A woman believed to be the wife of Abu Sayyaf leader, Abu Sabaya, whose group is holding captive an American couple and 16 Filipinos in the south, was captured by a joint team of police and military in Manila, officials said yesterday.
Government agents captured Violeta Malikdan, said to be one of Sabaya's wives, last Friday in a room at the posh Manila Hotel, said the Philippine Army spokesman Col Jose Mabanta.
Authorities seized inside the woman's room a detailed road map of Manila and nearby areas where the United States embassy and several vital government installations, including a major petroleum depot in Pandacan district and the Philippine Central Bank compound, were marked in red.
Several bullets for a 9 mm automatic pistol and some $50,000 were also confiscated from Malikdan, Col Mabanta said.
Another official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Malikdan had been staying at the hotel for the past four months and had been paying her bills in dollars and rarely left her room.
She is believed to be part of an Abu Sayyaf cell operating in the Philippine capital.
It was still unknown how many there were in Malikdan's group, or if they were planning to carry out terror attacks against U.S. interests and government targets in Manila.
Abu Sayyaf leader's wife captured in Manila
A woman believed to be the wife of Abu Sayyaf leader, Abu Sabaya, whose group is holding captive an American couple and 16 Filipinos in the south, was captured by a joint team of police and military in Manila, officials said yesterday.
