EDITORIAL - Unconditional surrender

Kidnapping, robbing and terrorizing people, no matter how lucrative or exciting, must get on the nerves of even the toughest thug after a while — especially if he has been disowned by his cohorts who are now after his neck. That’s the most plausible explanation for the repeated pleas of Faisal Marohombsar to be given a chance to start a new life.

Marohombsar, leader of the Pentagon kidnapping and robbery gang, is on the run after escaping last week from what is supposed to be one of the most tightly guarded areas in the country – the detention facility of the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force at Camp Crame, headquarters of the Philippine National Police. From Manila he flew back to Mindanao, where he has resumed calling up his contacts in the press.

He wants due process, he said. And he wants Sen. Robert Barbers to help him start a new life, hopefully with some livelihood funds for himself and his followers. Barbers has reportedly said he would go along with anything within the bounds of the law. If Barbers knows what’s good for him, he should stay out of this one.

Marohombsar led the Pentagon Gang, which preys mostly on foreigners such as Italian priest Giuseppe Pierantoni, during its most notorious period. Later, amid reports that he had a falling-out with his cohorts, Marohombsar was arrested, not in Mindanao but in Manila. The Pentagon Gang is believed to be the fund-raising arm of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has reportedly warned that it would apprehend Marohombsar if he ever shows his face in MILF-controlled areas. Top police officials, for their part, have ominously warned that Marohombsar was likely to be shot dead if he would resist arrest.

By all accounts Marohombsar is among the most guilty — if not the most guilty — among his band of crooks. Because of this he can’t turn state witness or help the government hunt down his former cohorts in exchange for leniency. And if he sincerely wants to turn a new leaf, escaping from a maximum security detention center is hardly the way to do it. This is an unrepentant, recidivist thug who has committed enough atrocities to put him away for the rest of his life or take him straight to the lethal injection chamber.

The only thing he can offer the government is his unconditional surrender, without the meddling of politicians. If he insists on setting conditions, let him run for his life. Some cop is surely itching to tell the nation that Faisal Marohombsar, may he rest in peace, was shot dead while resisting arrest.