Pentagon men demand P50-M ransom for trader’s bodyguards

COTABATO CITY — Suspected Pentagon gang members, who snatched three bodyguards of a wealthy Filipino-American businessman in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat last week, have asked for a P50-million ransom in exchange for their release, the military said.

Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala, commander of the Army’s 301st Infantry Brigade, said the captors of Hernani Panes, Rey Canlas and Datu Galvez threatened to harm them should their families refuse to pay the ransom.

The captives’ families, however, said they could not raise the money and pleaded to the kidnappers not to harm the victims.

"We are now doing everything to rescue them," said Dema-ala, who is overseeing efforts to locate the kidnappers and their captives, all bodyguards of businessman Michael Escanlar.

About 10 Pentagon members attempted to abduct Escanlar from his gamecock farm in Barangay Kalawag in Isulan, the capital town of Sultan Kudarat.

But Escanlar, a former US navy man, shot it out with them, prompting them to instead seize his three bodyguards.

The kidnappers fled with their hostages aboard a jeep and Escanlar’s gray Mitsubishi car, which was found abandoned three days later in a banana plantation at the boundary of the Maguindanao towns of Buluan and Datu Paglas.

Escanlar is known in Isulan as a wealthy man, having won a $5-million lottery jackpot while he was still in the US navy a few years ago.

Muslim religious leaders believe that the kidnappers could be followers of Mayangkang Saguile and Sahidali Mamalangkay, both Moro Islamic Liberation front (MILF) commanders.

Sources in Maguindanao’s Islamic community said Mamalangkay is a relative of a key leader of the MILF guerrillas operating at the Maguindanao-Sultan Kudarat boundary.

For more than a week now, combatants of the 301st IB and the 6th Infantry Division have been hot on the trail of the kidnappers.

Dema-ala said the Maguindanao peace and order council has enlisted the help of local governments in the second district in tracking down the kidnappers.