MANILA, May 25 (AFP) - Philippine police have arrested a woman accused of stealing pension checks intended for war veterans, government television said Tuesday. The suspect, Mila Cahilum, was detained in connection with a wide-ranging investigation into fraudulent pension claims, it said, quoting Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado and Philippine Veterans Affairs Office chief Hector Villacorta. Criminal charges of robbery and extortion will be filed against her, Villacorta told the station. "I think she has contacts within" the veterans office which administers the 12 billion-peso (318,000-dollar) pension fund, Villacorta said. The inquiry was ordered by Mercado to root out unscrupulous people impersonating the wives of Filipino soldiers who fought Japanese troops in World War II and even passing themselves off as the widows of the revolutionaries who fought Spanish colonial rule at the turn of the century. Mercado has described the operation as "the grandmother of all scams." "I'm sure there are others that are happening but we put all those who are involved in this kind of scams on notice that we are going to bear down on you strongly," he told the station on Tuesday.  