On the 22nd of the February 2018, Ronaldo Manlanat was gunned down in Sagay City, in the Philippines.
Manlanat, a sugar cane plantation worker, was reportedly active in organizing and assisting fellow sugar can workers in nearby areas in land cultivation campaigns regarding the implantation of agrarian reforms. Manlanat was a member of the National Federation of Sugar Worker (NFSW) in the Hacienda Joefred Chapter. NFSW members and Manlanat himself had received previous threats for their work in the land and labour reforms that aim to improve the conditions and quality of workers in the area of Negro Occidental, Philippines.
Manlanat was working in the fields when he was shot in the back of the head with an M16 by unidentified individuals, in what the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) claim is a “politically-motivated extrajudicial killing”, the 21st of its kind under the Duterte administration.
Calls for investigation into Manlanat’s death have yielded little to no results.