NPA leader’s wife arrested in Iloilo; military on alert

The Philippine National Police (PNP) said the Panay Island operations of the New People’s Army (NPA) suffered a big blow following the arrest of the wife of a ranking NPA leader.

Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, director of the Western Visayas regional police, said they are also ready for the possible retaliatory attacks by the communist rebels following the arrest of Maria Theresa Drilon Cabales.

"I have already ordered all police commanders to be on alert against possible retaliatory attacks since the person arrested is a wife of a top rebel leader in the region," Bulalacao told the Manila Bulletin.

Cabales, wife of Central Front Committee secretary Roberto Cabales, was collared by joint police and military intelligence operatives on Friday in Barangay Timawa in Molo District, Iloilo City.

“Her arrest has caused a big dent for the party committee and their overall activities are affected since she is holding a sensitive position being a medical staff and as a liaison who is providing financial and medical support to the party members who were hospitalized,” said Bulalacao.

The operation to arrest Cabales was hatched when the intelligence community got hold of information that she was spotted in Molo, Iloilo City.

Armed with an arrest warrant issued by a court in Capiz for rebellion, security officers arrested Cabales when they chanced upon her crossing a street in Barangay Timawa.

The rebellion case was in connection with the attack on soldiers in Barangay Tacayan in Tapaz, Capiz last year that resulted in the death of a Philippine Army soldier and wounding of two others.

Bulalacao said a background check revealed that Cabales is a member of the Regional Medical Staff of communist rebels operating in Panay who is in charge of medical training and medical support and different front committees in Western Visayas.

“She was a former Catholic Youth leader in the early 1980s and became the organizer of the Basic Christian Community in Negros Occidental,” said Bulalacao.

Cabales, the police said, is a native of Bacolod City.