Rob gang member arrested in Mandaluyong

MANILA, Philippines - A member of a robbery group, who carries a P100,000 bounty on his head, was arrested in Mandaluyong City over the weekend.

Police said Aeron John Peñaflor did not resist arrest when cornered along Boni Avenue, Barangay San Jose at around 7 p.m. Saturday.

Peñaflor was nabbed on the strength of an arrest warrant for robbery issued by Judge Esteban Tacla Jr. of the Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court Branch 208.

He was a member of the Abraham-Katipunan-Añover syndicate believed to be behind the spate of robberies in the city and other parts of Metro Manila, Senior Superintendent Ronald Lee, head of the Intelligence Group (IG)’s counter intelligence division, said.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government had offered a P100,000 reward for Peñaflor’s capture.

IG director Chief Superintendent Fernando Mendez said the leader of the robbery group, Allen Abraham Añover, remains at large. Añover has four standing arrest warrants.

Mendez said other members of the gang had been arrested in separate police operations. They were Arjay Peñaflor, Christopher Barroga and Terry Joy Garcenilla.

According to Lee, Peñaflor’s arrest was part of the Philippine National Police’s Oplan Galugad project aimed at neutralizing wanted criminals in the metropolis prior to the visit of Pope Francis in January next year.

Police officers had placed Peñaflor under surveillance for two weeks with the help of an informant.