NEWSFLASH

PNP PROBES MAROHOMBSAR'S LINKS TO POLITICAL DESTABILIZERS

Manila, August 27 2002 (STAR) By Jaime Laude and Christina Mendez - Picking up the momentum from the successful rescue of a four-year-old kidnap victim on Sunday, the Philippine National Police has started investigating the possible links of the kidnapping gang to political destabilizers, PNP sources said yesterday.

The authorities started the investigation as the police launched a massive manhunt for fugitive Pentagon chieftain Tahir Alonto, a nephew of Moro Islamic Liberation Front commander Ebrahim Al-Hadj Murad.

This developed as President Arroyo shortened to six months the one-year deadline she gave PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. to "eliminate" kidnapping incidents in the country.

Police invited for questioning Marine Sgt. Abelardo Ayson in connection with the kidnapping of four-year-old Patricia Lopez Chung last week.

Lopez and her nanny, who were abducted by a group with links to slain Pentagon gang leader Faisal Marohombsar, were rescued by a joint military-police team from a compound in Magallanes, Cavite early Sunday morning.

Camp Crame sources said Ayson is the brother of Magallanes, Cavite policeman Armando Ayson, one of three men arrested in the rescue operation that also resulted in the killing of Marohombsar.

Lawmen also learned that the Pacheco compound at Barangay Malagasang in Magallanes, Cavite had also been used as a safehouse by former agents of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).

The sources said police are puzzled how Marohombsar and his cohorts learned of the former PAOCTF safehouse and why they were accommodated there.

The police were led to the safehouse by a certain Roger Lebures, of Ormoc City in Leyte, a suspected member of the Waray-Ilonggo kidnapping gang.

Lebures was arrested on Aug. 24 in Pasig City and was being questioned for a separate kidnapping case when he admitted being among the kidnappers of Chung and that Marohombsar was among his cohorts.

Lebures then led policemen to their Magallanes hideout but he escaped as the joint military-police team engaged Marohombsar and his men in a 40-minute gun fight that ended in the gang leader’s death.

Wanted: Tahir Alonto

The authorities started the investigation on the links between kidnapping gangs and political destabilizers as the police launched a massive manhunt for Alonto, the overall chieftain of the notorious Pentagon gang.

"Marohombsar, it turns out, acted as the (Pentagon gang’s) negotiator. The leader is Tahir Alonto and he still roams around the areas of Pagalungan and Datu Paglas towns (in Maguindanao)," Ebdane said, referring to areas with a strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) presence.

A confidential police report obtained by The STAR revealed that Alonto was not only a nephew of Murad, who is the vice chairman for military affairs of the MILF, but also a former planning and operations officer of the MILF’s armed wing, Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces.

As MILF planning and operations officer, Alonto is believed to be responsible for kidnapping, extortion and other terrorist activities in Central Mindanao, through which the MILF raises some of its funds.

"(Alonto) is considered indispensable (by the MILF) because he personally generates the much-needed financial support of the MILF through kidnapping, extortion, cattle-rustling, carnapping and other forms of lawlessness," the report read.

Sometime in 1999, Alonto was arrested by the police and military and was detained at the General Santos City jail on charges of kidnapping a certain Dr. Casalida in Digos, Davao del Sur in August 1999.

But on Nov. 7, 2000, MILF rebels raided the General Santos City jail to spring out Alonto, along with 67 other criminals, including convicted priest-killer Norberto Manero. Alonto has been in hiding since.

The heat is on

Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo told a group of visiting Japanese executives that she had shortened to six months the one-year deadline she gave Ebdane to eliminate kidnapping incidents in the country.

"I gave PNP chief Ebdane one year to eliminate kidnapping but I talked with him yesterday and he thinks it could be just six months," the President told executives of Toshiba Digital Network Co. led by their president Atsutoshi Nishida.

Mrs. Arroyo told her Japanese visitors the string of arrests made by the police and military was a result of the government’s resolve to curb criminality in the country and increase foreign investments.

In a briefing at Malacañang yesterday, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the President was also confident that Ebdane could fulfill his commitment of neutralizing some 21 kidnapping syndicates.

"This was after she consulted with (Ebdane) who has successfully chalked up several accomplishments, one after another. Out of the 21, I think they have effectively addressed five or six of these groups," Bunye said. - With reports from Non Alquitran, Marichu Villanueva, Edith Regalado, John Unson, John Paul Jubelag