Key leader of Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang captured

COTABATO CITY — A key leader of the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom syndicate was captured after an hour-long gunbattle with elements of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, 301st Infantry Brigade and 2nd Special Forces Battalion in Sultan sa Barongis, Maguindanao yesterday.

Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, the 6th ID’s commanding general, said the arrested Pentagon leader, Bantulingan Minanding, is a known hatchet man of Tahir Alonto, the gang’s chief.

This developed as the Pentagon group has demanded a P30-million ransom in exchange for the freedom of its latest victim, trader Martina Martin, whom it snatched in Libungan, North Cotabato last Sunday.

The victim’s family, who operates a rice mill in Libungan, a booming town in the first district of North Cotabato, said they have received the ransom demand from her kidnappers.

"Wala kaming kakayahang magbayad ng ransom. Palayain na lang sana nila ang aking anak (We don’t have the means to pay the ransom. We hope they will just free my daughter)," her father, Marino, told radio station dxMS here yesterday.

Kyamko said residents of Barangay Tugal, Sultan sa Barongis town spotted Minanding and his followers before sunrise yesterday and immediately alerted the nearest Army detachment.

Minanding’s group opened fire on the responding soldiers, triggering an hour-long gunbattle. Sensing that the troopers were closing in on them, they fled toward a marshy area, leaving behind Minanding.

The Pentagon leader, Kyamko said, did not resist arrest and yielded a B-40 rocket launcher and an M-16 rifle.

Sultan sa Barongis officials said seven of Minanding’s men were wounded in the gunbattle.

The North Cotabato police said Pentagon members barged into the Martins’ rice mill at about 4:30 p.m. last Sunday and, at gunpoint, dragged Martina to a getaway car.

Superintendent Ruben Abapo, provincial police director, said they have received information since Monday that Martina and her captors are now in a remote community in the Liguasan Marsh, a 223,000-hectare delta known as an impregnable sanctuary of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Kyamko said he has directed the 602nd and 301st Infantry Brigades, both under the 6th ID, to cordon strategic spots in the marsh to restrain the kidnappers from moving around.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said his office has raised a P50,000 reward in exchange for any information on Martina’s whereabouts.

The Pentagon group was responsible for the earlier abductions of four Chinese nationals and their interpreter in North Cotabato and Maguindanao.

Two of the Chinese were slain and a third one escaped during a clash between the gang and pursuing soldiers. The remaining captives, Zhang Zhung Yi and Edwin Lim, were freed separately through the intercession of Libyan Ambassador Salem Adam and Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema. – John Unson