Salamat’s brother leading one of 5 Pentagon groups?

KIDAPAWAN CITY — There are now five kidnapping groups in Central Mindanao operating under the aegis of the Pentagon gang, one of them reportedly led by Ustadz Shamir, a sibling of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chieftain Hashim Salamat.

The Mindanao Cross, a popular Catholic newspaper in Central Mindanao, quoted intelligence sources over the weekend as hinting that the four other groups are led by notorious kidnappers who have been operating in the region since the early 1990s.

It was North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol who first tagged Shamir, who, like Salamat, is also a preacher, as one of the "influential people" allegedly protecting the Pentagon.

"He gives sanctuary to kidnappers at the Liguasan Marsh. At the end of the (kidnapping) operation, he gets a percentage of the ransom the kidnappers can rake in," Piñol said in an earlier interview with Catholic radio station dxND.

Shamir, according to police and military sources, is being protected by Kagui Abdul Bayan, commander of the MILF’s 103rd Brigade, which is operating at the boundary of North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat.

Piñol earlier said another prominent Pentagon group in the region is led by Andie Montawal, who hails from Pagalungan, Maguindanao and who masterminded the separate abductions of five Chinese nationals and their interpreter in Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat last year.

In Maguindanao, now dubbed as the "kidnapping capital of Central Mindanao," two popular Muslim datus have confirmed that all of the Pentagon’s kidnapping groups are operating under the "umbrella group" led by Tahir Alonto.

Sources said Alonto, who carries a P5-million prize on his head, is the Pentagon’s overall leader. He has been implicated in more than 20 kidnappings since last year.

Additional reward

Piñol said he was ready to raise a considerable amount of "earnest money" from the provincial government, the business community, Muslim and Christian religious groups as additional reward in exchange for any information that could lead to Alonto’s arrest.

There are two Pentagon gangs operating with impunity in North Cotabato, one of them reportedly led by Kabilo Saguile, who has long been wanted for extortion, multiple murders and other crimes.

Saguile’s group was responsible for last year’s abductions of trader Delfin Razonable, orchard farm owner Sixto Escudero, both Kidapawan City residents, and seven-year-old Jimmy Yap, whose father owns a hardware store in Pikit, North Cotabato.

Four of Saguile’s men were killed in a clash with soldiers who rescued Razonable just four hours after they snatched him while he was about to open his store at a busy district here.

Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said their intelligence units have enlisted the help of religious leaders in areas were kidnappers are holding out.

"Our men in the field have been continuously running after them since last November," he said.

Ando, however, said their anti-kidnapping operations in Central Mindanao can only succeed with the help of local leaders and civilians who have knowledge of the whereabouts of the Pentagon groups operating in the region.

Still being held captive by one of the Pentagon gangs is 53-year-old physician Rosemarie Agustin, who was snatched in Cotabato City last Jan. 15.