MILF tagged in kidnapping of Korean, hotel owner

’Twas the MILF, not the Pentagon gang.

The military clarified yesterday that Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels were behind the abduction of a Korean national and a Filipino hotel owner in Mindanao last Wednesday, not members of the Pentagon gang as earlier reported.

Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, made the clarification based on testimonies by six other kidnap victims who were either freed or escaped and were found by elements of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade while on hot pursuit operations.

"The MILF is behind this latest kidnapping and we are warning them. We will strike the kidnappers," said military spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando.

The abduction reportedly took place as South Korean Yoo Kwon-jae, who operates a scrap metal business in Marikina City, Carlos Belonio, owner of the Tierra Verde Hotel in General Santos City, and their six companions were on a quest for supposed hidden treasure of nickel bars.

Kyamko identified the leader of the kidnap gang as Commander Salem Gogo of the 204th MILF Brigade operating in Sultan Kudarat.

He said the kidnappers initially joined Belonio’s group, posing as treasure hunters themselves.

Army soldiers belonging to the 11th Special Forces Company joined the hunt for the kidnappers and arrested a suspect identified as Abu Bandan, 36, of Barangay Malisbong in Palembang town where the abductors and their captives were seen by local villagers.

Authorities theorized that Gogo may have joined the Pentagon gang and the latest abduction was his test mission. 

The abduction came just hours after the Pentagon gang freed 53-year-old physician Rosemarie Agustin in Talayan town in Maguindanao.

Agustin, who was held captive for three weeks, was seized on Jan. 15 while she was about to enter her house upon arrival from the Cotabato Medical Specialist Hospital.

The MILF is holding peace negotiations with the government and a truce has been forged between the two sides.

It boasts of about 12,000 fighters who figure in sporadic clashes with government forces despite the peace talks.