Pentagon men seize, shoot dead Army retiree

COTABATO CITY — Suspected members of the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang shot dead a retired Army officer whom they had abducted along with a companion in Mlang, North Cotabato the other day.

Hours after the incident, soldiers killed two alleged Pentagon lookouts who rammed through a checkpoint in Alamada town, some 50 kilometers from this city.

In this city, Mayor Muslimin Sema has ordered stricter security measures to protect students from the Pentagon gang.

Sema said uniformed and plainclothes policemen have been fielded near public and private schools, and officials of the city’s 37 barangays have been tapped to monitor the movement of suspicious-looking people.

Authorities said retired Army officer Roilo Magno and his companion, Antonio Borras, were seized by heavily armed men led by a certain Commander Falcon, one of the key leaders of the Pentagon.

Falcon and his henchmen gunned down Magno when he tried to grab the firearm of one of his abductors while he and Borras were being dragged to a marsh where a getaway pumpboat was waiting.

Military sources said Magno and Borras were to be brought to the Liguasan Marsh, a known lair of kidnappers, at the boundary of North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao.

Borras managed to escape as their abductors were subduing Magno.

Meanwhile, soldiers fired at the two suspected Pentagon lookouts, Malab Tabagong and Radang Buli, after they refused to pull over for inspection at a checkpoint along the highway in Barangay Bao, a secluded district in Alamada town.

The two men were earlier spotted roaming suspiciously around neighborhoods in Alamada but sped away when vigilant bystanders tried to flag them down to verify their identities.

As Tabagong and Buli fled in haste, their vehicle rammed into a motorcycle, killing its two passengers, Ariel Pabuaya and Boboy Lizada, on the spot.