10 ‘Pentagon’ men get death for kidnap

"Pentagon" kidnap gang leader Tahir Alonto and nine of his men were sentenced to death by a Quezon City court yesterday after they were found guilty of the 1999 kidnapping of five people in General Santos City.

However, only six of the kidnappers were present in court to hear the verdict.

Rasul Engad, Kamad Udasan, Jun Emba, Alex Pandita and Dario Adoy all pleaded not guilty. The sixth convict is Mario Masalon.

Alonto and three others were convicted in absentia.

"After an assiduous assessment of the evidentiary records, the court has reached the determination that the respective persons charged are guilty beyond reasonable doubt," Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Jose Catral Mendoza said in his 20-page decision.

"In the kidnapping for ransom case, the court has no recourse but to impose the mandatory penalty of death," Catral said.

After the verdict was read, the six convicted kidnappers were immediately taken to the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City.

Mendoza later ordered the arrest of Alonto, Mutalib Ismael, Abdullah Blaim and Mondot Masalon, whose whereabouts have not yet been pinpointed.

Mendoza told The STAR he would have promulgated his decision on June 19, but a confidential letter from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology prompted him to hand down the verdict yesterday.

The criminal case was originally filed before the General Santos City Regional Trial Court, but the Supreme Court later ordered the venue transferred to Quezon City.

Alonto was arrested following the 1999 kidnappings, but escaped in November 2000 after suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas used rocket-propelled grenades to blast jail walls and overwhelm guards in the General Santos City prison, according to court records.

About 1,000 armed men stormed the city jail where Alonto was being kept and freed him along with about 70 other inmates.

Alonto was reportedly slain in a gunbattle with government forces last weekend, although this could not be independently confirmed.

Alonto and his men were charged with kidnapping Dr. Vicente Cavalida Jr. and his engineer brother, Eduardo; and Cheryl Pagales, Rose Suarez and Richard Cereles while they were on their way to General Santos City from Digos City in Davao del Sur.

Suarez and Cereles were killed 17 days after the kidnapping, while the rest were subsequently rescued after government troops raided the hideout of the kidnappers.

Two of the rescued captives testified in court and identified their kidnappers, who are said to be former MILF members.

The surviving victims later testified in court that Suarez and Cereles were separated from them during captivity and interrogated outside a nipa hut.

After sometime, one of the witnesses said he heard gunshots.

One of the kidnappers, Jimmy Yat, turned state witness and testified against his former comrades.

Court records show on July 31, 1999, a man sporting a black jacket, later identified as Alonto, flagged down a pick-up van carrying the Cavalida brothers and their three companions, and after boarding the vehicle ordered the driver at gunpoint to proceed to Upper Labay, Tinagacan in General Santos City.

Upon reaching Upper Labay, armed men blocked the van’s path, and they were led to a riverbank, where Alonto and two of his men ordered them to get off.

The victims were later taken to a nipa hut, where they were hogtied one after the other while the kidnappers pointed their guns at them.

The kidnappers then took their valuables, including jewelry, cellular phones and cash, which were later estimated to have amounted to P46,000.

Initially, the kidnappers demanded a P15-million ransom for their captives, but they later reduced the amount to P7 million.

Military intelligence officials say the Pentagon is composed mostly of renegade members of the MILF.

The government has accused the MILF of sheltering the Pentagon gang but the rebels have denied that they are allied with the group.

The Pentagon gang has been blamed for the kidnapping and murder of foreign missionaries and workers in Mindanao. — With AFP reports