ZAMBOANGA CITY, 7 December 2005 — Troops in the southern Philippine yesterday recovered a wealthy farmowner who he escaped from his captors after two weeks of captivity, officials said.

Bravit Araral escaped from his abductors on a remote village called Baca in Datu Odin Sinsuat town of Maguindanao province.

“He was chained to a tree and he escaped while the guards were not watching. Troops tracking down the kidnappers spotted him and rescued him,” said Col. Felipe Tabas, the commander of a military anti-terrorist task force in Maguindanao.

Araral told the military that he ran for about 4 kilometers until he was spotted by soldiers.

He said his captors constantly moved him from one place to another to avoid detection by soldiers.

Troops got close into rescuing him after they pinpointed their hideout, but his captors fled with him before security forces could arrive. “There is an ongoing operation and troops, under Col. Julieto Ando, are hunting the kidnappers,” Tabas told Arab News.

The 60-year old Araral was kidnapped by suspected members of the Pentagon Gang on Nov. 21 while he was visiting his farm in the village of Beguer in Libungan town, North Cotabato province, said Gov. Emmanuel Piñol.

The gunmen flagged down Araral’s pickup truck near his farm and whisked him away. They originally demanded P5 million ransom from his family, but lowered this to P2 million. Piñol said the victim was brought to hospital for checkup. “We are glad this is over,” he said.

Authorities linked the Pentagon Gang in the series of kidnappings of foreigners and local traders in the southern Philippines.

The group also snatched five Chinese engineers working on a government irrigation project in Carmen town in North Cotabato province in 2001 and killed two of the hostages.

The United States listed the Pentagon Gang as a foreign terrorist organization and offered rewards for the capture of its leaders.

One of its leaders Nurham Amil, alias Commander Ramsey, was nabbed in September at an army checkpoint in the town of Leon Postigo in Zamboanga del Norte province.

Amil is tagged as among the country’s most wanted terrorist alongside with Khadaffy Janjalani, leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group.