EDITORIAL - Wipe them out

President Arroyo, who has styled herself as the nation’s chief crimebuster, had reason to rejoice yesterday. A young scion of one of the richest clans in the country was rescued from her kidnappers. The rescue came about following an encounter between combined law enforcement teams and Faisal Marohombsar, founder of the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang, which is on the US list of international terrorist organizations. The encounter in the town of Magallanes in Cavite left Marohombsar dead.

Marohombsar launched his career in kidnapping 13 years ago, becoming part of the Mubarak group that was held responsible for the abduction of at least 46 people, most of them ethnic Chinese. The group’s leader, Commander Mubarak — whose real name was Abugado Bago — was shot dead by Marines a few years later. Marohombsar formed the Pentagon gang and engaged in a series of high-profile abductions. Among the victims were Italian priest Giuseppe Pierantoni and Chinese engineers.

Before his death Marohombsar had been negotiating for his surrender. He had nowhere to go: Pentagon members had expelled him reportedly because of a financial double-cross, and the cops were in hot pursuit after his dramatic escape last June from Camp Crame, headquarters of the Philippine National Police, where he had been held since his arrest in Manila earlier this year.

Now Marohombsar is gone, but the gang that he founded remains intact. Having raked in handsome profits from their criminal activities, gang members reportedly want to start a new life. It would be foolish for the government to fall for that line. This is nothing but a criminal group with only one objective: to profit from crime. It doesn’t even make any pretense about acting in the name of Islam.

A new man took over the helm of the Pentagon when Marohombsar was expelled. The government must not wait for the gang to recover from Marohombsar’s departure and strike again. The gang members must all be found and arrested — even annihilated if that’s what the President wants.