4 Pentagon leaders bolt Cotabato jail

Where have all the jailguards gone?

Four suspected leaders of the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang reportedly staged a daring jailbreak at dawn yesterday from the Kidapawan City jail.

North Cotabato provincial warden Chief Inspector Jose Kalimutan identified the escapees as Mangara Angil, Tonton Saligap, Saydona Salandan and Tonih Lidasan.

Angil and Saligap were facing car theft charges while Salandan and Lidasan were in jail for alleged gunrunning.

The four suspects were arrested in separate raids on their hide-outs by police and military agents during a crackdown against their gang last year.

Sources from the military intelligence community said the escapees maintained close ties with Pentagon’s elusive chieftain Tahir Alonto, a native of Pagalungan town in Maguindanao.

Kalimutan said the four detainees escaped by sawing off the iron grills of their cell’s window with a steel wire.

A massive manhunt was immediately launched for their recapture.

Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said intelligence agents have been sent to North Cotabato to help track down the escapees.

Last Oct. 23, Abdulbasit Usman, 35, the principal suspect in the April 21 bombing of the Fitmart shopping center in General Santos City that killed 15 people and wounded 60 others, escaped from police custody.

Central Mindanao police director Chief Superintendent Jose Dalumpines blamed Usman’s escape on security lapses by the Saranggani provincial police force led by Superintendent Willie Dangane.

Usman reporteldy sent out extortion letters to owners of local business establishments, threatening to bomb their shops unless they come across. He signed the letters using his alias, Abu Muslim al-Ghazie.

Usman was also a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and was charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives after his arrest in June in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat.

He has also been identified as a member of the Abu Muslim group, a local gang associated with the Abu Sayyaf bandits.

Intelligence reports said Usman was the mastermind of the May and June 2000 bomb attacks on the General Santos City Hall, the city’s international fishport, the Gaisano Mall and several banks in the downtown area. He was also trained to make and use explosives in Indonesia, possibly by the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group, police said.

Usman reportedly escaped while washing clothes behind the barracks of the 1206th Provincial Police Mobile Group (PMG) in Barangay Kawas.

Despite the gravity of the charges filed against him, Usman was never put behind bars. Instead he was detained at the barracks of the 1206th Provincial Police Mobile Group (PPMG) — without handcuffs or other means of restraint.

While awaiting a commitment order for his transfer to the Sarangani provincial jail, Usman was placed under the custody of the Sarangani police headquarters in Barangay Kawas in Alabel town.

Dalumpines said this was the arrangement they made for keeping Usman in police custody while awaiting amendments to the charges filed against the suspect.

Reliable sources said Usman’s family offered his custodians P25,000 to keep him out of jail.