Why can foreigners not own land in the Philippines?
What is the point of this law? As a I read briefly, there seems to be some fear and past history that Filipinos would be priced out of their own land. I argue that no matter who owns the land, it is still under Philippine law and property can be taxed and allocated appropriately. If a foreigner owned land, tax payments would likely come from outside sources, therefore an inflow of money into the country. Foreign income may be used to provide better government services (perhaps audit agency to prevent corruption).
What do domestic land owners do? Lease their land and make themselves rich? That’s assuming they can find an investor willing to put up with only 40% stake or less. Has that provided enough foreign investment for the country?
If the government enforced the law, the idea that foreigners would buy enough land to form their own ’satellite country’ would never happen. How does the USA deal with foreign ownership?
As it stands right now, as a foreigner, I would not want to invest in the Philippines.
Please argue against my point.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
The law probably has a lot to do with politics, and the vast poor population that seems to be weaned on marxist propaganda of class warfare, and ‘free land’ political promises by socialists and marxists. The idea of rich foriegners owning land is not popular in a nation with vast poor, homeless squaters, who have some delusion that if land were distributed to the poor, poverty and unemployment would vanish, as the homeless, landless would be transformed into prosperous, self sufficient farmers.. a nice fantasy.. to say the least. In reality, in almost all cases where large foriegn owned or corporate plantations are shut down, and land ‘re-distributed’ to the poor, the productive farmland is turned into unproductive ghettos of crime, violence, unemployment, poverty, etc.. With this as the back drop of the land redistribution scheme, certain plantations owned by filipinos were exempt, and only the lands owned by foriegners were siezed, under the land laws of the 1980’s. .. this was a most conveneint compromise for wealthy filipino landowners, who were able to divert the hostility of the poor to foriegners, and not lose thier own land holdings. As a side note, marxist promises of ‘free land’ are almost always simply propaganda and lies used to gain popular support for communist rule.. ie: in both Russia and China, peasants were promised land reform, ‘free land’, and redistribution of land owned by the wealthy to the poor, after the peasants helped to kill, destroy the wealthy ruling class and landowners, they were instead forced to work in ‘communal farms’, and no individual land ownership was given, as previously promised. In order to fill the gulags with free slave labor, and to increase the wealth and power of the communist leaders, even small farmers with more than 2 cows were deemed to be Kulaks, rich, greedy enimies of the state, who were found guilty of subversion, seized of thier lands, and sent to Gulags to be worked to death as slaves.
As a foriegner, you are the target of marxist class warfare propaganda that is prevalent in the Philippines, and land ownership makes you a bigger target. Btw, land in most places in the Philippines is not ‘cheap’ compared to the USA, where raw land in the south and midwest is much cheaper than most of the developed areas of the Philippines, especially around urban areas like Manila.
I have to agree with you that a more simple land tax and exemption scheme would be a better way to encourage home and land ownership. say steep progressive taxes on real estate, with a fairly generous homestead tax exemption of say 2M PhP for each filipino citizen. this would encourage more filipinos to own small parcels of land, and tax heavily foriegners and large landholders.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
When in Rome you must do as the Romans do. They do not want us to own land therefore we cannot own land unless we jump thru all the other hoops.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
"As it stands right now, as a foreigner, I would not want to invest in the Philippines."
Then the point of this question is…?
March 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
You make it sound as if you had a few billion dollars to invest? Well do you have a few billion to invest? If not stop complaining because there are company’s from the USA and other countries beating at our door wishing to invest here!!!! And if you do happen to have a few billion, then I am sure that we can overlook the fact that you are not Filipino and you can buy the land you want to buy.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Because it’s against their constitution and the main issue is sovereignty.
Sure you can lease land on a 25 year renewable lease, but the landowner can and usually will cancel the lease once you have made improvements (IE Build a house etc.).
The closest a foreigner can come to owning land here is buying it and putting it into their spouses name. But it does not imply nor infer ownership and in the case of annulment the ownership of the land is 100% in the spouses name.
If you want a residence buy a condo or townhouse.
The 60/40 split for a Corporation is completely one sided and I would not invest here. Every single foreigner I know here that did that lost everything because of their greedy local partners.
Pumping more money into the government is not going to stop corruption, it will just make it more rampant.
It doesn’t really matter what the point is, it’s the way the Filipinos want it and it’s the law period.
Is this realy a ? or just a rant ? It’s their county and their laws. Nothing is forcing you to move or stay here !
March 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
I totally agree with your point of view.
For some reason, the people who passed the law – rich filipinos who were busy exploiting poor filipinos – used nationalism to their own ends and denied foreigners the right to own land – maybe thinking that foreigners would buy up all the land in the philippines, push prices up and take over the philippines and make it rich and prosperous! God forbid that should happen.
The irony of the whole situation is that its the rich wealthy filipinos who own all the land – and that they are charging poor filipinos rent to live on their land as well as to have farms. Rich filipinos – who are mostly the rich politiicans in Manila as well as the local governors and politicians – dont want anyone challenging their political powerbase – which is land.
You see in the Philippines – if you own land – you have power. The land is used by the rich to grow agricultural products and sell them – or to lease out to poorer filipinos. Land is the very basis of political power – and it has always been since the days of the Spanish and the haciendas. Why do you think filipino politicians are dragging their feet on Land Reform? Why do people think that the Philippines is still a primary agricultural nation and does not encourage industry which would challenge the agricultural wealth that politicians such as Aquino and Arroyo get from their lands?
How many subdivisions are there in pi where little communities of poor filipinos are paying a monthly rent of 30 pesos to a rich landowner who owns the whole community?
Another irony of it all is that foreigners can own land if they get dual citizenship. They can also own land through a backdoor clause – which says that if they form a business, then they can own the land or rent it – for a number of years in which the contract to renew it eventually is forgotten. You could also own the land indirectly if you married a filipina / filipino or if you bought it and put it in somebody else name – a very risky idea for obvious reasons.
There is so much corruption in the philippines that it actually deters foreign investment. Think of the Philippines as the ‘wild west’ – where anything goes especially if you have powerful friends. But thats what you have to love about pi – the hypocrisy is rife.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
the US allows foreigners (non citizens) to own real estate properties. the same is true in the philippines under these conditions:
•Foreigners who acquired land before the 1955 Contitution took effect may retain ownership of such land.
•Foreigners may acquire land in the Philippines if the acquisition is by hereditary succession provided they are legal heirs.
•Foreigners may own condominium units, but the number of units acquired must not exceed 40% of the total number of units.
i’m not here to debate you. i just want to point out that it’s not exactly true that foreigners CANNOT own land in the philippines.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
then chinese would have colonize the Philippines lol
March 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
The constitution does not allow it. Why? Well you have to take into account centuries of colonial rule by the Spaniards to the Americans and the brief occupation by the Japanese during World War 2. The atrocities and abuse that the Filipino people have suffered under foreign rule was such that even now the Filipinos are still in a state of identity crisis and are still trying to find their own national identity. It has made most Filipinos suspicious of any foreigners owning a piece of the Philippine soil. Until this phobia is addressed, the constitution will not allow any foreigner to own land in the Philippines.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
If foreigners were allowed to own land in the Philippines……It would have been bought up by China by now!!!
March 11th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
You might want to read Henry George’s book “Progress and Poverty” — see http://www.progressandpoverty.org/ — which shows how the privatization of the rental value of land sits at the root of many of our most serious and seemingly intractable social, economic and justice problems (and, I’d add, environmental, too — sprawl can be attributed to it, too).
Land rent rises when the community is healthy, when population grows, when we invest in infrastructure and services which attract more people. When private entities – domestic or foreign, individual or corporate — are permitted to privatize that value, the community tends to deteriorate. It is made worse because then, to finance the government goods and services which keep the land valuable, we must tax our wages and sales and buildings — and those are all taxes which damage the economy.
If we were collecting the land rent from whoever owned each piece of land, it wouldn’t matter whether the owner was domestic or foreign, individual or corporate; the community would be getting back that value and recycling it endlessly — and the landholder wouldn’t be enriched by his ownership, but only by his own hard work, which is very hard to render from another country or even another county!
Remember Leona Helmsley’s statement? “WE don’t pay taxes. The little people pay taxes.” She was the owner of a lot of choice land in Manhattan, and she knew what she was talking about.
May 19th, 2010 at 6:57 am
I moved here and married a very nice filipina. We bought home and had it renovated to our way of living. The thing that sickens me was the way the price of all services and the irregularities of the so called lawyers and agents that were looking after the transfer and registration of the home and land into my wifes name. We got the “JOE” price and also had the job of running all over the vast array of government offices to make copies upon copies of useless paper trails, then go back to have them notarized at the JOE price. I was disgusted in the way these people treated us as a retired and married person I was treated worse than a criminal and laughed at when I asked any questions. I think this country although nice in many ways is so against foreigners and their coming here. All Filipinos want to come to the USA and Canada where they can live normal lives without anyone yelling HEY PINOY or hey foreigner and charging them the foreigner price IE: overcharging. I am not against anyone entering my homeland or them owning a home there and most do and they love it as they can buy what they want. I especially went out of my way to welcome new people to my area and even assisted them by showing them around the area. Never once did I hear anyone say Hey Pinoy go home or see anyone charge more than what everyone else paid for goods and services. Only in the Philippines have I encountered this and even although it happened to me,I am all the wiser now and I say so when I go to the stores and the offices. I will help any foreigner who I meet and is coming here to live. The Philippines is nice except for the mentality of the few idiots that run businesses and a few in so called authoritative power positions in registry offices etc. I am all for living here and as I see it the poor are blinded by the few locals that are so called rich and they band against the foreigners. Beware of the crooked lawyers and so called agents that are pleniful as most agents are just people with ZERO licence or knowledge about real estate, they just want the bonus cash from the sale to the unsuspecting foreigner.