On 12 July 2016 Rogen Suminao along with Remar Mayantao and Senon Nacaytuna was murdered by security guards working for RAMCAR Inc. cattle ranch. They were drinking coffee outside at their camp when the guards encircled them firing shots as they advanced. Mayantao raised his hands in a gesture of peace but was shot in the side before having his throat slit. Suminao was shot as he tried to escape. Three other Lumad farmers, including a 15 year old girl, were injured in the attack.

In 2011, the Higaonon community in Lupiagan processed an ancestral domain claim over 5,000 hectares of land in the said barangay. However, they found out that only 2,400 hectares were left untitled over the years, the rest of the ‘borrowed’ land from their ancestors already privately owned by institutions and individuals. The group settled for an application for the 2,400 hectares.

The Lumad group claimed that RAMCAR Inc., which is raising cattle in the area, fenced around 5,000 hectares including part of their ancestral domain claim. On June 11, 2014, the Lumads set up tents on the contested land. The following day, they were driven away by the guards of the company and so were forced to transfer their tents outside the fenced area.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz called “for a full review of mining projects and agribusiness expansion in indigenous peoples’ territories to be done by impartial and independent actors to assess how such operations have violated the rights of indigenous peoples which are enshrined in the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”