Lagunias is the general secretary of the Alyansa ng Manggagawa sa Engklabo (AMEN, Alliance of Enclave Workers) and a former union secretary of the Lakas ng Manggagawang Nagkakaisa sa Honda Cars (LMNH, Strength of the United Workers of Honda), a union of the Organized Labor Association in Line  Industries and Agriculture (OLALIA), a federation of KMU. He was  arrested on March 4, 2021 in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, three days before the Bloody Sunday massacre in the Southern Tagalog region. Prior  to his arrest, he was a target of red-tagging and harassment by state agents.  

At 3:00 in the morning of March 4, uniformed police personnel barred Lagunias from going out of his house for work. Two of the police immediately went to the second floor of Lagunias’ house. After the police searched the house, they  claimed that they found a short firearm and a grenade. They immediately handcuffed Lagunias and  brought him to Camp Vicente Lim in Calamba, Laguna. He was then charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.  

Prior to his arrest, Lagunias has been a target of surveillance, red-tagging and attempts to forcibly make  him surrender as an “NPA commander.” He has reported incidents of harassment experienced by members of his family, perpetrated by elements who introduced themselves as personnel of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), who asked them to convince Lagunias to surrender.  

In September 2020, a certain Sgt. Aragon went to Lagunias’ house and harassed his wife to convince him to “clear his name or surrender so that their family will not regret his decisions.” Lagunias and Aragon held a dialogue at the barangay hall of Brgy. Pulong, Sta. Cruz Laguna but the Sergeant refused to heed Lagunias’ demand that he stop harassing him and his family. He eventually filed a complaint before the Commission on Human Rights in November 2020.