Fluent English speaker but bungling robber

Mary Rhoscelyn Torres photo: KRISTINE FELISSE MANGUNAY

It was her word against that of a taxi cab driver and even the San Juan City police found it hard to believe that an obviously educated young woman who spoke fluent English and sported long hair and manicured nails would rob the complainant of his earnings at knife-point.

However, when the police searched her bag upon the urging of the taxi driver, Demetrio Rabago, they found a knife in it, leading them to file robbery charges against Mary Rhoscelyn Torres on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old Torres, a college graduate and former call center agent, told the Inquirer that she had planned on robbing Rabago when she got into his taxi cab on Monday afternoon but she changed her mind at the last minute because she was “bothered by her conscience.”

The police report said Torres was a call center agent. She confirmed this but said that after working for the company for five years, she was fired last week.

In an interview, Rabago said he picked up Torres near Balintawak, Quezon City, and she asked him to take her to Broadway.

“I didn’t think she was dangerous. She was wearing a call center ID and looked really young,” he added.

Upon reaching Broadway though, Rabago said Torres asked him to go around the area. When they got to J. Ruiz Street in San Juan, she suddenly grabbed him from behind, pointed a kitchen knife to his neck and declared a holdup, he told the police.

Rabago added that Torres forcibly took the P500 (five P100 bills) he had in his shirt pocket. “And then she got off the taxi and ran,” he said.

Rabago, however, went after her and following what he said was a 10-minute chase, he managed to corner her before she reached N. Domingo Street.

SPO1 Marcelo Mariñas, who is assigned at Bicutan, happened to be in the area and arrested Torres.

“At first, even the [police] officer could not believe she had pointed a knife at me and held me up but I told him to check her bag where the knife was,” Rabago said.

Torres was taken to the San Juan City Police headquarters where she was detained.

She told the Inquirer in very fluent English that Rabago began shouting for help only because he saw the knife she was holding as she got off his taxi cab.

“You can check the knife [yourself]. It wasn’t a knife that could kill,” she said, adding she found the “bread knife” on the sidewalk.

Asked about her motive, Torres, who said she had been living on her own without any support from her parents—reportedly a jobless man and an overseas Filipino worker in Canada—claimed she had a “blackout.”

She added that she was under a lot of pressure to come up with money to pay for the apartment she was renting in Valenzuela City because she was about to be evicted.

While she had been working as a call center agent since she was 21, Torres said she was fired by her employer last week after her “account was dissolved.”

The Inquirer also chanced upon a man who identified himself as Torres’ father although he declined to give his name.

Contrary to his daughter’s claim that he was unemployed, the man said he was running a small business. He refused to give any further comment.