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The Way Forward of Agrarian Reform

Observation

Agrarian reform’s goal to distribute land for farmers to benefit and support the agricultural sector for the country to prosper in terms of food security and growth is a great way to fulfill the basic needs of people. It will greatly benefit those who are in rural areas where the main livelihood of people revolves around farming, giving them ownership and custody of land. If efficiently implemented, most farmers will no longer need to rent lands for them to grow their crops, reducing cost of production resulting to a lower price of goods and a more sustainable livelihood. However, the full potential of agrarian reform is not efficiently utilized due to personal interest of people in power especially those in politics that hinders farmers to have full custody of agricultural lands as they usually are the owner of these large chunk of land and are not willing to easily give it up.

Insights

Agrarian reform is the redistribution of lands, security, ownership, and agricultural productivity that improves the farmer's standard of living. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program known as (CARP). It aims to promote the social justice, food security, and poverty alleviation of landless farmworkers and develop a policy of large quantity of owned land for the farmers. Whereas the lawmakers are obstructing the funding of CARP because of lack of support and public’s uninterested collaboration. This affects the farmers to suffer from the poverty and lack of income to support their own needs. It can be prevented by showing support or involvement that will empower people to gain attention to secure the development of the country.

Learning

Throughout the lesson, I learned that agrarian reform program is about promoting the agricultural development that supports the farmers to sustain their productivity and growth. The agrarian reform program should adjust their policies for the benefits of farmworkers and without being involved from other private sectors and landowners. This will simply allow the farmers who are accustomed to the authoritarian ways will get a full support of accessing a land with food security and freedom. It is hard to maintain the economic development when there are people who hinders the progress of agriculture. The people of this nation should join forces and fight for what is right to lessen poverty and achieve freedom from oppressed people.

Sources:

Republic Act No. 6657 | GOVPH. (1988, June 10). Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1988/06/10/republic-act-no-6657/

[tinebellsss]

The Implications of Train Law to the Life of Juan Dela Cruz

Observation One of the goals of TRAIN law was to reduce income tax and allow more individuals with less income to be exempted from it. It aims to give a more equal opportunity to all by giving more income to the poorer individual by lowering their income tax but rather increase the tax on some products to compensate. After the law was passed back in 2018, a noticeable price hike to numerous products specifically related but not limited to sugar-sweetened beverages, cars, and fuel. People that got more income from lesser tax, now experienced a higher monthly bill or living expenses due to the increase in price.

Insight Like every other reform, there are pros and cons. Depending on the status of people affected by this law, some people especially those employees that has lower income had benefited increasing their take home pay. On the other hand, there are individuals who do not get a monthly income like small time vendors who is also directly affected by this law. These people don’t receive a monthly income, yet they still suffer from the price increase of their regularly consumed products like instant coffee, fuel, sugar, etc.

Learning TRAIN law can be a start of something that can improve people’s lives and narrow down the line between upper class and lower class. At this point in time, this law is undoubtedly incomplete due to its deficiencies to focus its greater effects on people that actually needs it. Making more refinements while considering its flaws can achieve bigger goals and can actually help more people without the repercussions.

[tinebellsss]

Understanding History using Primary and Secondary Sources

This week, I have learned about Primary and Secondary Sources as part of my Readings in Philippine History class. These are the classification of where the sources are found or collected, which later on determine their reliability. For instance, a Primary Source is an information received firsthand, giving you direct access to the source of information. This means that this is raw and straight from the one sending out the information. Examples of which are speeches, autobiographies, letters, and like what I’m writing right now – a journal. These types of information or pieces of evidence come right from the speaker and are best found if doing research close to the time of the information being shared.

On the other hand, we also have Secondary Sources. These are the chunks of information that have already gone through possible rewording, filtering, and relaying since they describe, interpret, evaluate, or analyze information from primary sources. When the writers of these sources obtain information from their primaries, they are already processed to be shared with either a new or broader audience, making these types of information accessible. Examples of Secondary Sources are books, documentaries, encyclopedias, or even news articles. 

With my newly obtained and prior knowledge about this topic, I have seen both the advantages and disadvantages of both classifications of sources as they are both available and accessible to students like me who do a lot of research for my classes. Primary sources are seen to be more accurate as they come as raw as they can get, directly from the person who holds the information. This means it is more reliable to depend on. However, these pieces of information are hard to obtain, especially if you are doing research and studies about past events and phenomena. Secondary sources are easier to find as they are more available and could be constantly reproduced as new information is collected. Although, as they become more available and more writers write about topics from secondary sources as well, there could be a possibility that these pieces of information become unreliable as there might be changes in views, perspectives, opinions, and factors that affect the information. Nonetheless, I have learned from the former lessons that both sources are important as they both lead us towards the raw or primary source – which is the truth worth finding. 

Personally, I view history better and see its clarity from accounts from primary sources as they are seen in their full glory, understanding the different historical events better. However, I believe that not everyone has shared their thoughts on past historical events, thus the lack of such sources. This leads me to rely more on secondary sources as they are more available to students like me who have no prior knowledge of unraveling history in its truest form. As a student who is being opened and exposed to different historical phenomena, I greatly appreciate the authors of secondary sources as they are the reason we know a lot about the historical events, today. The only question left for me to find out is how these types of information are filtered to be produced as secondary sources or in shorter terms, historiography: How do you write secondary sources whilst making sure that the entirety of the historical account is kept? I see this as very important as this affects how people view information and the integrity of each piece’s author. 

Learning about everything in a single lesson is a chunk of information that I am glad to learn as it has renewed my perspective of how I view learning and informational materials. I have appreciated them more as I am aware of the tedious process it has to go through. 

sources:

Healey Library. (2019). Research guides: Primary sources: A research guide: Primary vs. secondary. Libguides.com. https://umb.libguides.com/PrimarySources/secondary

Santiago Canyon College. (2019). Identifying Primary and Secondary Resources. Sccollege.edu. https://sccollege.edu/Library/Pages/primarysources.aspx