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November 21, 2005
Philippines: Farm Owner Abducted By Notorious Muslim Kidnap Gang
On the island of Mindanao, a wealthy farm owner has been kidnapped today in the province of North Cotabato, according to the Sun Star.
At 7.45 am local time, Engineer Bravit Araral was taken from the village of Baguer in Libungan town by armed men, assumed to be members of the Pentagon Gang, a Muslim group who specialise in banditry and terrorism for financial gain. 60-year old Araral was in his pick-up truck when he was flaged down, and then abducted.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is engaged in peace talks with the Philippines government, have agreed to assist in tracking the whereabouts of Mr Araral and the Pentagon members.
So far there have been no requests for ransom. Mostly the Pentagon Gang require money for their victims' release. The group is on a US list of foreign terror organisations. Their base is within the Liguasan Marsh.
The Pentagon gang was founded by former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) leader Faizal Marohombsar (pictured, left) in the late 1980s, who was implicated in various abductions, at least 50 of which were in southern and central Mindanao.
Marohombsar became something of a criminal celebrity after he was arrested in February 2002 but escaped from custody in Manila on 19 June. He was killed in a shootout in August 2002 in Magellanes, 40 miles south of the capital, Manila.
A comprehensive account of the Pentagon Group and its activities can be found in the account by Luz Rimban in Public Eye Journal.
The group was also behind the abduction of five Chinese engineers in Carmen town, North Cotabato in 2001. Two of their hostages were killed.
Another notorious event in the group's history was the kidnapping of Italian priest Giuseppe Pierantoni in Zamboanga del Sur province. Pierantoni (pictured), who was the parish priest of Bimatiling, who was held for six months before his release in April 2002. His ransom was paid by private investigators.
The Pentagon Gang is not as well-organised as others in the region. The Abu Sayyaf group are far better organised, though they too have been criticised for haphazard banditry techniques. Abu Sayyaf is becoming more organised through its associations with Jemaah Islamiyah.
An account of an inefficient kidnapping by the Pentagon Gang can be found here. In November 2003, the group tried to capture wealthy Filipino American Michael Escanlar, a 25-year old who had just won the lottery and was on vacation. He had three "minders". These managed to protect Escanlar from the Pentagon Gang, but became kidnapped themselves. The three escorts managed to make their own escape when their kidnappers were inside a mosque praying. The ransom money went from 50 milion pesos down to 1.5 million, but in this instance the group got nothing.
UPDATE: Bravit Araral escaped from his captors about two weeks into his kidnapping. He was found by police on Tuesday December 6. He had been chained to a tree in a remote village called Baca in Daru O Din Sinsuat town in the province of Maguindanao in the west of Mindanao, state Sun-Star News.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 21, 2005 2:33 PM
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