Third escapee from NAKTAF next on PNP hit list

Two down, one to go.

With two of his cohorts slain in recent purported encounters with police, the end may also be near for escapee Abdul Macaumbang.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said Macaumbang is next on the hit list of the elite Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER).

Macaumbang’s fellow escapees, Faisal Marohombsar and Rodolfo Patinio, were slain in separate encounters with PACER agents in Ca-vite.

PACER agents are now zeroing in on Macaumbang, who is reportedly holed up somewhere in Metro Manila and "planning something foolish," Ebdane said.

Macaumbang, Marohombsar and Patinio escaped last June 19 from their cells at the maximum security detention center at Camp Crame of the defunct National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force headed by then Deputy Director General Ebdane.

Marohombsar, suspected leader of the Pentagon kidnap gang based in Central Mindanao, was killed in an alleged shootout with combined police-military units in Magallanes, Cavite on Aug. 25.

Patinio, along with two other suspected kidnappers — former Marine troopers Diosdado Santos and Eugene Radam — were gunned down by PACER agents in a raid last Wednesday on their hideout in General Trias town, also in Cavite.

Patinio, Santos and Radam were being eyed by government prosecutors as potential state witnesses in the New Year’s Eve murder of police Inspector Baron Cervantes, self-appointed spokesman for the military-police rightist group Young Officers Union.

Guesting at the Manila Overseas Press Club forum the other night at Manila Hotel, Ebdane indicated that Patinio’s group was plotting something sinister when the lawmen caught up with them and nipped their plan in the bud. — Christina Mendez