Abducted boy escapes from Pentagon lair

COTABATO CITY – A determined 13-year-old boy staged a daring escape from the hands of the Pentagon kidnap gang, which abducted him in this city Friday night.

Vincent Bahilidan, son of a businessman based here, broke the glass windows of his abductors’ safehouse in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, jumped out and ran to safety.

Cotabato City police director Senior Superintendent Sangacala Dampac said the Pentagon’s safehouse is located at a residential area in Salimbao, a densely populated district of Sultan Kudarat town.

The young Bahilidan, a student of the state-run Cotabato City Laboratory High School, was on his way home from an evening campus activity when three hooded gunmen blocked his path and dragged him to a waiting vehicle.

He was taken to Salimbao and locked up inside one of the rooms of a bungalow.

"I was determined to escape. I smashed the glass windows with the stand of a lampshade, got out and ran as fast as I could," Bahilidan said.

He later rode a tricycle, which took him straight home. His parents then accompanied him to the police to report the abduction.

Operatives of the city police immediately raided the kidnappers’ safehouse, but found it empty.

Dampac said the kidnappers could have abandoned their hideout after discovering that their captive had escaped.

Bahilidan’s abduction took place barely two months after members of the Pentagon snatched a physician in this city.

Dr. Rosemarie Agustin was held captive for three weeks in Talayan, Maguindanao. She was freed only after her family reportedly paid a P3-million ransom.