Pentagon kidnap gang leader slips from military dragnet

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Government troops nearly cornered Pentagon kidnap gang leader Tahir Alonto in a dawn raid Sunday, but the elusive gang leader escaped by a hair.

Army 6th Infantry Division spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando said Pentagon gang lookouts warned Alonto of the approach of Army Special Forces troops closing in on the kidnap ring’s lair, giving Alonto the chance to escape towards nearby marshlands.

Alonto, who carries a P5-million bounty on his head, was first spotted in Barangay Lugaw in Lambayong town by Muslim preachers, who immediately reported his presence in the area to an Army base near the town proper.

"The informants were positive that it was Tahir Alonto that they had seen in a house on (a) secluded rice farm. We are certain, however, that Alonto positioned his lookouts in the surroundings of the house where he stayed for the night so he was promptly informed of the approach of the soldiers sent to arrest him," Ando said.

He said the raiding team recovered five high-powered firearms inside the house where Alonto and his key aides had spent the night.

The pursuing soldiers also chanced upon some of Alonto’s fleeing cohorts and engaged them in a brief gunbattle, killing two of them.

Ando said the remains of the slain kidnappers were turned over to local religious leaders so they could be given a decent burial.

Alonto was seen Saturday roaming the border of Lambayong and Sultan sa Barongis towns in Maguindanao with at least 20 heavily armed companions — some of them suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas.

Alonto, implicated in over a dozen kidnapping cases, is said to have links with the MILF. The MILF, however, has consistently denied having any ties to the Pentagon gang.

Meanwhile, the government is still giving the MILF the "benefit of the doubt" despite the strong suspicions aired by the military that the MILF has links with the Pentagon gang.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Eduardo Ermita insisted that the MILF was "really not the target" of last month’s military offensive in Liguasan Marsh in Pikit, Maguindanao.

The military overran the MILF’s 2,000-hectare Buliok complex in Liguasan Marsh during last month’s offensive. Located in the MILF enclave was MILF chairman Hashim Salamat’s fortified, two-story house and manuals for bomb-making and other terrorist activities.

Government troops overran Buliok after Pentagon members and other criminal elements were believed to have sought refuge in the area. Documents confiscated from Salamat’s house apparently revealed a connection between the MILF and the Pentagon gang.

"We are trying to give them the benefit of the doubt," Ermita said in an interview with ANC’s "Interaction" Sunday night. "If they are really going to be sincere, they will prevent (lawless elements) from using heir places."

"The MILF is really not the target. President Arroyo ordered a cessation of hostilities until midnight of Feb. 10, (and) extended until Feb. 11, but the MILF did not attend the meeting called by the committee for the cessation of hostilities in Cotabato City," Ermita said.

He added that "on the night of Feb. 10, the MILF harassed our soldiers."

"In other words," Ermita said, "the MILF gave justification to the pursuit of (the) operation (against them). I am sad that it happened."

Ermita added the government does not want the MILF tagged as a terrorist organization, as the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA) were.

The GRP-MILF peace talks formally started in 1997, but the talks were repeatedly marred by hostilities between soldiers and the MILF.

Ermita vowed to pursue the peace process, on orders of President Arroyo who instructed them to "reach out to the other panel to ensure that peace talks will resume" and for negotiations to be finished "within six months."

The Arroyo administration presented a four-point plan Saturday for a peace accord with the MILF "in an effort to bring the MILF closer to the negotiating table."