In defense of land rights: A monitoring report on land conflicts in six Asian countries 26 Doctrine11 and introduced feudal systems. Large tracts of land or haciendas were parceled out to colonialists (military and clergy), while systems of tribute (taxes) and forced labor were introduced. Later, American occupation facilitated the entry of foreign companies into mining, logging, and the establishment of modern capitalist plantations, especially in Mindanao. The American colonialists introduced the Torrens title system where all unregistered land and without title were declared as “public lands,” without regard for prior occupancy. Agrarian reforms. Following independence in 1945, a series of land reform programs were legislated in direct response to escalating agrarian and social unrest; however, implementation was stifled by landowning interests entrenched in power, and the lack of government funding and support. In 1972, the martial law regime instituted a land-to-the tiller act, but this was limited to tenanted farms planted to rice and corn staples, which were hotbeds of agrarian unrest, while large plantations with cash crops (e.g., sugarcane, pineapple) remained untouched. Following the 1986 People Power revolution that ousted the dictatorship, a new Constitution was enacted that laid the basis for land and social reforms. Primary among these was the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of 1988, aimed at tenancy reforms and the redistribution of land covering 9.1 million hectares of private farms and public lands deemed suitable for agriculture. However, the implementation of CARP proved slow and cumbersome, due to the complexity of the program, corruption, weak implementation, the poor state of land records and land administration. Since 2009, there has been a resurgence of violent land conflicts, especially in the redistribution of private lands. ANGOC Meanwhile, there has been increasing private investments in agriculture that impact on tenure security of rural communities. Due to the lack of government support, many farmer cooperatives have entered into various long-term contracts (long term lease, joint venture, marketing contracts) with large agribusiness companies under problematic contractual arrangements unfavorable to smallholders. Indigenous peoples’ lands. Another major social reform was the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 which recognizes the rights of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) to their ancestral domain and lands, self-governance and cultural 11 Regalian means belonging or relating to a monarch/ king.