Good Faith and its Unintended Consequences

Abaya-Ulindang, Faina C. Resettling the Huks in the Land of Promise: The Story of the Economic Development Corps in Mindanao, 1950-1970

Abstract

Resettling the Huks in the Land of Promise: The Story of the Economic Development Corps in Mindanao, 1950-1970 by Faina C. Abaya-Ulindang is a rich analysis of the Hukbalahap Rebellion and the Philippine government's resettlement program through the Economic Development Corps (EDCOR). While accounting for the historical narrative of the Huk movement, a communist-led peasant uprising that started in Central Luzon, the book also analyzes post-Huk government actions in assimilating Huk rebels by land grant in Mindanao. Using the EDCOR program initiated by Presidents Elpidio Quirino and Ramon Magsaysay, Abaya-Ulindang reminds readers how this newly instituted program initially pacified tensions but still failed for all the right reasons, account of logistical problems, local resistance, and lack of continued support from the central government after Magsaysay's death. Through her work, Abaya-Ulindang focuses on the socioeconomic inequalities that led to the Huk Rebellion and its grand implications for land reform in the Philippines. Abaya-Ulindang provides a background of the EDCOR program within the Mindanao Problem: unresolved ownership disputes, questionable governance, and lack of resolution contribute to and sustain the unrest in the region. Thus, the book argues that the failure of EDCOR demonstrates the limitations of the piecemeal approach of the Philippine government in land reform, thereby calling for comprehensive, sustainable solutions to solving agrarian inequality and peasant discontent. Finally, the work by Abaya-Ulindang leaves a significant imprint on scholarship regarding peasant movements, counterinsurgency, and rural development in the Philippines as essential insights are given to historians, policymakers, and researchers into Southeast Asian studies.