Human rights lawyer Attorney Katherine Panguban assisted in several high-profile human rights cases in the Philippines, including Sister Patricia Fox’s deportation case, the murder of Lumad student Obello Bay-ao, the appeal against the death penalty for human trafficking victim Mary Jane Veloso and the Lake Sebu massacre. Lake Sebu massacre followed the trials of the Lumad who are defending their ancestral lands from encroachment by big mining corporations through the Integrated Forest Management Agreement with the Department of Energy and Natural Resources. Philippines state security forces filed allegedly unsubstantiated criminal charges against the lawyer in the wake of the 20 October killing of nine farmers in Sagay City, Negros Occidental Province, widely referred to as the ‘Sagay 9 massacre’, according to The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD).