Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 27) — Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald Dela Rosa says slain Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli Bin Hir, aka Marwan, had officiated the marriage of Supt. Maria Cristina Nobleza and Abu Sayyaf Reneer Lou Dongon.
Dela Rosa said on Thursday Nobleza disclosed she was married to Dongon — also a bomb expert — through Muslim rites, as her marriage with Senior Supt. Alan Nobleza had been annulled in 2010.
Dongon is the brother-in-law of Marwan, who was killed in the Mamasapano operation in 2015.
The PNP Chief added that Nobleza claimed she was a deep penetration agent working for the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), so she was allegedly spying on the Abu Sayyaf to gather information for the government.
Dela Rosa said Nobleza was helping Dongon rescue another ASG member in Bohol known as “saad.”
The ploy was to help Dongon regain his stature in the organization, after which Nobleza claimed she would then be able to get more information from the group.
However, the police chief said he was still not satisfied with her excuses, as he deemed Nobleza was not telling everything to the police.
“So far, lahat ng pinagsasasabi niya, we consider it her own version. Ngayon, tinatanggap namin, but still, ine-evaluate namin, and we will not be fooled by any attempt to fool us,” Dela Rosa said. “Meron na rin kaming alam na hindi niya alam.”
[Translation: So far, we consider everything she says as her own version. We accept it for now, but we still evaluate them, and we will not be fooled by any attempt to fool us. We known something that she doesn’t.]
Dela Rosa asked why there was no concept of operation for the mission if Nobleza was really doing intelligence work.
He added the PNP was still verifying with former PAOCC officers whether Nobleza’s story was true or not.
Nobleza and Dongon were captured on Saturday as they tried to drive past a police checkpoint in Clarin, Bohol, around the time when police and military teams were pursuing remnants of the bandit group in the province.
