5 Salisi Gang members nabbed in Cebu City

CEBU CITY – Five alleged members of the Salisi Gang were arrested after they victimized at least three people inside a mall at the South Road Properties here. Police identified the suspects as Jessica Santos Sarco, 35; Mark Anthony Balan, 30; Mark Anthony Aragosa, 26; Jerico Sarco, 24, and Marichar Parindol, 42. Jessica, Jerico, and Balan are from Bulacan, while Parindol and Aragosa are from Cavite, police said. Police Major Jonathan Bethoveen Taneo, chief of the Mambaling Police Station, said one of the persons that the group victimized last Tuesday, August 1, was retired Judge Silvestre Maamo Jr., 69. Taneo said Maamo lost his bag that he left on a chair while he was buying water at the counter of a restaurant. He  said that luckily, the bag only contained documents. Also on Tuesday, another mallgoer, Sebastian Seth Flaso, complained that he lost his bag containing cell phone worth and P550 cash while he was playing in an amusement center. Last Wednesday, August 2, 41-year-old Geraldine Micollar lost her cell phone worth P17,000 while she was in the mall. She told police that someone approached her and asked for directions. Micollar said she later discovered that her bag was missing shortly after the woman left. When Micollar reported to the mall management, security officers checked the mall’s CCTVs and tracked down the suspected thieves. Mall security officers then sought help from the Mambaling police that led to the arrest of the suspects. Police said the suspects stayed in a boarding house in Barangay Carreta here when they arrived in the city last month.