Philippine Cult Told to Disarm

A local military commander Saturday ordered the disarming of members of a fanatic Filipino religious cult after some of them cut off the head of a suspected Communist rebel leader last week.

The order came after national newspapers published front-page photographs showing members of the cult smiling, holding knives and carrying the severed head of the alleged guerrilla.

The cult, variously called Sagrado Corazon Senor and Tadtad, the latter meaning chop-chop in the local dialect, has been unofficially sanctioned by the armed forces to help President Corazon Aquino’s fight against the 19-year Communist insurgency. Cult members, who call themselves “soldiers of Christ” and use machetes in some of their rituals, believe they are invincible and have vowed to kill armed Communist rebels in their regions to protect this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation from what they call “a godless ideology.”

Orders to disarm all cult members in the Philippine province of Davao del Sur on Mindanao Island were issued by the military two days after Tadtad devotees killed five suspected Communist rebels, beheading their leader, drinking his blood and inviting journalists to photograph the aftermath of the brutal episode.

Lt. Col. Jesus Magno, the district military commander, said that the cult “should be made to answer for what they did. The law must be upheld.”

Cult leaders claim a membership of more than 150,000 on Mindanao and 2,000 on the island of Cebu. Magno’s order apparently applied only to members of the Davao del Sur group involved in the beheading.