Inequality and Data Virgilio R. De Los Reyes World Bank Pre-Conference, 23 March 2015, Washington DC

Colonial institutions endured and continues to haunt developing countries When the colonizers awarded lands to those who bolstered their rule - the religious orders, the local elite, migrants from the home country – they perpetuated land inequalities

The American colonial regime broke up the friar lands But they established a land registration system based on recognizing occupancy as the primary means of proving ownership American rule essentially perpetuated the inequality of ownership prevailing during the Spanish period

The legal systems were neither transparent nor inclusive Obtaining certificates of title were spread across agencies There was little or no effort to recognize the peoples’ interpretation and beliefs over property rights

Two basic modes farm management emerged: share tenancy and plantation systems Records of tenancy and farm labor were hardly in existence and remained largely informal

Philippines: Implemented the first significant agrarian reform program in 1972, and later enlarged this in 1988 We have been running one of the longest agrarian reform programs – 43 years Today, we are down to the last 9% or so of land to be distributed

Two data gaps: land and farmers data greatly impeded the agrarian reform program

Until 2011, government did not recognize these data gaps Government focused on the lands that were easy to distribute. Government also tended to prioritize private lands targeted by civil society to the neglect of those not the subject of rallies We are now distributing the crux of land reform: Private Agricultural Land subject to Compulsory Acquisition of the state

Thankfully, our land administration system is now being digitized – although much too slow for an injustice that was perpetrated for centuries Slowly, we are adopting an agricultural policy that FINALLY acknowledges smallholder agriculture as the base of our rural development. We are moving away from a centrally planned agricultural economy. We have taken the steps to prove that land transfer, along with access to credit and support services, can lead to improved income for smallholder farmers

Engerman and Sokoloff in Understanding Poverty (2006): Societies with inherited poor institutions may be stuck with these institutions for long spans of time because there are powerful groups in society that benefit from these institutions The key to removing the stickiness of poor institutions, says Acemoglu and Robinson (2012), is in securing property rights and economic opportunities not just for the elite but for a broad cross section of society

Securing property rights is not just about determining ownership, benefits, and costs of a certain piece of land, it is also about making sure that data, including land registration and titles, are accessible, open and transparent to stakeholders particularly smallholder farmers It is likewise about coordinating our views and belief system against inequality and gearing it towards creating more inclusive systems

If property rights are truly secure, smallholder farmers would have the chance to make investments on their land and use it for exchange and contract

Thank you very much Mabuhay