Another Pentagon man falls

COTABATO CITY — After a month-long surveillance, police nabbed the other day another henchman of notorious Pentagon kidnap gang leader Tahir Alonto, this time a former convict implicated in 30 car thefts here and in surrounding towns since January.

Superintendent Saiben Acmad, chief of police precinct 1, said the suspect, Tiking Usman, also known as "Boy Cobra," was arrested while trying to open a car parked along a busy street in a commercial district here.

Acmad said Usman, who had served a sentence at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City, gave up without a fight and voluntarily yielded a caliber .45 pistol after sensing that policemen had surrounded him and that his cohorts had fled and abandoned him.

"This suspect had long been the subject of our surveillance. Although he was very elusive, we succeeded in finally putting him behind bars through hardwork, patience and perseverance," Acmad said.

Sources from the Army’s anti-kidnapping task forces operating in Central Mindanao confirmed that Usman, a Maguindanaoan, is one of the trusted aides of Alonto, founder of the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang, who has a P5-million prize on his head.

Acmad said investigators are now trying to determine the extent of Usman’s involvement in past abductions of wealthy residents in Central Mindanao.

"If we can gather sufficient evidence that he is also a kidnapper, kidnapping charges would be filed against him, too," he said.

Usman was the fourth henchman of Alonto arrested since last month.

The first was Alonto’s "right-hand man," Dario Quiam, alias Aking, who was arrested in General Santos City by joint operatives of the anti-kidnapping Task Force Gensan, the 601st Infantry Brigade, the 6th Infantry Division and the Army’s 12th Intelligence Service Unit.

Quiam, who was shot in the leg when he resisted arrest, has since been helping authorities track down other leaders of the Pentagon, mostly rogue commanders of separatist forces in Central Mindanao.