Eight headless bodies turn up in boat off Zamboanga village

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—Police announced Saturday they have recovered the bodies of eight decapitated men from a boat found floating off the village of Manicahan on Zamboanga’s outskirts on Friday.

Senior Inspector Joel Lozano of the Sangali police station  said they initially thought that only five headless bodies were in the boat.

“When we further inspected the boat (on Saturday morning), we discovered more headless bodies beneath the floorboard of the hull. In all, it contained eight bodies,” Lozano said.

He said like the first five bodies, the three other bodies found Saturday were also in an advanced state of decomposition.

Lozano said among the eight bodies was that of a boy believed to be between 12 and 14 years old.

He identified the victims, based on what relatives had told police, as Mursid Ambasali; Jimmy, Benjie, Piyad, Palaji and Jeffrey – all surnamed Sanayani; Palari Buyong and Mastal Jaolani.

Lozano could not say which of them was the boy.

Chief Inspector Ariel Huesca, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao police office, said the dead men were the same eight Badjao fishermen—not nine as reported earlier— who were reported missing after they were attacked by unidentified armed men off Payao in Zamboanga Sibugay on Christmas Day.

He said the incident was still being investigated.

Meanwhile, Lozano said that the police would have to bury the bodies as relatives of the victims refused to claim the corpses.

In Badjao culture, relatives of a dead man are not obliged to bury his body if it is found 24 hours after death.