Pentagon leader to surrender

A leader of the Pentagon Gang, believed to be responsible for at least two high-profile kidnappings, has sent surrender feelers to the government, police officials said yesterday.

Pentagon leader Faisal Marohomsar said in a letter to President Arroyo that he wants to return to the fold of the law because he wants to resume a normal life with his family.

"It is with high respect to your present administration and sincere determination to eradicate kidnapping in Mindanao and other parts of the country that encouraged me to inform Your Excellency my desire to return to the folds of the law," Marohomsar said in his five-page letter dated Jan. 18.

He sent his letter to Malacañang through Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr.

Marohomsar said some 60 of his followers have also expressed interest in giving themselves up and surrendering their firearms if the government would implement livelihood and housing programs for them in Mindanao.

He asked that school buildings be built in the towns of President Quirino in Sultan Kudarat and Ganassi in Lanao del Sur and that he and his men be employed by the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

"I would like to return to the folds of the law in order that I and my family together with my 60 fully armed followers could live normal lives," he said.

In the same letter, Marohomsar revealed the Pentagon group is actually a loose alliance of kidnapping gangs in Mindanao which was formed by leaders of the Special Operations Group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

"I will expose everything I have personally learned and discovered inside the organization," he said.

Police believe Marohomsar was involved in the kidnapping of one Florentino Congson and his son Jojo in Cotabato City in 1992 who were only released after the payment of P5 million ransom on Aug. 23 last year.

He surrender to the DILG in 1992 but soon resumed his criminal activities, police said.

Marohomsar asked for a safe conduct pass from Lina and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and for protection under the government’s Witness Protection Program.

He also claimed he had no direct participation in the kidnapping of four Chinese nationals in North Cotabato and the abduction of Italian priest Fr. Guiseppe Pierantoni last year.

Pierantoni, 44, from Bologna, was kidnapped from his church residence on Oct. 17 in Dimataling, Zamboanga del Sur and is still being held somewhere in Central Mindanao, where the Pentagon group operates.

The group first emerged after the kidnapping in June last year in Matalam, North Cotabato of Chinese engineer Zhang Zhongquian, who was working on a government irrigation project.

In August, the Pentagon abducted Zhang’s younger brother, Zhang Zhongyi and friends Xue Xing and Wang Shengli and Filipino guide Edwin Lim while they were delivering the P5 million ransom the gang demanded for the older Zhang.

Wang escaped the Pentagon during a gun battle with pursuing government forces but the older Zhang and Xue were fatally shot. The younger Zhang and Lim were later released in October in exchange for "humanitarian assistance" from Libya.

But Marohomsar said he had no direct participation in the kidnapping of the four Chinese men.

"My only role was to act as spokesperson for the Pentagon group on orders of (a certain) Commander Putao, chief of the MILF Special Operations Group," he said in his letter.

He identified a certain Tahir Alonto as the perpetrator of the kidnappings and the one who benefited from the ransom collected from their victims.

He said Alonto is a nephew of MILF vice chairman for military affairs Ebrahim Murad and had led the group since 1998, when it was created to generate funds for the MILF.

Police had arrested Alonto for kidnapping but he was sprung from his General Santos City jail on Nov. 7, 2000, supposedly by MILF guerrillas.

"The group was organized not only to generate funds for the MILF through illegal means but also to insulate the MILF from accusations that its members are involved in purely criminal acts," Marohomsar wrote.

Alonto, former MILF planning and operations officer, has seven sub-leaders responsible for the abduction, negotiation, strike, security, safekeeping, surveillance and support activities.

The authorities believe the group is composed of some 190 men with more than 400 firearms and operated in Central Mindanao and some parts of Western Mindanao.

The group has been tagged in the kidnappings of Pierantoni, the four Chinese nationals and Lim and Canadian Pierre Belanger.