Customer Reviews

Agrarian Reform in the Philippines: Democratic Transitions and Redistributive Reform

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was well researched and provides exacting detail to support all the conclusions. It is a good reference for scholarly studies and articles, as much of the research came from the author's PhD studies. However, it is a slow read, a common malaise of many detail intensive books. Nevertheless, if knowledge of the actual accomplishments and the historic challenges of agrarian reform are needed, this book is very helpful.

This short work describes the implementation and effects of the National Democratic Front (NDF) agrarian reform program in a village in Bicol, the Philippines. It begins with a description of rural society and the history of attempts at land reform throughout the Philippines. It then describes the NDF reform programme in general and goes on to discuss its implementation in the community in detail. Garcia Padilla is clearly an NDF partisan, is unclear about his sources, and has a slightly faulty grasp of English - Agrarian Revolution is not a great scholarly work. Given the limited amount of information available about areas under New Peoples' Army control, however, it will be of interest to anyone concerned with land reform in the Philippines.