Kidnapped trader rescued; 4 Pentagon men shot dead

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — A police-military team rescued a kidnapped trader and gunned down four of his captors, all belonging to the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang, in Mlang, North Cotabato the other day.

The businessman, Delfin Rasonable, a resident of Kidapawan City, suffered superficial wounds on the head after his captors repeatedly whipped him with handguns after sensing that soldiers had blocked their path on their way to their lair in the remote town of Mlang.

Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Rasonable was just about to open his agricultural supplies store in Kidapawan when the kidnappers, armed with caliber .45 pistols, dragged him to their getaway vehicle, a red Nissan pick-up.

"It was good that responding policemen in Kidapawan City managed to inform via two-way radio all police and Army checkpoints along the (kidnappers’) escape route," Ando said.

The kidnappers opened fire on members of the Army’s 39th Infantry Battalion and civilian volunteers, who stopped them at a roadblock in Barangay Inas, Mlang.

Rasonable was able to jump out of his kidnappers’ vehicle while both sides were trading shots.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said four of Rasonable’s captors, whom he identified as Musa and Mohamedin, both surnamed Salik, Rudy Mama and Tata Ali, were killed in the gunbattle.

A wounded kidnapper, who identified himself as Noli Akmad, gave himself up to the soldiers.

Piñol said they found out that the kidnappers’ getaway vehicle belongs to a certain Datu Saguile, an alleged commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Saguile, a known hatchet man of Pentagon leader Tahir Alonto, has long been wanted for various offenses, including robbery and extortion.

Piñol said the slain kidnappers reside in a marshy village at the boundary of North Cotabato’s Pikit and Mlang towns where the Pentagon operates with impunity.

The Pentagon was responsible for the recent abductions of four Chinese nationals and their interpreter in North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.

Two of the foreigners were gunned down by their captors during a chance encounter with soldiers while a third captive escaped during the firefight.

The two remaining captives, Zhang Zhung Yi and Edwin Lim, were released separately last October through the intercession of Libyan Ambassador Salem Adam and Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, secretary-general of the Moro National Liberation Front.

The Pentagon is still holding captive 33-year-old Martina Martin, a daughter of a rice mill owner who was snatched in Libungan, North Cotabato early this month.