Woman finds two male bodies stuffed in boxes

MANILA, Philippines—A woman’s curiosity led to a ghastly find on a Quezon City sidewalk early Wednesday morning:  the bodies of two men believed to be victims of summary execution stuffed inside boxes.

Mercy Bitara was walking at around 5:30 a.m. along Calamba Street near Cordillera Street in Barangay Lourdes when she stumbled onto two large boxes. Curious, she peered inside and found they were crude coffins for two men.

Senior Police Officer 1 Randy Bantillo of the Quezon City Police District Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit said that both men had been strangled to death and had metal wire wound around their bodies, apparently used by the killers to immobilize them.

He described the victims as between 35 and 40 years old, both five-foot-five tall and fair-skinned. While one body bore a Commando gang tattoo on the right leg and the names “J. Alvarez” and “Saturnino” tattooed on the back, the other man had “Lando Hercodes” tattooed on his right arm.

According to Bantillo the slain men had been wrapped in garbage bags and placed inside boxes before they were dumped near the old site of the Barangay Lourdes hall where Bitara found them.

Bantillo said police were still trying to identify the victims to get a lead on the  identities of the killers.