Army foils Pentagon kidnap try

COTABATO CITY – Two weeks after kidnappers freed a physician in Maguindanao, Army troops stopped the Pentagon gang yesterday from again snatching another doctor in Cotabato City.

For security reasons, authorities did not identify the physician who escaped the kidnap attempt.

However, sources said the failed abduction was the second to be made on the doctor within the past three years, although it is not known if the first attempt had been successful.

Army Col. Essel Soriano, commander of Anti-Kidnapping Task Force Cotabato, told reporters yesterday the physician was about to step out of her house somewhere in Cotabato City when she noticed the suspects hovering around the neighborhood.

"She immediately called up police, and troops and policemen were immediately sent to the scene," he said.

Soriano said the suspected kidnappers "scampered toward different directions" when they sensed the arrival of policemen, troops and civilian volunteers.

"They were spooked by the immediate response of the local authorities," he said. "Maybe they were thinking that they will not be noticed by the people in the area."

Two weeks ago, the Pentagon gang released Dr. Rosemarie Agustin in Talayan town, Maguindanao after holding her captive for a month somewhere in the province.

Reports said the Agustin family paid the kidnappers a P3-million ransom for the doctor’s freedom.

Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said he has deployed 50 more intelligence agents in strategic points in Cotabato City and nearby towns to monitor the movements of suspicious people to prevent kidnappings.

"But the success of authorities in fighting kidnappers will still count much on the support of various sectors, particularly in providing us information on the unusual activities of suspicious people in their communities," he said. Since January, a spate of atrocities have caused tension among residents of the 37 barangays in Cotabato City, and authorities have been unable to identify the perpetrators.

On Tuesday night, a grenade blast rocked the city, causing apprehension among people, who have witnessed killings and other violent incidents in their midst since last month.

Police said two men on motorcycles lobbed a grenade in the yard of a certain Ramon Chua Jr. in Happy Homes Subdivision in the city’s middle class district.

Two days earlier, unidentified men hurled a grenade at a car parked in front of the house of lawyer Oscar Sampulna, a legal consultant of Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema.

Last Sunday, two gunmen shot and killed Councilor Alexis Costales and his six-year-old nephew as they were traveling in his car in the city’s residential area. –John Unson