Pentagon leaders nabbed

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Combatants of the Army’s 27th Infantry Battalion bagged the other day three local leaders of the Pentagon kidnap gang in Tantangan, South Cotabato, all wanted for the recent abduction of a wealthy couple from Mlang, North Cotabato.

Army Major Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the suspects, Abbix Salipada, Abdulla and Usman, both surnamed Disalao, voluntarily turned themselves in after sensing that their hideout in Barangay Dumadaling in Tantangan had been surrounded by soldiers.

Ando said the suspects immediately submitted themselves for custody after they were shown by the soldiers copies of the warrants for their arrest, signed by South Cotabato judge Agustid Sarbido.

The kidnappers were charged in connection with the abduction in Tantangan four months ago of a North Cotabato-based businessman, his sick wife, their private nurse and driver while the victims were en route to a hospital in Gen. Santos City on board a Mercedes Benz van.

Responding policemen and soldiers, jointly led by North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol and South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes, have promptly rescued the victims.

Ando said Salipada and his two arrested companions have been positively identified by witnesses as the leaders of the armed men that flagged down the victims’ vehicle and took them at gunpoint to a secluded village not far away from the highway where they were snatched and, subsequently, rescued by government forces.

The suspects are known henchmen of Pentagon chieftain Tahir Alonto, an ethnic Maguindanaon who hails from Pagalungan, Maguindanao and now carries a P5 million reward on his head. — John Unson