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Today, many rural poor Filipinos are using state law to try to claim land rights. In spite of the availability of a much stronger set of legal resources than ever before, claiming legal land rights remains difficult. Some argue these difficulties are a reason to turn away from state-led land reform and toward a market-assisted land reform (MALR) model. However, this paper indicates that a closer look at actual dynamics around land reform in the Philippines suggests that political-legal problems associated with implementation of the 1988 agrarian reform law can be overcome under certain conditions.The author argues that rural poor claimants must be able to access support for political-legal mobilisation, particularly “rights-advocacy organisation”, and they must adopt an integrated political-legal strategy. This will help push existing constitutional-juridical openings and institutional reforms in favour of land redistribution. An integrated political-legal strategy is one should be able to activate State agrarian reform law, building on independent State actors’ pro-reform initiatives, and resisting the evasive manoeuvres of anti-reform elites.[adapted from author]
