Emboldened by martial law in the whole island of Mindanao, soldiers can accost anyone they fancy, especially if they are poor peasants or small scale miners. These soldiers can bring them to the police station on trumped-up charges of thievery. If the “suspects” don’t interest the police, the soldiers can bring the “suspects” to their military camp, under the nose of their commander, and unquestioned by their superiors. The soldiers can tie them up, beat them up and put them up in an unused, broken down ambulance for nine days, but only feed them six times.
After which the soldiers can now get rid of the “suspects.” They make them wear military uniforms, and, escorted by twenty soldiers, the “suspects” are brought to another town on a 6×6 military vehicle. On a forested area, the “suspects” can be made to dig their own graves. As a send-off, the soldiers can rain blows on the suspects’ bodies before strangling them to death and throwing their bodies in the pit. Not content with their deed, they can pour crude oil on the bodies and throw in wood chips to initiate the fire, and proceed to watch their bodies burn.
