Army-Pentagon clashes displace villagers

PIKIT, North Cotabato — Sporadic clashes between pursuing soldiers and members of the Pentagon kidnapping gang have spilled over to 12 more ba—rangays here, displacing thousands of villagers.

Pikit Mayor Farida Malingco said relief workers have listed 4,597 evacuees who are now temporarily housed at public school buildings in the town proper.

The evacuees, mostly Maguindanaoan Muslims, were forced to abandon their homes in Bulod, Bulol, Macabulod, Buliok, Barongis, Bago Inged, Rajah Muda, Talitay, Kabasalan, Inog-og, Balong and Gli-gli, after soldiers and heavily armed Pentagon members clashed in one of the barangays at dawn Saturday.

The hostilities, according to evacuees, worsened when local members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) reinforced the beleaguered kidnappers and fought advancing soldiers.

Last Friday, combatants of the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion, guided by a captured kidnapper named Tato Abdul, chanced upon at least 50 Pentagon members holding out in a marshy area in Barangay Bulod.

"They (kidnappers) opened fire right away on the soldiers advancing toward their position," said Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Two soldiers were wounded in the initial encounter. They are confined at the Army dispensary in Cotabato City.

Evacuees from Barangay Bulod said the kidnappers have crippled an Army Simba armored vehicle with B-40 rockets.

Six soldiers and 14 Pentagon members have reportedly been killed since Saturday.

Ando, however, said they have yet to validate the reports, mostly fed to local authorities by residents from the war-torn communities.

Village officials said among those killed in the sporadic firefights were four close relatives of a ranking member of the MILF’s central committee.

The kidnappers holding out in Barangay Bulod reportedly fled to the Liguasan Marsh Saturday night, but regrouped and harassed a group of soldiers patrolling nearby Barangay Bulol in search of the captors of 33-year-old Martina Martin, who was snatched in Libungan, North Cotabato early this month.

The Pentagon has asked for a P15-million ransom in exchange for the release of Martin, whose father operates a big rice mill in the town proper of Libungan, some 40 kilometers southwest of this town.

The Pentagon gang was also behind the Nov. 2 abduction here of seven-year-old Jaime Yap Jr., son of a hardware store owner.

Yap was freed three days after he was snatched by two pistol-wielding men from his classroom, through the intercession of Malingco and local leaders.

The Pentagon, led by Tahir Alonto, was also responsible for the recent separate abductions in North Cotabato and Maguindanao of four Chinese nationals and their interpreter.

Two of the foreigners were gunned down by Alonto and his men during a chance encounter with Army troopers in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat last Aug. 11. A third captive escaped as both sides traded shots.

The Pentagon released separately the two remaining captives, Edwin Lim and Zhang Zhung Yi, last October through the efforts of Libyan Ambassador Salem Adam and Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema.

Ando said their men will continue to run after the Pentagon, whose activities have reportedly severely affected North Cotabato’s economy.