Gilbert Bancat was a coconut farmer and peasant leader in Quezon. He was an organizer of Anakpawis party which had held numerous talks with a local landowner to negotiate a fair share of land for farmers, as they were being excluded from the coconut harvest. The landowner is allegedly trying to circumvent the agrarian reform programme’s reallocation of at least 350 hectares of land in the Hacienda. On 25 January Gilbert Bancat was allegedly shot and killed by two men who later fled. Another man was also hit and remains in critical condition.