Rob gang chief, 2 others nabbed in Quezon City

MANILA, Philippines — Three people with alleged links to a group involved in several robberies in Metro Manila were arrested in Quezon City yesterday.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde identified the suspects as John Christopher Liporada, 27, the alleged leader of the group; Jaimeson Zhang, 27; and Jonah Marie

Santos, 19.

Liporada and Zhang were cornered during a hot pursuit by police at the intersection of Road 10 and Mindanao Avenue in Barangay Project 6 at around 12:30 a.m.

Santos, meanwhile, was arrested in Barangay Bagong Pag-asa after the other two pointed to her as among their cohorts.

“The group is allegedly responsible for the series of heists in the metropolitan area and were planning to stage another robbery,”Albayalde said in a news briefing at Camp Crame.

Chief Superintendent Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, director of the National Capital Region Police Office, said the suspects and four other people robbed a restaurant in Barangay Ramon Magsaysay at around 12:05 a.m.

Seized from the suspects were a .38 caliber revolver, a 9mm pistol, a safety box containing P5,926, a coin purse with P121 and other personal belongings of their victims.

According to Eleazar, the suspects robbed a coffee shop in Caloocan City last month and a condominium building in Quezon City in March.