Politics of Bungkalan as Pakikibaka: A Phenomenological Study on the Post-CARP Land Distribution Scheme on Hacienda Tinang Peasantry of Tarlac Province

In the flux of the resounding discourse within the realm of Political Science, less has been materialized on the deliberated necessity of assessing the impact of the far-established implementation of the 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) by delving deeper on the ‘unquantifiable nuances and specificities’ within the purview of its primary stakeholders— the Qualified Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) and their decades of struggle for land ownership and possession. Provided such grounding, this study aimed to fill the existing academic gaps by reinforcing the Qualified ARBs’ experiences, perspectives, and narratives as a manifestation of their collective grapples and materialize such as the primary source and basis of a more grounded framework depicting the sociopolitical situation of the country’s agricultural sector. The Case of Hacienda Tinang of the Municipality of Concepcion, Tarlac bears the novelty badge among hundreds of studies encompassing land dispute through haciendas and plantations. Through a phenomenological approach, this study emerged on a Data Triangulation method by conducting Focus Group Discussion, In-depth Individual Interviews, and Documentary Analysis, in further analyzing Hacienda Tinang - Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries’ political praxis of bungkalan, as a manifestation of their constant resistance (pakikibaka) for land. The study’s results revealed that ARBs’ everyday resistance against deprivation of land ownership and possession helped them develop their full understanding and realization of the concepts of pakikibaka within the purview of Pakikipagkapuwa and exhibiting Little Traditions phenomena and vice versa.