Pentagon gang leader nabbed inside Cotabato City hospital

COTABATO CITY — Police arrested yesterday a leader of the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang, who has been implicated in high-profile abductions and killings of more than 10 policemen and government officials in Central Mindanao.

The suspect, Dante Macapampang, alias Mamison Kalip, was arrested by a police team led by Senior Inspector Samsom Obatay inside the Cotabato Regional Medical Center where he was being treated for a gunshot wound inflicted by a fellow Pentagon member the other night.

Obatay said they arrested Macapampang on the strength of a court-issued warrant in connection with the near-killing of an Indian businessman here last March.

He quoted Macapampang as telling investigators that his companion, Dima Makapundas, who is himself wanted for extortion and killings, was the one who shot him.

Obatay said Macapambang and Makapundas, both known to be guns-for-hire, have been implicated in the recent killings of policemen here.

Witnesses tagged the two as the ones who fatally shot Eliazar Sambra, Region 12 director of the Department of Transportation and Communications, and Murshid Tutuh, chief of the Regional Ports Authority of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Obatay cited reports that Macapampang was also involved in last month’s abduction of Chinese-Filipino trader Benny Kotah.

According to military intelligence sources, Macapampang masterminded the abduction of eight wealthy Chinese-Filipino residents in Central Mindanao from 2001 to 2004.