VIGILANTES RISE ANEW!

Four male cadavers surfaced in Quezon City early yesterday morning,
bringing to 42 the number of bodies found in different areas of the
city this year, prompting police to speculate that vigilantes have
come back with a vengeance. All cases, 19 of them involving men who
were chopped into pieces, remain unsolved. No witness has surfaced,
and police have apprehended no suspects so far.

The latest victims had strangulations marks, slashed throats and
multiple stab wounds. Their hands were tied, their mouths were gagged
with masking tapes and there were indications that they experienced
torture before they were executed.

Police identified the salvage victims as Rodel Alano, 28; Eduardo
Gonzales, 20; and brothers Rafael, 22, and Raymund Gromo, 23, all
residents of Bgy. Batasan Hills, Quezon City.

The four bodies were found on a vacant lot at around 1 a.m. along
Sauyo Road in Bgy. Sauyo.

Except for one, they had no tattoos, unlike the so-called chop-chop
bodies.

One of the victims was Chinese-looking, leading police to theorize
that the killings could be related to the illegal drugs trade that in
the past involved shady characters from China.

Two of the victims were described as between 25 and 30 years old, of
slim build, with long hair. Police described the other victim as 30 to
35 years old, with a scar on the right wrist and a dice design
tattooed on the right side of his back.

Lipana said police are still determining the identities of the
cadavers.

"Ayon du'n sa nakatagpo ay nakita niya ang mga biktima sa madamong
lugar na pawang mga nakagapos ang mga kamay sa likod, lawit ang mga
dila at nakabalot ng masking tape ang mga leeg," said Supt. Procopia
Lipana, chief of the Central Police District-Criminal Investigation
Unit.

"Napansin din niya ang isang tricycle driver lulan ang ilang
kalalakihan na nakahimpil 'di kalayuan sa kinatagpuan ng mga biktima
na posibleng mga nagtapon ng mga biktima sa lugar," he added.

According to Melchor Legaspi, the tricycle driver, he heard voices
from a man who was pleading for his life as he passed by the vacant
lot on his way to ferry his passenger home.

When he returned and passed by the same area on the way back to the
tricycle terminal, Legaspi said he was surprised to see the four
bodies dumped side by side.

Police found no identification cards on the victims.

The victims' relatives went to the Prudential Funeral Parlor where
they identified the corpses after learning of the salvagings from
television news yesterday morning. The relatives said the victims were
last seen alive at around 5 p.m. last Monday afternoon.

Several armed men reportedly abducted the victims from their
houses.

Again, the murders were attributed to the feared vigilante group
believed to be responsible for the series of salvagings in the city.

Police have yet to come out with an arrest of a member or members of
the so-called vigilante group who seemed to be in the habit of putting
the law into their own hands.

Several chopped body parts were the common sight in the city almost
every month since last year, giving Quezon City the monicker as the
"Chop-Chop City" of Metro Manila.

In January, four bodies were also found dumped side by side at the
corner of Quezon Avenue and Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. The other
victims were said to be notorious drug pushers, robbers and snatchers
--the reason why a vigilante group could have subjected them to
summary execution.