Pentagon frees landowner’s wife

COTABATO CITY - The notorious Pentagon gang, which is on a US list of terrorist groups, released the ailing wife of a North Cotabato landowner early last night, hours after the man reportedly escaped from their abductors after two days in captivity.

Col. Agustin Demaala, head of the anti-kidnapping Task Force GenSan, said Carmen Villasor, 66, was freed along with her nurse, Juvelyn Canaag, at about 6 p.m. in Barangay Dumalanib in Tantangan, South Cotabato.

Nearly two hours earlier, the Villasors’ driver, Arius Abang, was freed also in Tantangan, said Demaala, also the deputy commander of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade.

Villasor’s husband Gaudioso Jr., a large-scale farmer and a former provincial board member, escaped from their abductors yesterday morning.

He was believed to have been freed to raise the ransom money. Reports said the kidnappers had demanded P20 million.

Five gunmen abducted the Villasors, along with Canaag and Abang, as they were driving from the couple’s home in Mlang, North Cotabato to General Santos City, where Mrs. Villasor was to undergo her regular dialysis, said Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

The gunmen stopped the Villasors’ vehicle in a remote area at the boundary of the Maguindanao towns of Buluan and Datu Paglas.

The kidnappers then transferred the four to a speedboat and fled into the nearby Liguasan Marsh before reaching a hideout in neighboring North Cotabato, Ando said.

Ando quoted reports that the Villasors’ Mercedes Benz with license plate LDG 827, was recovered in a secluded area in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.

Mlang Mayor Luigi Cuerpo, citing local authorities and informants, said the gunmen were members of the Pentagon gang.

Sources from the 301st Infantry Brigade, quoting Muslim religious leaders in Datu Paglas and Buluan, said the Villasors’ abductors were Gani Saligan, Jimmy Talimbao, Musa Guiamadel, Musa Daud and a certain Binggo, all wanted for extortion, highway robberies and cattle rustling.

The Pentagon gang has been included in a US "terrorist exclusion list" to prevent members and supporters from entering the United States.

The group was involved in the kidnapping of Italian Roman Catholic priest Giuseppe Pierantoni, a Canadian man, Chinese engineers working on an irrigation project, a Korean treasure hunter and a Filipino hotel owner.

President Arroyo has ordered a crackdown on kidnapping gangs, saying they harm the country’s reputation and drive away investors.

The government is also targeting the extremist Abu Sayyaf group, notorious for kidnappings and beheadings. — John Unson, John Paul Jubelag, Christina Mendez