Man in QC robbery video nabbed again

PAZCOGUIN QCPD Photo

A man who assaulted and robbed a female student in Quezon City last year was arrested again for allegedly attacking another student over the weekend.

In both cases, Gilbert Pazcoguin was tracked down with the help of a security camera video that captured the incident.

Pazcoguin, a 33-year-old resident of Antipolo City, was arrested Monday after Jethro Drey Andrew Delima, 18, identified him as one of the two motorcycle-riding men he encountered in Barangay (village) Sacred Heart the day before.

According to the Quezon City Police District, Delima was walking along Scout Fernandez Street around 2:30 p.m. when the two men stopped next to him. One of the men got off the bike and held Delima at gunpoint, taking the student’s cell phone worth P17,500.

Delima reported the incident to the police, who later obtained security camera footage from the barangay government. When shown the clip and the photos of known crime suspects, Delima positively identified Pazcoguin as one of the robbers.

Pazcoguin was arrested around 5 a.m. Monday at his neighborhood in Purok Silangan, Barangay De la Paz in Antipolo. His still-unidentified accomplice in Sunday’s robbery remains at large.

In September last year, Pazcoguin and another suspect, John Ralph de Guzman, were arrested in an operation by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police for robbing a ninth grader in Quezon City. The robbery was also caught on a security camera.

In the footage, which soon went viral, the girl was seen having a chat with friends on Scout Lozano, Barangay Laging Handa, when a man on a motorbike drove by the group and stopped at the corner of Scout Tobias. The police later identified the man as Pazcoguin.

The clip later showed another man—alleged to be De Guzman—walking past the group and suddenly lunging at the victim, pushing her against a wall and grabbing her phone. He was last seen joining and fleeing with the man on the motorcycle.

Pazcoguin and De Guzman were later arrested in a CIDG operation in Antipolo and charged in the Quezon City Regional Trial Bourt Branch 83.

According to CIDG spokesperson Chief Insp. Elizabeth Jasmin, Pazcoguin was able to post bail. “This latest incident (on Sunday) goes to show that he’s recidivist and the court should be informed of that,” Jasmin noted.

QCPD director Senior Supt. Joel Pagdilao urged past robbery victims, especially in the so-called “Scout” areas, to check if they were targeted by the same man.