Marines sent after Pentagon leader

Exasperated with the escape of the Pentagon Gang leader from the headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP), President Arroyo has called in the Marines to recapture Faisal Marohombsar.

"We will hunt him down until he is recaptured," the President vowed yesterday.

Marohombsar resurfaced in Mindanao following his escape last Wednesday from the high-security National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTAF) detention cell at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

The Chief Executive ordered Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and Armed Forces chief Gen. Roy Cimatu to assign the mission for Marohombsar’s recapture to the Marine battalion deployed in the South Cotabato-Saranggani-General Santos City (Socsargen) area.

Digressing from her prepared speech at the second Mindanao Budget Summit at the EDSA Shangri-la hotel in Mandaluyong City, the President said she has tapped the services of the Marines in Socsargen, who were supposed to assist in mop-up operations against the Abu Sayyaf.

"The Marine battalion was supposed to be moved out of Socsargen and brought to Sulu to help catch the rest of the Abu Sayyaf, but, because of the Pentagon leader’s escape, I just talked to Angie Reyes to say that he should keep the Marine battalion in the Socsargen area," she said.

The President made this statement in the wake of Marohombsar’s statement Friday that he may resume kidnap-for-ransom activities, a taunt the Pentagon gang leader made over a live interview with a radio station in Cotabato City.

The President also aired her extreme displeasure over Marohombsar’s escape, and she has ordered Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr., outgoing Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Leandro Mendoza and incoming PNP chief Deputy Director General Hermogenes Ebdane to "immediately discharge the guards who were in charge of guarding the Pentagon gang, aside from charging them criminally."

Mrs. Arroyo said she has received the assurances of both Mendoza and Ebdane that "the fugitives will soon be accounted for."

The President reiterated her instructions to Mendoza, Ebdane and Lina when she met with them later in the day at Malacañang, along with the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security.

Ebdane told reporters that Mrs. Arroyo has instructed him to "dig deeper into the case and find out what really happened" that enabled Marohombsar, his cohort Abdul Macaomping and another NAKTAF prisoner, Rolando Patiño, who was arrested for his involvement in the killing of Young Officers Union spokesman Baron Cervantes, to escape before dawn last Wednesday.

He also twitted Marohombsar’s statement that he will resume kidnap for ransom activities: "Let him talk. That would be beneficial for us," he said.

Ebdane also refused to comment on Marohombsar’s statement that he is hiding in the Cotabato area: "That is his (Marohombsar’s) claim, but we’re on the right track."

However, Marohombsar said he and his followers are willing to turn over a new leaf and stop kidnapping for ransom in exchange for decent livelihoods.

Marohombsar said this to Sen. Robert Barbers, who said he will "personally relay to the President (Marohombsar’s) desire to start all over again" in an interview with Catholic radio station dxMS in Cotabato City.

Barbers added that he is ready to help Marohombsar start life anew if the Pentagon gang leader will show sincerity on his desire to live a peaceful life by turning himself in.

Through an interview with the same broadcast outfit, Marohombsar told Barbers that he and his followers need livelihood assistance from the national government so that they may have decent sources of income to replace the large but perilously-gained income to be made by engaging in kidnap for ransom activities.

However, Barbers said "it’s the President who has the final say on this."

Despite this, Marohombsar’s relatives in Lanao del Sur said the government should be wary of the wily kidnap gang leader. They said Marohombsar has surrendered to the military twice, and twice has escaped to return to his nefarious trade of kidnap for ransom.

Marohombsar said he could no longer yield to the police or the military because of the "maltreatment" he received at their hands: "Even kidnappings I was not involved in were blamed on me. I just get put under more pressure."

Marohombsar earlier told reporters that he escaped this time around because he was being forced to convert to Christianity while in the NAKTAF detention center.

The Pentagon kidnap syndicate was formed by Marohombsar and three other notorious kidnappers – Kaliden Ompao, Kamad Udasan, Jun Sarat and Rasul Ingad – after a three-day "brainstorming" session at the Crestville Hotel in Digos City sometime in July 2001.

Ompao, Udasan and Ingad, alias "Teng .45," are now detained at the North Cotabato provincial jail. Sarat was arrested by agents of the Philippine Army’s 12th Intelligence Service Unit in sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao and is jailed in Cotabato City.

Marohombsar and his gang’s co-founders were followers of slain kidnap gang leader Abogado Bago, alias Commander Mubarak.

Bago, a native of Kabuntulan town in Sultan Kudarat, was implicated in the abduction of over 80 wealthy people in Central Mindanao in a kidnapping spree that began in 1990 and ended on Dec. 7, 1992, when Marines shot him dead in his hideout in Pantukan, Davao del Norte. — Marichu Villanueva, John Unson