Chief Inspector Raul Supiter, Tacurong police chief, said they have been receiving persistent feedback from Muslim informants that the kidnappers were Moro guerrillas identified with the notorious Pentagon kidnapping syndicate.
"Our sources have confirmed that they are followers of Commanders Tahir Alonto and Mayangkang Saguile," Supiter said.
Tacurong officials said they would request the government’s committee on cessation of hostilities to investigate the reports circulating since Monday night that MILF rebels were responsible for the foiled abduction of ricemill owner Roberto Ang, who was himself seriously wounded in the incident.
Two of Ang’s relatives and three policemen were also wounded in the running gunbattle that ensued between the kidnappers and policemen.
The wounded businessman was immediately flown to Metro Manila on a private plane for treatment, Chief Superintendent Manuel Raval, Central Mindanao police director, said.
PO3 Percy Antonino, Ang’s security escort, and security guard Joseph Pajarillo were shot dead when they tried to stop the kidnappers from taking the businessman, Supiter said.
Stray bullets fatally hit driver Dominador Lumagda and bystander Pepito Baylon when they tried to bring Ang to safety.
On the other hand, PO3 Hadji Asis Bansil was killed when the fleeing gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades at a police checkpoint in nearby Lambayong town as they fled to nearby Maguindanao.
President Arroyo ordered the Philippine National Police yesterday to commend Antonino and Bansil posthumously and the three other policemen wounded in the incident, namely, PO4 Cesar Nanac, PO2 Aldrin Gonzales and PO1 Angelito Bumbog.
The President also commended the local police for their swift action, and ordered that the manhunt for the kidnappers "be pursued to its logical end."
Superintendent Ponfilo Dacoco, Sultan Kudarat police director, said seven men armed with assault rifles shot their way into a ricemill owned by Ang at about 10:20 a.m., and forced the workers at gunpoint to bring them to Ang’s office.
Dacoco said Antonino and Pajarillo and other policemen and security guards assigned to protect Ang, fired back when the gunmen tried to seize the businessman. But four of them were killed, he said.
According to sources from the Sultan Kudarat provincial government, six rebels were wounded in the running gunbattle, two of them identified as Bedu and Salik, both wanted for a string of criminal offenses, including extortion and cattle-rustling.
Dacoco said the gang fled in a commandeered jeep and shot their way through a police checkpoint near the town of Lambayong, killing Bansil and wounding Nanac, Gonzales and Bumbog.
Brig. Gen. Vicente Dema-Ala, commander of the Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade, which has jurisdiction over Tacurong City and surrounding towns, said soldiers are pursuing the kidnappers, last seen fleeing toward the Liguasan Marsh, a 220,000-hectare delta at the boundary of Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato. — With Marichu Villanueva