13-year-old girl rescued from Pentagon gang

COTABATO CITY — Combined agents of an Army intelligence unit and the 6th Infantry Division rescued here yesterday a 13-year-old girl whom the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom syndicate snatched in Cagayan de Oro City last Jan. 8.

The victim, Apple Deen Tabuada, was smart enough to duck for cover when a brief firefight ensued between her rescuers and the kidnappers, who were eventually forced to abandon her, in Barangay Rosary Heights 11.

Maj. Julieto Ando, the 6th ID’s spokesman, said agents of their anti-kidnapping Task Force Tugis and the Army’s Intelligence Service Unit in Region 12 based here, confirmed the teener’s presence in the city after three days of surveillance.

Tabuada, a daughter of a Cagayan de Oro businessman, was held captive in a safehouse along a river near San Pablo Subdivision. The river is a known exit route of lawless elements.

After validating the victim’s identity, elements of Task Force Tugis and ISU-12, backed by members of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion, raided the kidnappers’ lair and succeeded in rescuing Tabuada after a brief firefight.

Three of Tabuada’s captors, all native Maguindanaoans, were captured and are now undergoing tactical interrogation.

Ando said the girl’s abductors could be new recruits of the Pentagon operating in the city and in surrounding towns.

Police intelligence sources said Maranao members of the Pentagon could have snatched Tabuada and merely turned her over to their cohorts here.