While it is true that CARP/ER has loopholes that have been creating problems for the law’s implementation and allowed landowners to escape its provisions, the social justice program has also paved the way for reversing the impoverished plight and powerlessness of farmers and their communities. Though stories of farmer-beneficiaries still await successful endings, those that have been given entitlements to the lands they have long worked on have gotten a new lease on life and a better future to look forward to. Focus on the Global South, with Save Agrarian Reform Alliance, is seeking to document these stories that have yet to find successful endings but can already show better beginnings for farmer-beneficiaries. The first stop is at Hacienda Luisita, one of the most controversial and contentious land reform cases. In these interviews (in article form and video), farmer-beneficiaries at the Hacienda talk about how they are rising from poverty even as they continue to confront challenges because the government has not completed the implementation of the law, specially the provisions on support and capacity building.
