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Philippines Vigilantes
Starting in 1987 a new, unsettling element clouded civilmilitary relations: vigilante groups that hunted down suspected
communists and other leftists. The first and most famous such
group was Alsa Masa (Masses Arise), which virtually eliminated
communist influence from the Agdao slum area of Davao City. The
potential for civilians to accomplish what the military could not
aroused official interest. Soon there were more than 200 such
groups across the country, with names that hinted at their
violent, cult-like nature: Remnants of God; Guerrero of Jesus;
Sin, Salvation, Life, and Property; Rock Christ; and, the
frightening Tadtad (Chop-Chop), which liked to pose its members
for photographs with the severed heads of their victims.
Vigilantes often carried magical amulets to ward off bullets, and
their rituals were sometimes performed to loud rock music.
Domestic human rights groups, such as Task Force Detainees,
and international monitors, such as Amnesty International,
publicized incidents of torture. Amnesty International asserted
that torture of communist rebels and sympathizers had become a
common practice. One paramilitary group in 1988 responded to such
criticism by shooting the Filipino regional chairman of Amnesty
International. Six human rights lawyers were killed in the first
three years of the Aquino government. More than 200 critics of
the government were victims of extrajudicial executions. Many
vigilantes carried pistols; others were skilled with long, heavy
knives called bolos.
Despite many documented abuses, United States and Philippine
government officials have spoken in support of some vigilante
groups. Aquino cited Alsa Masa's success in Davao as a legitimate
exercise of People's Power. Her secretary of local government,
Jaime Ferrer, ordered all local officials to set up civilian
volunteer organizations or face dismissal. Ferrer was gunned down
on August 2, 1987, for this and other anticommunist activities.
The government made a distinction between ad hoc vigilante groups
and the civilian volunteer organizations. The latter, which
included Nation Watch (Bantay Bayan), were to conform to the
following guidelines set forth on October 30, 1987, by the
Department of National Defense: membership in the organizations
was to be voluntary, members would be screened by the police, the
organizations were to be defensive, and they were to eschew
identification with individual landowners or politicians. Ramos
fully supported the civilian volunteer organizations. He
described their relationship to the uniformed military as
"synergistic" and in 1989 grouped all 20,000 civilian volunteer
organizations together under an umbrella organization called the
National Alliance for Democracy. In reality, the lines between
official and unofficial vigilante groups are often blurred. Large
businesses have donated money to the National Alliance for
Democracy and used its members as strikebreakers to counter
leftist unions.
Data as of June 1991
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