2 Pentagon men killed in Maguindanao encounter

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Two suspected members of the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang were killed in an encounter with combined military and police forces in S.K. Pendaton town in Maguindanao, the military reported here yesterday.

Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko said the combined forces of the 301st Army Brigade, the Tacurong police and members of 11th and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) were serving warrants of arrest on members of the Pentagon when they clashed with 15 fully armed members of the group acting as the front force in Barangay Bulod at around 11:45 a.m.

Kyamko said two of the suspects were killed in the encounter.

The slain suspects, who were tagged as involved in the kidnapping of businessman Roberto Ang in Tacurong City last year, were identified as siblings Mutin (alias Resmy) and Makapagal (alias Pakal) Mabang.

Recovered from the slain suspects were a .45 caliber pistol and one M16 Armalite rifle.

Four followers of the Mabangs reportedly surrendered after the two commanders fell.

Chief Inspector Raul Supiter, chief of the Tacurong City police, said that the Mabangs were talked into peacefully surrendering to the authorities by local officials in S.K. Pendaton during the raid but they resisted and opened fire at the arresting team, provoking a five-minute gunbattle.

The troops reported bloodstains along the escape route of the fleeing Pentagon members, obviously signs that there were wounded members in the group.

Gen. Agustin Demaala of the 301st Army Brigade has alerted military troops to help the police in securing hospitals where the wounded suspects might be brought for medical treatment. — With John Unson