No clues on Cotabato doc

COTABATO CITY - Authorities still have no clues on the whereabouts of 53-year-old physician Rosemarie Agustin who was snatched here last week by members of the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang.

The Pentagon, according to reports circulating here, has demanded a P30-million ransom in exchange for Agustin’s release. Neither the police nor the military could confirm this, however.

Sources from Maguindanao’s political community said they have received feedback implicating Mayangkang Saguile and Sammy Tilaka, both wanted for more than a dozen kidnappings, in Agustin’s abduction.

Saguile and Tilaka, who each carries a P1-million prize on his head, have just joined the Pentagon, the sources said.

"What we have heard is that the abduction of Dr. Agustin was a test mission for the groups of these two dreaded kidnappers which now form part of the Pentagon," one of the sources said.

Followers of Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, secretary-general of the Moro National Liberation Front, have been running after the kidnappers in a bid to rescue Agustin, one of the owners of the Cotabato Medical Specialist Hospital here.

The lair of Agustin’s captors is not far away from Maguindanao’s Kabuntalan town, a known enclave of three big kidnapping syndicates, composed of rogue secessionist rebels who have joined ranks with the Pentagon.

The Army’s 6th Infantry Division, which has more than a dozen elite units now chasing the captors of Agustin, has called on the victim’s family not to pay the kidnappers any ransom.

Maj. Julieto Ando, 6th ID spokesman, said Agustin and her abductors could be at the Liguasan Marsh, a 220,000-hectare delta at the boundary of North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao.

"But our agents are still exhausting all means in validating all the information reaching us. Our units have not stopped running after them," Ando said

In another kidnapping, a third group has contacted the family of abducted Tarlac City hardware store owner Ricardo Sy, also claiming to be holding him hostage and demanding a P20-million ransom.

This development has left Sy’s family confused on who his real kidnappers are. Sy, 51, and his wife were snatched by four armed men last Wednesday night; his wife was later released.

A source close to the Sys said the third group called up the family last Saturday and told them not to believe the two other groups’ claims.

"There are only two things to this," the source said. "First, other criminal groups seem to want to make money out of this."

Secondly, the source added, the three different groups of callers may actually be the same group, noting that each of them had demanded a similar P20-million ransom. — With Benjie Villa