Consider them the stats of “street justice” in Quezon City.
At least 57 bodies believed to be those of victims of summary execution were found dumped on city streets in 2013, according to police records.
The number far exceeds the total of 42 convicts put to death by the state since the Marcos dictatorship up to the abolition of capital punishment in the country in 2006.
Data from the Quezon City Police District’s (QCPD) Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit included cases where two bodies of so-called salvage victims were found together.
December alone saw the discovery of 10 bodies, three of them found in different locations on Christmas Eve. June and July had eight cases each.
Almost all of the victims bore gunshot or knife wounds and other marks of cruelty, and were often bound, gagged and stuffed in boxes or trash bags.
Insp. Elmer Monsalve, chief of the QCPD homicide section, said that upon identification, “90 percent” of the victims turned out to have criminal records. He pointed this out when asked if the numbers indicated a rise in vigilantism in the city.
“Sometimes, it’s just within their own circle (of) criminals out to get each other because of personal vendettas,” he said.
Monsalve said it was more likely that they were killed elsewhere and that the bodies were just dumped in Quezon City, since doing both in the same locality would be “too risky” for the killer.
Leaving the bodies concealed in a bag or box “buys time” for the perpetrator to leave the area before the gruesome job is discovered, he added.
Monsalve offered a curious theory why the numbers tend to spike late into the so-called “ber” months.
“During this season, people are more relaxed and trusting and there is an occasion to make merry. So people can invite their enemies on the pretext that they will be celebrating, and their victims have no idea that they will be killed,” he said.
For 2014, the list is already getting entries: Three bodies have been found in the first two weeks of January.
The latest—that of a man—was discovered Wednesday at the Aurora Boulevard flyover in Cubao.