On the 20th of October 2018, Rannel Bantigue was among 8 others that were brutally slain in what is now being called the Sagay massacre in the Philippines.
Rannel Bantigue was a peasant leader and member of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) who, alongside 8 other sugar cane farmers had been organizing Bungkalan, a known practice of NFSW where individuals occupy idle and undistributed land that is owed under Agrarian Reform Law to help survive the dead season in the sugar cane industry. The act of Bungkalan is also an act of protest and campaign to bring true and long-awaited agrarian reform under the Duterte administration. It reflects the unequal distribution of land between landowners and land workers.
Rannel Bantigue was shot in what is suspected to the acts of private military or militia associated with a small, yet powerful landlord elite and affiliated with the government. Human rights groups have strongly and vocally denounced the clear abuse of human rights