Military keen on capture of elusive Pentagon leader

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — The military is optimistic it can now locate and capture Tahir Alonto, the notorious leader of the Pentagon kidnapping syndicate, with the help of his "right-hand man" Dario Quiam, who was nabbed by Army soldiers in General Santos City last Monday.

"We are hoping that (Quiam) will lead the police and the military to the whereabouts of all the leaders of the Pentagon," said Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and concurrent supervising chief of all Army-led anti-kidnapping task forces in Central Mindanao.

Quiam, who is known in Central Mindanao as the "most trusted aide" of Alonto and one of the Pentagon’s strategists, was arrested by combined operatives of the 6th ID, the Army’s 12th Intelligence Service Unit (ISU), the 601st Infantry Brigade, the 29th Military Intelligence Company, the Military Intelligence Group and the anti-crime Task Force Socsargen.

Quiam, also known as Maguing, first tried to elude arrest but was shot in the leg by the Army soldiers. He is now confined under heavy police guard in a hospital in General Santos City.

Quiam was one of more than a dozen Pentagon gang members who, along with Alonto, bolted the Sarangani provincial jail three years ago.

He was implicated in seven recent kidnappings the Pentagon reportedly pulled off in the South Cotabato-Sarangani-General Santos (Socsargen) area. He was tagged in the spate of bombings of commercial establishments in General Santos last year.

Local officials in Maguindanao have confirmed that Quiam also has close links with two other top leaders of the Pentagon, Commanders Mayangkang Saguile and Sammy Tilaka of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

"If Quiam will help us locate the whereabouts of other leaders of the Pentagon, it is no longer difficult for the police and the military to break the backbone of this notorious syndicate," said a senior official of the ISU-12, the Army’s main intelligence unit.

The intelligence officer, who asked not to be identified, said the ISU-12 and the 6th ID are now convincing Quiam to help them track down Alonto, one of the founders of the Pentagon, who was earlier said to have died in an encounter with combatants of the 7th Marine Battalion Landing Team in Pagalungan, Maguindanao.

Local leaders in the adjoining North Cotabato towns of Pagalungan and Pikit confirmed recently that it was not Alonto who was killed by the Marines, but a close relative who resembled the Pentagon leader.

Muslim religious leaders in Pikit said Alonto, who is now weak due to diabetes, is now hiding in a secluded portion of the Liguasan Marsh in the second district of Maguindanao.

Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan earlier said he was ready to shell out "earnest money" to any informant who could provide the police and the military information that could lead to Alonto’s arrest.

Alonto, who carries a P5-million prize on his head, has been tagged as the real mastermind in the abduction of more than 20 wealthy Central Mindanao residents between 1996 and 2002.