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The Friar Land Scandal

The document discusses the history of friar lands in the Philippines and the abuses that occurred regarding their ownership and distribution. It explains that friar lands, totaling about one-tenth of improved lands, were originally owned by Spanish religious orders but that control transferred to the US and Philippine governments. However, these governments failed to properly implement laws governing the classification and sale of friar lands, allowing wealthy individuals including foreigners to illegally acquire large tracts of what should have been public land. As a result, opportunities for land ownership were denied to many Filipinos, and natural resources that should have benefited the country were extracted for foreign profit instead. The document calls for new laws to properly distribute friar lands to qualified Fil

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Angelie Abang
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355 views4 pages

The Friar Land Scandal

The document discusses the history of friar lands in the Philippines and the abuses that occurred regarding their ownership and distribution. It explains that friar lands, totaling about one-tenth of improved lands, were originally owned by Spanish religious orders but that control transferred to the US and Philippine governments. However, these governments failed to properly implement laws governing the classification and sale of friar lands, allowing wealthy individuals including foreigners to illegally acquire large tracts of what should have been public land. As a result, opportunities for land ownership were denied to many Filipinos, and natural resources that should have benefited the country were extracted for foreign profit instead. The document calls for new laws to properly distribute friar lands to qualified Fil

Uploaded by

Angelie Abang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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THE FRIAR LAND SCANDAL- HOW FILIPINOS ARE BEING ROBBED OF

THEIR SOIL

Under the concept of jura regalia, private land must be traced to


some grant, express or implied, from the Spanish crown or its
successors, the American Colonial government, and thereafter, the
Philippine Republic. The belief that the Spanish Crown is the origin of all
the land titles in the Philippines has persisted because title to land must
emanate from some source for it cannot issue forth from nowhere. In
Spanish law, it refers to a right which the sovereign has over anything in
which a subject has a right of property or propriedad. The state is the
original proprietor of all lands and, as such, is the general source of all
private titles.
When the Americans took over the Philippines from 300 years of
Spanish rule in 1898, among the first problems that confronted the new
colonizer was the disposition of the so-called friar lands. These huge
tract of lands are owned mostly by three predominant Spanish religious
orders, the Dominicans, Augustinians, and Recollects, and comprise
about one- tenth of all the improved lands in the islands.

In the Treaty of Paris signed in 1898 between the Spanish and


American governments to settle the war between the two countries, the
US government agreed to protect the friars’ rights over these. The US
purchased some 170,000 hectares of these lands for $ 7 million for
resale.

Friar Lands are not public lands but private and patrimonial lands
of the government and was purchased for sale to actual occupants
under the provisions of Act 1120 or the Friar Land Act.

Section 13 of the Organic Act provides for the classification of


such lands according to their character and Section 15 authorized the
government pf he Philippines to provide for the granting or sale and
conveyance to actual occupants and settlers, as well as to other citizens
of said Islands, such portions of the public domain as it may deem wise,
not exceeding sixteen hectares to any one person; and for the sale and
conveyance of not more than 1,024 hectares to any corporations and
associations of persons; all conditioned upon actual and continued
occupancy, improvement ad cultivation of persons; all conditioned upon
actual and continued occupancy, improvement and cultivation for not
less than 5 years, during which time the land is inalienable and may not
be encumbered. These sections in the was not properly implemented
since there were grants of public lands have been made to corporations
organized in the United States. Even if the sections in this Organic Act
allows grants of public land to citizens of the Philippines, repeated
grants of the public lands have been made to the citizens of the United
States , who do not appear to have been either occupants or settlers.

Under Section 65, the Friar Lands , may be held, sold and conveyed,
or leased temporarily for a period not exceeding 3 years after their
acquisition by said Government on such terms and conditions as it may
prescribe, subject to the limitations provided for this act. This act have
been violated by the Philippine Commission and amended acts
authorized the leasing of the lands, sales in quantities not exceeding 16
hectares to private individual , or 1024 hectares to a corporations and
then only under the conditions as to agricultural cultivation provided for
by Congress.

The Philippine Commission disregarded the limitations and


conditions imposed in the Act affecting the disposal of the lands
originally public lands . Thus, leads to abuses of power and robbing of
lands by wealthy individuals.

Section 4 of the Act defines citizen of the Philippine Islands as


continuing reside thereon who were Spanish subjects on the 11 th day of
April, 1899, and then resided on said islands, and their children , born
subsequent thereto, shall deemed and held to be citizens of the
Philippine Islands .Though it is the intent of the congress to allow only
actual occupants and settlers who were citizens of said Islands, and
other persons, such citizens, could acquire from the Government any
portion of the public domain, it still considers foreign blood or alien to
acquire public lands provided they have resided here in the Philippines.
Thus, this allows some of the government officials which are wealthy
foreign to acquire lands such as Governor Forbes and Mr. Worcester.
Despite their acquisition of public lands of the heads of the government,
they were not even punished and have not violated certain laws for
acquiring public property for their own benefit, this shows that there
were lack of laws imposed against corrupt public officials.

The Americans and foreign corporations were allowed by said Act


to explore, exploit and occupy our national wealth in terms of mineral
land, this kind of abuses in our national wealth made the foreign
countries more wealthy and oppressed Filipinos by living nothing to
consume for our future generations.

Lands acquired by private individuals made Filipinos a laborer to the


lands that they are supposed to be the owner. The previous governance
under the influence of foreigners were full of abuses. The inability and
not allowing Filipinos to govern our own country creates less
opportunity for us to utilize our own natural resources for our
betterment. The government biases in favor of the foreigners through
laws imposed and how it was implemented left nothing to Filipinos but
only to utilized what they retained. They have extracted so much of our
nature and mines which we Filipinos must be the one that must be
benefited the most.

The mistakes of the past hunts us today and we should be vigilant


with the laws imposed in our governance for us to avoid the same
mistakes that past government regime have done to our country.

In the case of Manotok v. Barque, last March 6 , the SC, in a close 8-


7 decision denied with finality appeals made by three families claiming
possession of a 34- hectare prime lot near Ayala Heights subdivision in
Quezon City known to many as the Piedad Estate, one of the biggest
pieces of friar land in the country. It turned out that none of the parties
was able to establish by clear and convincing evidence a valid alienation
from the government of the subject friar land. It said then that the titles
belonging to the Manotoks and Barques, and Manahan’s deed of
conveyance were void and fake and spurious. The NBI noted that the
handwritten entries were found to be made in ballpoint pen and sign
pen inks, which were not yet commercially available in the Philippines
until 1953. The high court ruling against the Barques stemmed from an
admission by Teresita Barque- Hernandez that the certified true copy of
Deed of Conveyance Record No. 4562 with Sale Certificate No. V-321
was fake and spurious.

Friar lands must be distributed and awarded to Filipinos who are


capable of cultivating the said land specially those Filipinos who do not
possess land to occupy as residential area. It is the right time that the
government will enact laws that will allow Filipinos to enjoy and
preserve the lands that we have been deprived of for the long period of
time. The government may create a law that will reacquire the friar
lands and turn it over to qualified Filipino individual who must own it
and must settle disputes with the Catholic Church or religion who have
long been acquiring and using the lands as well as with the private
individuals and corporations.

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