Three bodies of alleged “salvage” victims, including a woman, were found early Monday morning in two towns in Cavite, raising to five the number of suspected summary execution cases in the province in a span of one week, police records showed.

“Salvage” is a police jargon for summary execution, from the Tagalog word “sinalbahe” or “sinalvage”.
Last year, there were more than 10 victims found in separate areas of the province. It was the Manila Bulletin which first exposed the rash of summary execution incidents in the province.

A report released by Cavite Provincial Police Office said two hogtied men were found with gunshots on Congressional Avenue in Barangay Gregoria de Jesus, General Mariano Alvarez (GMA) town at 5 a.m. Monday.

The bodies were found on the roadside by 35-year-old Elvin Punay, a security guard of Manila Southwoods compound, after shots rang out in the area.

PO1 Aries Lachica, officer-on-case, said the victims’ hands were bound with shoelaces and their mouths were covered with masking tapes.

One was described as between 25 and 35 years old, about five feet tall and fair complexioned. The other, described as between 23 and 27 years old and with long hair, wore a blue T-shirt and red shorts.

Scene of the Crime Operatives found two caliber .45 and three .9mm empty shells at the crime scene.

Another police report said the body of a woman was found stuffed in a black traveling bag in a grassy lot on Daanghari Road in Molino IV, Bacoor, after residents smelled foul odor in the area.

SPO2 Dante Ordoño, case investigator, said the unidentified woman’s body was already decomposing and that there were hints that her head and mouth were hit by a blunt instrument.

“The woman has a fractured skull and she lost her front teeth,” said Ordoño.

The woman was described as about 30 years old and was wearing denim stretchable pants and a black sweat shirt.

The woman’s body was the third find in Bacoor in seven days. Last March 1, two dead men with head and body wounds were found in two separate places in the town. The bodies of the victims have placards identifying them as holdup men who have been sentenced to death.

The two men were believed tortured and killed by a vigilante group before their bodies were dumped in the area.