Posted on 08/25/2002 2:23:24 PM PDT by wretchard
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| END OF THE ROAD: President Arroyo views the body of Pentagon gang leader Faisal Marohombsar (inset) in Cavite yesterday. With her are PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., Armed Forces chief Gen. Roy Cimatu and Metro Manila police chief Deputy Director General Rey Velasco. - REVOLI CORTEZ |
Only two months ago he had escaped from the national police headquarters at Camp Crame. Weeks later, an embarrassed President Arroyo had to retract her announcement that he had surrendered.
Yesterday Faisal Marohombsar, founder of the Pentagon kidnap gang which is included in the US list of international terrorist organizations, was killed in an encounter with police and military teams in Magallanes town in Cavite.
Agents of the Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response (PACER), which launched the operation, also arrested three suspected kidnappers: Police Officer 2 Armando Ayson of the Magallanes police, Jimmy Lumabad and Servina Matera. Two other suspects escaped during the firefight.
The PACER team confiscated from the suspects a caliber .45 automatic, two Armalite rifles and two Toyota FX vans.
Also found in Marohombsar’s pocket was a safe-conduct pass signed by Army Maj. Gen. Alberto Braganza, who had announced earlier that the fugitive would surrender through him.
President Arroyo rushed to Magallanes to congratulate the arresting team and extend financial assistance to T/Sgt. Willie Madayag, a member of the military’s Anti-Crime Task Force (ACTAF) who was wounded in the shootout.
Initial reports said Marohombsar was shot in the abdomen and other parts of the body in a five-minute battle with combined elements of the PACER, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Southern Tagalog regional police office and the ACTAF.
The encounter took place in Barangay Kaluwangan in Magallanes.
A civilian informer led the law enforcers to Marohombsar’s hideout in Cavite late Saturday night, but the gang, apparently alerted by local sympathizers, had vacated the lair when the raiders arrived.
Instead of going back to their respective headquarters empty-handed, the lawmen searched for their targets for about eight hours.
The lawmen eventually caught up with their quarry in Kaluwangan at about 7:30 a.m. yesterday and the brief firefight ensued.
The bullet-riddled body of Marohombsar, who was clad in a white shirt and khaki shorts, was loaded in a carabao-drawn bamboo cart for transport to the local police station.
Marohombsar and two other kidnap suspects identified as Abdul Macaumbang and Roland Patiño, bolted their cell at Camp Crame in Quezon City last June 19, a few days before Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. took office following the retirement of Director General Leandro Mendoza.
Marohombsar said in a radio interview he had escaped because jail guards were maltreating him.
He said he would surrender if kidnapping charges against him and his followers would be dropped and if they were given a chance to start life anew.
Marohombsar was arrested in a motel in Quiapo, Manila last February by a team of the defunct PNP’s National Anti-Kidnapping Tasks Force (NAKTAF) then headed by Ebdane.
Since his escape from the heavily guard NAKTAF jail, Marohombsar has sent at least two bum surrender feelers.
Even the President publicly announced that the escapee was willing to turn himself in, but he remained in hiding. The "kuryente" report was later traced to National Bureau of Investigation Director Reynaldo Wycoco.
Yesterday’s incident also belied earlier reports that Marohombsar had returned to Central Mindanao and rejoined his gang to resume their criminal activities.
A Maranaw barter trader who asked not to be identified, quoted witnesses as saying Marohombsar was spotted about two weeks ago boarding a ship in Cagayan de Oro City bound for Manila.
"Although I have not confirmed that myself, I am really convinced that he went home to Lanao del Sur after he escaped from Camp Crame," said the source, who was also a member of the Marohombsar clan.
Muslim political and religious leaders received the news on Marohombsar’s death without any regrets or bitterness.
"It is Allah’s will that his life will end that way, so be it," said a businessman- cousin of Marohombsar.
The source, who requested anonymity, said they would not be saddened by Marohombsar’s tragic end, "because he had all the chances to reform and return to the fold of Islam, which detests criminal acts."
Another relative surmised that Marohombsar’s unscrupulous contacts in the police and military service were discreetly rejoicing over his death because their dark secrets would be buried with him.
The source said they were privy on how Marohombsar and his henchmen obtained military uniforms, firearms and identification cards which they used for their criminal activities, notably kidnapping.
A Maranaw school principal in Lanao del Sur said they were also convinced that Marohombsar was deliberately allowed to escape from detention.
Presidential Adviser Norberto Gonzales also said he tried to persuade Marohombsar to surrender by assuring him of fair treatment.
"We gave him time to give up. I told him the sooner you come in, the better for you," Gonzales said.
Marohombsar and two allies, one of them identified only as Jun Sarat, reportedly founded the Pentagon gang during a two-day meeting at the Crestville Hotel in Digos City last year.
Over the following months, the gang’s membership swelled, most of them renegades of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front from the remote areas of Central and Western Mindanao.
Four of its alleged leaders was identified as Tahir Alonto, believed to be its tactical planner; Kamad Macacua alias Banjas Macacua, and Rasul Ingad alias Teng, and a certain Commander Eagle.
The group eventually indulged in kidnapping for ransom, prompting Washington to include it in the list of foreign terrorist groups, along with the Abu Sayyaf bandits who specialized in mass kidnapping for ransom, and the communist New People’s Army.
Among Pentagon’s initial victims were four Chinese nationals working in a foreign-funded irrigation project in North Cotabato and their Filipino interpreter. One of the hostages was killed while another was wounded in a rescue operation staged by the police.
Authorities also tagged the Pentagon as behind last year’s abduction of Italian priest Giuseppe Pierantoni who was freed in April.
Another kidnapping blamed on the Pentagon was that of Pierre Belanger of Ottawa, Canada who was rescued two days before Christmas, ending two months of captivity. — With John Unson, wire reports
... Muslim political and religious leaders received the news on Marohombsar?s death without any regrets or bitterness ...It's their capacity for introspection that I find most attractive.
How about this option instead...
Instead of going back to their respective headquarters empty-handed, the lawmen searched for their targets for about eight hours. The lawmen eventually caught up with their quarry in Kaluwangan at about 7:30 a.m. yesterday and the brief firefight ensued.
The bullet-riddled body of Marohombsar, who was clad in a white shirt and khaki shorts, was loaded in a carabao-drawn bamboo cart for transport to the local police station.
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