Operation vs Faisal recalled

Muddy tire tracks and a white Tamaraw FX marked the end of the road for Pentagon kidnap gang leader Faisal Marohombsar last Sunday.

These two clues helped the joint-police and military crack team track down two kidnap victims and led to Marohombsar’s death in the town of Magallanes, Cavite.

Operatives who participated in the rescue of Patricia Lopez Chung and her nanny, Winena Jordan, said their 100-man team had an informer from the Villaver kidnap gang as their guide to Marohombsar’s hideout.

The Villaver gang is known to have ties with other kidnap for ransom groups, including the Pentagon gang.

The joint police and military rescue team was composed of elements from the Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response (PACER) team of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Anti-Crime Task Force (ACTAF) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

A police informer gave the operatives general directions to the hideouts of the Villaver and Pentagon gangs in Barangays Pacheco and Kaluwagan in Cavite, but said he would remember all the details once he got to the areas he described.

The joint PACER-ACTAF force arrived near the target area and parked along the highway just past midnight. The guide said one of the safe houses was located just along the eastern side of the highway.

"Our stooge suddenly became inconsistent. We were moving back and forth along the highway. He could no longer find one of the safe houses where the victims might be held," an operative who participated in the rescue told the STAR.

By 2 a.m., the operative said, he and his colleagues were walking along the highway when their guide bolted and ran down the west side of the highway into a muddy, thickly vegetated and apparently uninhabited area.

Nearly botched

Unable to recover their escaped guide, the rescue operatives were at a loss for what to do. "There was really a lot of cursing and blaming. The operation appeared to be botched already," he said.

In the pre-dawn darkness, another meeting among the key officers of the operation was held. The joint force decided to scour the entire area and do a house-to-house search for the escaped informant, who could already be alerting his cohorts to the rescue operation.

The operatives noticed several muddy tire tracks leading off the highway and going in the direction in which their erstwhile guide ran.

According to the rescue operatives, at least three sets of tire tracks were discovered in three portions of the highway. The tracks, however, seemed to lead to nowhere, as they disappeared into patches of thick grass and led to a forested area.

The lawmen then decided to get off the highway and scour the seemingly uninhabited area. Many went in on foot, while those with four-wheel drive vehicles drove in over the rough and muddy ground.

Fateful, fatal, meeting

After hiking for a kilometer near the border of Barangay Pacheco and crossing a creek, the lawmen discovered occupied houses. One of these homes contained Marohombsar’s cohort, Police Officer 2 Armando Ayson, who was arrested for the kidnapping.

Parked near these houses was a white Tamaraw FX with plate number UDD 349. None of the residents could tell the lawmen who owned the Tamaraw FX.

Another group of rescue operatives reached Barangay Pacheco aboard two vehicles and also passed the house where the white Tamaraw FX was parked, but they found the house empty.

Unknown to them, Marohombsar had already been alerted to the presence of the lawmen and had fled the house barely minutes before they arrived, hostages in tow.

Minutes later, Marohombsar met ACTAF Technical Sgt. Willie Madayag and his men, who were searching the area on foot.

Unsure whether Marohombsar was a member of the rescue group and fearing a misencounter, Madayag shouted: "We’re ACTAF!"

In response, Maro-hombsar raised his M-16 and fired at Madayag, who drop-ped to the ground. The bullet grazed the sergeant’s back, but Madayag returned fire as he hit the ground.

It was a bullet from Madayag’s firearm that killed Maroho-mbsar, witnesses said.

"So how could they say there was a rubout? We did not even know who he was. It was only when we regrouped at the highway, when some PACER members told us it was Maro-hombsar," an ACTAF operative said.