Economic development can be defined as "a sustained community
effort to improve both the local economy and the quality of life by building the area's capacity to adapt to economic change" (Loveridge and Morse). Economic development is a broad term that does not have a single, unique definition. First, is to increase the availability and widen the distribution of basic life sustaining goods such as food, shelter, health and protection. Second, is to higher incomes we need to raise levels of living, including, in addition to higher incomes, the supply of more jobs, better education, and greater attention to human values, which will serve not only to enhance material well being but also to generate greater individual and national self-esteem. Third, is freedom to make economic and social choices we need to expand the range of choices available to individuals and nations by freeing them from serving and being dependent not only in relation to other people but also to ignorance and human misery. It is important to remember that development is so much more than just economic growth. Economic growth is generally a short run concept while economic development is a long term commitment. To illustrate this point, say there are an increasing number of jobs in a local economy. This may represent economic growth, but if the new jobs do not pay wages that residents can afford to live on, the growth may not represent economic development . Development economics seeks to determine how poor countries can be transformed into prosperous ones. Strategies for transforming a developing economy tend to be unique, because the social and political background of countries can vary. One task of Development is overcoming scarcity, we can overcome scarcity in many ways like increasing the supply we can increase supply by improving production techniques, we can also reduce the demand by producing an acceptable substitute for a product.
The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program as Section 3 of RA 6657 defined, as the redistribution of lands, regardless of crops or fruits produced, to farmers and regular farm workers who are landless and all other arrangements alternative to the physical redistribution of lands, such as production or profitsharing, labor administration and the distribution of shares of stock which will allow beneficiaries to receive a just share of the lands they worked. The law designated that land acquisition and distribution are to be done in a period of ten years following the effectivity of the law. Vast agricultural lands are distributed to the farmers tilling the land, whereas only a maximum of five hectares can be retained by the landlords and three hectares for each of their heir at least 15 years old and above. However, a common CARP loophole was that landlords escaped relinquishing their lands through land reclassifications. Lands classified by local zoning ordinances as residential, commercial and industrial lands are excluded from CARP scope. Criticism on Aquinos Administration of land reform was the Stock Distribution Option of the Hacienda Luisita and was followed as an example of big other landowners. According to Borras, President Aquino was the first landlord to evade CARP. Not to mention that CARP was Aquinos centerpiece program of her administration. The biggest accomplishment in land distribution under CARP was during the administration of Ramos, which doubled the performance of the previous administration. But despite this success stories under his administration, just like the previous administration, loopholes and controversies rose where thousands of hand-to-mouth farmers were being harassed by the landlords driving them out of their farms and leave them nothing. Certificates of Titles were useless. It was for the purpose of becoming the newly Industrializing country by the year 2000. There are several factors contributing to the poor performance of CARP, according to Adriano, factors include: a) the slow pace in land survey process; b) backlogs in land registration; c)lack of support from landowners largely because of the slow processing of and low payment for their land; and d) cumbersome land acquisition and distribution process for each land type.