Word: reform
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Currently, Aquino holds complete executive and legislative power, including the power to draft and implement the proposed Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The proposal calls for the Philippine government to purchase land in installments from landowners and sell it back to tenants. But when Congress site on July 27, the power of legislation will be transferred. The matter will be out of Aquino's hands...
...Filipinos are employed in agriculture, 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and wealthy landowners control the bulk of capital and political power. The tenant farmers have the numbers, but the landlords have the money. Both have threatened to take up arms over an unsuitable agrarian reform policy...
Aquino's failure to transform popular backing into political backbone may force her to leave land reform to Congress--or, at best, to effect, a weak compromise position. Indeed, the series of draft Executive Orders released periodically of late indicates that a constantly revised compromise is being toyed with; there are reasons to suspect, though, that ultimately Aquino will forego any issuance...
...herself, Aquino holds title to nearly 1000 hectares of land at her family's estate, the Hacienda Luisita. She is more than a simple housewife. She is also an heiress of the powerful Cojuangco clan, and as such faces pressure from within her own family to avoid a land reform program that would destroy its livelihood. Indeed, the pressure led her to reject a trial land reform project at the Hacienda Luisita...
Should Aquino not issue the Executive Order on CARP, the chances for comprehensive agrarian reform seem dim. The majority of newly elected congressmen are landowners themselves, backed by the landowning class. As such they stand even less to gain from agrarian reform than does Aquino herself...