February 27, 2025
JAKARTA – Experts have lauded the Philippines’ commitment to guarantee men and women equal rights to land ownership with the issuance of the Magna Carta of Women (MCW) and the formation of an agrarian reform agency, among other measures, saying the country could be a role model for its Asian peers.
Enacted in 2009, the MCW is seen as a translation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) that seeks to eliminate discrimination through the recognition and fulfillment of the rights of women, especially those belonging to marginalized communities. The law aims to guarantee women’s access to food by ensuring their inclusion in land titling.
In 1971, the Philippine government established the Department of Agrarian Reform, whose main duties include achieving equitable land distribution and ownership among citizens.
Speaking during the Asia Land Forum in Jakarta on Feb. 19, Amihilda Sangcopan of the department said it was the agency’s duty to ensure that land certificates could be issued under a woman’s name.
“This [MCW] law plays a crucial role in ensuring land distribution is carried out without discrimination. If it involves spouses, the land certificate must be under both names, guaranteeing that women also have land rights,” Sangcopan said.
The department, she added, had established more than 800,000 agrarian reform beneficiary organizations, with 47 percent of the members being women, many of whom held leadership positions. These organizations sought to ensure that women could secure their land rights and contribute to the country’s economic growth.
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The Philippine Commission on Women’s latest report on gender equality noted that women had seen a more equitable distribution of agricultural and residential land-free patents from 2016 to 2021 at 46 percent and 51 percent, respectively.
As of August 2022, indigenous women made up 35 percent of the recipients of Certificates of Ancestral Land Titles (CALTs), or 10 percent more than their male counterparts, the report noted, referring to data from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
The situation in Indonesia, meanwhile, is complicated as deep-seated patriarchal norms, combined with the government’s lack of programs promoting equality, have made it difficult for women to own property.
The 1960 Agrarian Law stipulates that all citizens, both men and women, should have equal opportunities to obtain land rights and benefit from land use, but the implementation of the law remains uneven.
According to the National Land Agency (BPN), as reported by the World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesia in 2020, only around 24 percent of Indonesian land is registered under female ownership.
In addition to the disparity, Indonesian women are also vulnerable to conflict and land grabs, despite their crucial role in managing agriculture.
From 2015 to 2024, the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA) recorded that at least 1.8 million women lost their land, which served as both their homes and sources of income. Over the past eight years, at least 135 women have been assaulted, 107 have faced criminalization, one was shot and two have died in land conflicts.
“Many cases of land seizure from indigenous communities amount to an erasure of identity. When you lose the land, you lose indigenous knowledge. Land is not only important to women and their families but also serves as the foundation of the nation and civilization,” said the head of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), Andy Yentriyani.
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They were speaking at a panel forum organized by the KPA and the International Land Coalition (ILC), together with panelists from India and Bangladesh.
Sangcopan of the Philippines proposed establishing a benchmarking platform after hearing about other countries’ struggles in implementing agrarian reform for women, suggesting they visit the Philippines to observe how the policy is implemented.
“The Department of Agrarian Reform will be willing to accept you and guide you in seeing how agrarian reform is implemented in our country,” she said.
“To the organizers, I would like to make this recommendation to level up our discussion. When we talk about women’s land rights, what do we really mean? It is not only about ownership titles but also the ability to use the land. This would be a meaningful affirmative action for the organizers.”
The other panelists nodded in agreement, with the moderator saying the recommendation would be passed to ILC.
Alice Morris, a board member of the Working Group for Women and Land Ownership (WGWLO) in India, responded, “We should learn from each other’s good policies and stand in solidarity. Many challenges are common. We must take collective action.”
Lipi Rahman, general secretary of women rights group Badabon Sangho in Bangladesh, emphasized the need to involve government officials and men in discussions on land rights.
“This kind of forum should bring in government representatives and men because land rights are human rights, equal for all,” she said.