CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 25 February) — Combined police and Army mechanized troops arrested in Lanao del Norte on Sunday morning the wife of slain Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan, the target of the January 25, 2015 operations of the Special Action Force (SAF) in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.
Supt. Lemuel Gonda, spokesperson of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Region 10 said the PNP and Army team also arrested a police officer and two others in separate raids in the towns of Tubod and Baroy, Lanao del Norte.
Gonda identified those arrested as Juromee Dongon alias “Tata or Saynab,” wife of the slain Marwan; SPO4 Andy Ata and his wife Lorillie Dongon, the sister of Juromee, at Purok 5, Poblacion, in Tubod town.
Arrested in the neighboring town of Baroy was Romeo Dongon, father of Juromee and another sister, Norein Santos Dongon.
Before she was married to Marwan, Juromee, a “Balik Islam” (Muslim convert), was married to Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani, who was also killed by government troops in 2006.
Gonda said they were arrested on the strength of an arrest and search warrant for illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
Detonating cord, a grenade and the service firearm of SPO4 Ata, a Glock 9mm pistol with three magazines were seized by the raiding team.
Juromee was married to Southeast Asia’s most-wanted terrorist who was killed in January 2015 in Mamasapano town in Maguindano. Sixty-six others were killed that day in Mamasapano: 44 members of the PNP’s SAF, 17 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces and five civilians.
Senior Police Officer 2 Gerry Parami, duty officer at Tubod police station said Juromee has a small store selling dried fish and food stuff in Tubod.
Parami said they did not know Juromee was a wanted by the government for her past links with terrorists. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
