land tilled by them, subject to the following guidelines: | ||
(a) | That in pursuance of this policy the absentee landowners shall transfer to their tenants their land-holdings regardless of area, no natter how small, and | ||
(b) | That the absentee landowners shall be compelled to do so if they (the absentee landowners) are found to have a source of income other than their landholding or landholdings. | ||
(2) | In determining who is an absentee landlord, the Department of agrarian Reform shall ascertain if the absence of such landlord is on account of circumstances beyond his control such as having been driven from the land by fortuitous circumstances or forces beyond his control, services in the Armed Forces of the Philippines or other branches of the Government. | ||
(a) | If the absence landowner falling under this category has been actually tilling the land before being compelled to abandon the tilling of the land as provided in the immediately preceding paragraph, then he shall not be considered an absentee landlord as referred to in this Letter of Instruction; | ||
(b) | If in the apportionment of the land according to Presidential Decree No. 27, which reserves 7 hectares for the landowner if he tills part of his landholdings or intends to till part thereof, and allocates an area not exceeding 5 hectares for the tenant-farmer, if the land is not irrigated, and 3 hectares if irrigated, there will not be enough land to be allocated to the tenant or tenants in tho same landholding, the Government shall encourage tho organization or establishment of a cooperative composed of both the landowner himself and his tenant or tenants with the income from said land apportioned by them in accordance with their respective participation in its cooperative effort. |
(1) | The absentee landowners as envisioned in this Letter of Instruction; | |
(2) | The absentee landowners with no other source of income and those with other source of income; | |
(3) | The absentee landowners who have a history of tilling their own landholdings but were compelled to abandon their farming activities in view of circumstances beyond their control and as specified in this Letter of Instruction; | |
(4) | Those landholdings where the organization of a cooperative composed of the landowner and his tenant or tenants is the most feasible measure to resolve conflicting interests of landowner and tenant-farmer; | |
(5) | Those landholdings or portions thereof in which the landowner may have a strong emotional attachment for having been the site of his home or ancestral home of the landowner; | |
(6) | How many of these absentee landowners are in the government service; | |
(7) | How many of those landowners are retirees from the government service or from employment in private firms. | |
You will likewise ascertain: | ||
(1) | Whether or not the 6% per annum income from agricultural rice and corn land as earlier reported is in fact the actual earning from these lands; | |
(2) | Whether or not there has been an increase in production in areas where the land reform program has been implemented, in general, and specifically in the small landholdings. |