On 3 September 2017, human rights defender Engracio de los Reyes was attacked and killed by unknown assailants in the Philippines. He was actively resisting the limestone mining project of Asturias Chemical Industries in the region.

Asturias Chemical Industries has a license to exploit over 808 hectares of the land for its limestone mining.

This is a part of a wider conflict as described by environmental activists from the kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment who in October 2017 joined over a hundred farmers and fisherfolk from the town of Calatagan in picketing the central offices of the Asturias Chemical Industries and the Department of Justice