A female police officer who earlier claimed that she was on a tour of Clarin town, Bohol province, where government forces killed four Abu Sayyaf bandits on Saturday, was “sleeping with the enemy,” the Philippine National Police chief said on Monday.
PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa said Supt. Ma. Cristina Nobleza admitted that she and her driver, Abu Sayyaf member Rinierlo Dongon, who turned out to be her lover, were trying to help or rescue one of the bandits left on the island.
“She has admitted that they were going to help an alias Saad who was wounded. They were going to drop off some medicines. That’s according to her,” the PNP chief said.
Dela Rosa said Saad was not on the PNP list of casualties.
A band of bandits landed on the island two weeks ago from their stronghold in Basilan province on a kidnapping mission, but they were thwarted as the authorities learned about their presence in Inabanga town.
A series of skirmishes ensued and a number of the bandits were killed. Four bandits were killed in Inabanga on April 11 and four more on April 22 in neighboring Clarin town. At least three bandits are still believed to be on the run.
Dela Rosa said Saad was a close associate of Dongon and the late Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan.
President Duterte called the PNP chief on Monday afternoon and ordered him to make sure Nobleza was arrested and charged.
“He was very angry. You are a police superintendent but you are sleeping with the enemy,” Dela Rosa said.
He said Nobleza faced charges of illegal possession of firearms, harboring a criminal, and also a possible case of conspiracy to commit terrorism.
Nobleza, who was once assigned to Camp Crame before her transfer to Davao province, and Dongon were arrested after a chase as their vehicle did not stop at a police checkpoint in Clarin on Saturday night, Dela Rosa said.
The chase ended in Sitio Kabasakan in Barangay Bacani, about 150 meters from the cave where the remaining Abu Sayyaf bandits were hiding.
Dela Rosa said Nobleza, the deputy chief of the PNP Crime Laboratory in the Davao Region, and Dongon were lovers.
“I don’t know if they were living together but they fell in love with each other. (Nobleza) fell madly in love. She is sleeping with the enemy,” the PNP chief said.
Also caught in the vehicle was an elderly woman whose daughters were married to the late Malaysian terrorist Marwan; to the late Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani; to Abu Solaiman, who was linked to the 2004 SuperFerry bombing; and to Ahmad Santos, the founder of the Rajah Solaiman Movement, Dela Rosa said.
The fourth passenger of the vehicle was identified as the 13-year-old son of Ahmad Santos, now detained in Bicutan, Taguig City.
Nobleza joined the PNP in 1996 and was assigned to the PNP Crime Laboratory until 2004, according to sources. The following year, she joined the PNP’s antismuggling task force, its anti-illegal gambling special operations task force, and the Philippine Anti-Crime and Emergency Response unit.
From 2008 to 2011, Nobleza served as chief of the Intelligence Operation Division of the PNP’s Directorate for Intelligence.
In 2012, she was reassigned to the PNP Crime Laboratory and deployed to the Bicol region.
From 2013 to 2014, she was a member of the Intelligence Group, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Office of the Chief PNP.
Last year, she was assigned to the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group, which Mr. Duterte dismantled in February.
Dela Rosa said that Nobleza could not claim that she was doing intelligence work for the PNP when she was caught with Dongon.
“That is not sanctioned by the PNP. I must be informed (of such operations) and I did not sanction that.”
Pickup driven from Manila
The PNP chief said Nobleza was supposed to be in Camp Crame because she was attending a human resource management course.
“It’s not yet finished but we [learned] that her pickup was driven from Manila to Leyte and then skipped to Bohol,” he said.
Dela Rosa said Nobleza met Dongon in 2013 when she was a member of the PAOCC.
He said Nobleza interviewed Dongon, who was then under arrest after being caught with improvised explosive devices, guns and ammunition in Marawi.
“Then they let love begin. That’s where it started,” Dela Rosa said, adding that Nobleza later converted to Islam.
The PNP chief said Nobleza was married to a former police attaché to Pakistan but they were apparently estranged.
Asked if Nobleza and Dongon’s relationship was discovered then, Dela Rosa said: “It was monitored but at that time the PAOCC was directly under the Office of the President. They were off limits.”