‘No more deal with Pentagon leader’

No more deals.

Negotiations for the surrender of fugitive kidnap gang leader Faisal Marohombsar ended yesterday after Malacañang rejected his conditions in exchange for turning himself in, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.

"First, he wants to surrender personally to the President. Number two, have the cases against him dropped," Bunye said. "These are the conditions to which the government could not agree."

The only guarantees Marohombsar can get from the government is his personal safety and due process, he said, adding that anything else would be out of the question.

Norberto Gonzales, the government emissary negotiating with Marohombsar, earlier said the talks would be ended if the gang leader did not surrender by yesterday.

President Arroyo ordered the police and the military the other day to hunt down Marohombsar, whose escape from detention on June 19 from Camp Crame, the national police headquarters in Quezon City, caused a major embarassment to the government.

In another major embarrassment, a misinformed Mrs. Arroyo announced last Friday that Marohombsar had surrendered after talks with Gonzales.

Shortly after the announcement, Marohombsar called a radio station in Manila, insisting that talks for his surrender were still ongoing.

Mrs. Arroyo said it was National Bureau of Investigation Director Reynaldo Wycoco who gave the information even though Gonzales took responsibility for the gaffe.

"We will look into what happened with the view to preventing a repeat," Bunye said, adding that they are reviewing procedures on informing the President. "We’re not saying that we’re sanctioning [anybody]."

Gonzales earlier blamed the flub on "miscommunication." He did not elaborate.

He earlier said Marohombsar had assured him in a phone conversation that he would surrender any day.

Marohombsar, leader of the so-called "Pentagon gang" – one of the most notorious groups in the country – had set conditions for his surrender as well as that of his 100 henchmen.

He asked for visitation rights for his family and lawyer without official clearance, being moved to the custody of military intelligence and for the court to act on his petition to be granted bail.

Marohombsar’s relatives in Mindanao said he might put his life in danger because policemen and soldiers, they claimed, helped him in carrying out kidnappings in the past.

Malacañang said Marohombsar was in no position to set conditions.

Marohombsar is believed to be hiding somewhere in Lanao del Norte but Gonzales suspects that he is in Metro Manila.

Marohombsar’s group, made of former Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels who turned to banditry, is considered a terrorist group by the United States.

The gang gained notoriety for kidnapping foreigners for ransom and has been linked to the kidnapping of a South Korean man, an Italian priest and several Chinese in recent years.

The Italian and South Korean were freed unharmed but two of the Chinese were killed in a botched rescue attempt.

In her second State-of-the-Nation Address last Monday, Mrs. Arroyo declared terrorism and criminality as "enemies of the state" and threats to national security.

The Pentagon gang is among the 21 most notorious kidnap groups that are the top targets of the national police in the government’s renewed crackdown against kidnapping.

Mrs. Arroyo said police will use "military-style" operations in hunting down kidnap gangs. — With John Unson