Dodoy
On the morning of 30 December 2020, as Roy Giganto and the rest of the Tumandok 9 lay dead or dying, Lorenzo Paña was 135 miles away in Antiquera, Bohol, and on his way to deliver lunch to his son who was working on a construction site.
Dodoy, as he was affectionately known by family and friends, worked hard to advocate for his and his fellow farmers' rights. He and his family all volunteered in 2018 to build a coconut processing plant that was managed by farmers' organisations. He was also an officer of a peasant rights group.
His activism came at a cost to Dodoy and his family. On 26 June 2018, a team of about 30 SWAT members raided their home without a warrant. Dodoy, his wife and their children later complained of being maltreated during the raid.
The harassment carried on for the next couple of years, with Dodoy being red-tagged by the police. Under Duterte's reign of terror, red-tagging has become synonymous with an order to kill, as I'm sure many of us know by now.
On that tragic morning in December, as Dodoy rode on his motorbike to bring food to his son, as a loving father would, he had no idea that he wouldn't even get to reach his destination. Two men on a motorbike gunned him down and fled. Another day, another farmer lay dead, another family is now left without a father and with no idea of whether his assassins will ever be brought to justice.
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