Tad-tad cults, known for their ferocity, first rose to prominence in the 1970s in reaction to the armed Moro separatist campaign in Mindanao. Human rights advocates charge that the government used these cults as vigilante fighters, first against Moro guerrillas and then against communist insurgents and their suspected sympathizers.
Such cults mix Christianity with folk beliefs, such as wearing T-shirts with Latin prayers scrawled upon them which they believe grant them magical powers including invulnerability to bullets and the ability to hypnotize their enemies.
Some are known to use human kneecaps as magical amulets.
As the communist insurgency waned in the 1990s, some of the cults reportedly turned to criminal activities like cattle rustling and illegal logging.
