Pentagon leader roams free in M’danao

Pentagon kidnap gang leader Tahir Alonto is roaming freely in Pagalungan, Maguindanao and three nearby towns.

Close relatives and highly placed religious leaders in Central Mindanao told The STAR the fugitive has passed unnoticed, on many occasions, through Army and Marine checkpoints in neighboring towns, disguised as a farmer.

Alonto, who carries a P5-million reward on his head, has assumed two new names, one of which is Salem Hamsa.

Local officials in Pagalungan and in Pikit, North Cotabato said Alonto, who was reportedly killed in an encounter with Marines in December 2002, has been suffering from a lingering illness and has lost weight.

"The Marines got the wrong person," said a very influential and highly placed datu in Pikit. "He (Alonto) has just been roaming freely in secluded areas, where he and his loyal followers have been holding out."

A copy of Alonto’s community tax certificate as Salem Hamsa and bearing his thumbprint, was found to be identical with his fingerprints on file at the Sarangani provincial jail, where he was detained for kidnapping in the late 1990s.

A frail Alonto appeared in public somewhere at the marshy border of North Cotabato and Pagalungan, where he clarified that his name is just being used by kidnap gangs to pressure families of their captives to shell out ransom.

Alonto politely refused to be photographed, asserting he has assumed new identities as part of his effort to "stay alive and start a new life."

Alonto and the late Moro Islamic Liberation Front chieftain Hashim Salamat were both born in Barangay Cudal in Pagalungan, the known gateway to the Liguasan Marsh, which covers some 200,000-hectares of marshy wilderness.

The Pentagon has been using Liguasan Marsh as "launching pad" for its kidnapping activities.

Alonto, a battle-hardened guerrilla, first got involved in kidnapping in the Socsargen (South Cotabato-Sarangani-General Santos) region in the 1990s.

His wife and followers bolted him from the Sarangani provincial jail in a daring rescue about two years after he was arrested.

Through couriers, Alonto has repeatedly denied any links with the MILF, saying that he and his followers, until now, are confused why the police and the military have been attacking rebel camps under the pretext of hunting him down.