This study uses an actor-oriented approach in political ecology to explore the experience of a Philippine peasant community. Emphasis is placed on human centered and local-level perspectives. The study found that landless peasants are afflicted with a cycle of diaspora-landlessness-poverty that is perpetuated by an existing power dynamic that fuels corruption and violence in the Philippines. This hostile power dynamic is reinforced by the existing free market-oriented agrarian reform program. The current program exists within the dominant agro-export model which heavily supports globalization efforts, indicating that multinational institutions and the world capitalist system are shaping the agrarian sector, agrarian reform policies, and thereby locking Philippine peasants to a life of destitution. Finally, this study explores and advocates for an alternative agrarian reform program, one that supports localization efforts and exists within the food sovereignty model
