Jaime Sabillo of the 75th Infantry Battalion. We get harassment fire at night, but it could become an all-out attack anytime. Outside Layson's church, under a spreading tree, volunteers dole out small plastic bags of rice. In the first weeks of fighting soldiers took over private homes, even chapels. Poor farmers complained that some soldiers looted their meager possessions.
Soldiers nap in a shed next to a burned out crater where a house used to be.
He has probably heard that the bodies of three Muslim activists were found floating in the river. Near the road a squad of sleep-starved vigilantes rests in the shade. Three other men are carrying old M-1 rifles. He quickly puts his shirt on when he sees a news photographer. Christian vigilantes appeared on the scene in the late 1960s, as widespread violence erupted between migrant settlers and native Moros.