COTABATO CITY, 30 October — The leader of a kidnap gang being blamed for the abduction of a Catholic priest in Mindanao yesterday pointed to the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as the real kidnappers of the Italian missionary.
Faizal Marohombsar, leader of the "Pentagon" gang, told DXMY radio in Cotabato that Fr. Giuseppe Pierantoni was being held in the town of Pualas in Lanao del Sur province by an MILF special operations group.
Marohombsar identified the group holding Pierantoni are led by "commanders" Macaumbao and Ramzy, whom he said are both MILF battalion commanders in Lanao del Sur.
He said the MILF has raked in millions of pesos from its kidnap operations in Mindanao.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu, who had repeatedly denied kidnapping charges against his group, said he was not surprised by Marohombsar’s accusations.
"We have said before that the Pentagon was created by the military to discredit the MILF," he said.
He said there was no way the MILF would get involved in kidnapping because it is a revolutionary organization, "not a gang of bandits."
"Kidnapping is un-Islamic," said Kabalu, whose group with 12,500 fighters is negotiating with the government on an end to its fight for a separate Islamic state in Mindanao.
