In the 1980s, the area was placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), with several hundred farmers being the intended beneficiaries of land ownership certificates [1]. Yet, the suitability of Hacienda Looc for agricultural use was questioned by a government-commissioned feasibility study which recommended to convert the area into a tourism zone [2]. In the mid-1990s, a subsidiary of SM won the public bidding for those areas not covered by CARP and filed petitions to the Department of Agrarian Reform to cancel the land ownership certificates for the remainder of the estate [1][2].  Since 2004, Henry Sy’s company Manila South Coast Development Corporation (MSDC) and Fil State have been converting farmlands and displacing farmers and fishermen of Hacienda Looc to give way to condominiums, a golf course, beach resorts and other eco-tourism projects. In 2007, the area was declared a Tourism Enterprise Zone by executive order of then President Macapagal-Arroyo. Also Duterte rejected outright the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill or GARB which if enacted, will automatically cover vast landholdings for free land distribution that includes Hacienda Luisita, Hacienda Yulo, Hacienda Looc, Negros haciendas, and plantations.

 Church people, students and peasant advocates, formed the Defend Hacienda Looc Aliance, that together with human rights advocacy groups and Fisher groups like Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA), staged public protests, organised media campaigns and launched court appeals. In response to fierce local resistance, Hacienda Looc experienced increased militarisation through national armed forces alongside private security guards employed by SM [2]. An NGO network led by the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) and KMP reported a range of human rights violations against the protesters, including fatal shootings, death threats, burning of houses, destruction of crops, and farmers being prevented from accessing their fields [1].  Like the illegal arrest of a peasant leader Armando “Ka Mandy” Lemita and his family in Hacienda Looc, in April 2014. Local people also complained about increased soil erosion, pesticide contamination, flooding and landslides as a result of the construction of a golf course in the area [1].

 On 7th march 2021, fisherfolk couple Chai Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista were murdered in a region-wide police crackdown against Southern Tagalog activists . They were active members of  Ugnayan ng Mamamayan Laban sa Pagwawasak ng Kalikasan at Kalupaan (UMALPAS KA), a local environmental organization involved on protection of land and coastal resources in Nasugbu, Batangas, according to fishers’ group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA). It was reported in posts on social media by progressive groups Pamantik-TK and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) that the police were serving “search warrants” to the victims in simultaneous operations at 4 a.m. in Cavite, Rizal, Laguna and Batangas. Several sources identify this type of opperations as "red tagging" [5] , as military men under comand of President Rodrigo Duterte have accused legal organizations, NGOS, media groups, religious institutions, human righst defenders and environmental defenders of acting as fronts for the communists and terrorist conspirators working to bring down the state.

Killed were: * Manny Asuncion, coordinator of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan-Cavite), who was killed in a raid at the Workers’ Assistance Center (WAC) in Dasmariñas City, Cavite * Melvin Dasigao and Mark Lee Coros Bacasno of San Isidro Kasiglahan, Kapatiran, at Damayan para sa Kabuhayan, Katarungan at Kapayapaan (SIKKAD K3) in Kasiglahan Village, Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), Rizal. * Ariel Evangelista and wife Chai Lemita-Evangelista were killed inside their hut in barangay Calayo, Nasugbu, Batangas. * Indigenous group leaders Puroy Berhemedo dela Cruz and Randy “Pulong” Berhemedo dela Cruz, in Rizal Province

Police were serving the search warrant issued by Judge Jason Zapanta. Ariel was a staff of the Ugnayan ng Mamamayan Laban sa Pagwawasak ng Kalikasan at Kalupaan (UMALPAS KA), the peasant group in Hacienda Looc.

As many sources reported [4] thee fisherfolk couple killed in a region-wide police crackdown against Southern Tagalog activists were active members of a local environmental group involved on protection of land and coastal resources in Nasugbu, Batangas, according to fishers’ group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA).~[4]. At least nine activists were dead and six others were arrested when combined police and military “savagely raided” various houses and offices in different areas of Southern Tagalog on Sunday morning. 

Prior to their death, Ariel Evangelista, as a fisherman, he opposed the construction of around 150 fish cages in the town’s municipal waters. The fish cage project, according to PAMALAKAYA, would privatize Nasugbu’s communal fishing waters and would dispossess municipal fisherfolks from their livelihood.

Local fishers and farmers, including the Evangelistas, were at the forefront of the decades-long land dispute in Hacienda Looc. This made their local organizations targets of red-tagging and state-sponsored political persecution.

The 8,000-hectare Hacienda Looc in Nasugbu, Batangas is being fought for since 1994 when Henry Sy’s company Manila South Coast Development Corporation (MSDC) entered Looc for ecotourism projects.

This was followed by the displacement of thousands of fisherfolks in Barangay Papaya, Nasugbu to make way for the conversion of the coastal community into the Hamilo Coast, also by MSDC.