“I’ll be back.”
This was the parting message Mark Soque said to one of the women he allegedly raped after robbing their places of work in Quezon City, police said.
The 29-year-old man, who was arrested on Thursday not only for three rapes but also for eight robberies and the killing of a Korean woman, must be so confident he would never be caught that he didn’t bother to wear a mask during the attacks, a police official noted on Friday.
“He even threatened his rape victims before leaving them, saying, ‘I’ll be back,’” said Chief Insp. Rodelio Marcelo, head of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, quoting one of the victims who had positively identified the suspect.
His accomplice in the robberies—who remains at large—served as a lookout while Soque abused the women, he added.
The QCPD official said records pointed to Soque as a suspect in three other robberies last year, all in Antipolo City. One heist targeted a bakery where the three female workers were also molested.
Soque, a resident of Commonwealth, Quezon City, was also linked to the robbery of a Pizza Hut branch in Manila in 2012, Marcelo said.
He was arrested Thursday morning in front of Ever Gotesco mall on Commonwealth Avenue following a tip that he was again targeting a coffeeshop in the area.
The police on Friday were set to charge him for eight robberies in Quezon City, three rapes and the Feb. 9 killing of Mi-kyung Park, a Korean woman who walked into a coffee shop while a robbery was in progress and was shot in the head when she refused to give up her mobile phone. Rima Granali