No clues yet on kidnapping of Fil-Am’s bodyguards

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — The police and military still have no solid clues yet on the whereabouts of the suspected Pentagon gang members who snatched three bodyguards of a wealthy Filipino-American businessman in Sultan Kudarat last week.

Police and military agents are still tracking down the kidnappers and their captives, Hernani Panes, Rey Canlas and Datu Galvez, all security escorts of Michael Escanlar.

The theory that the kidnappers could be followers of Mayangkang Saguile and Sahidali Mamalangkay, both commanders of local secessionist groups, have been floated to authorities.

Muslim religious leaders confirmed that Mamalangkay is a relative of a key leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) operating at the border of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat.

Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala, commander of the Army’s 301st Brigade, said relatives of Panes, Canlas and Galvez, have not received any ransom demand from their captors either.

About 10 Pentagon members first tried to abduct Escanlar from his gamecock farm in Barangay Kalawag in Isulan, capital town of Sultan Kudarat. But they took his body guards instead when Escanlar engaged them in a firefight.

The kidnappers fled with their hostages aboard a jeep and Escanlar’s gray Mitsubishi car, which was found abandoned three days after the incident in a banana plantation in Maguindanao.

"We have already enlisted the help of the local government units and the religious communities in Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat to help us locate the whereabouts of the kidnappers and their captives," Dema-ala said.