Family driver sentenced to 8 years for robbing employer

MANILA, Philippines - A Muntinlupa City regional trial court sentenced a family driver from two to eight years in jail for robbing the house of his former employer in the upscale Ayala Alabang village in 2004.

Judge Myrna Quiambao of Branch 203 also ordered Jovel Gonzaga to pay Reynaldo Pascoguin P207,000 for the properties that he and his two alleged cohorts stole from the complainant.

Gonzaga, his brother Jerry and a certain Gerry Delantar (both at large) were initially charged with robbery with physical injuries for breaking into Pascoguin’s house and for stabbing and shooting the complainant and his family on June 6, 2004.

According to Pascoguin, he, his kids, wife, and mother-in-law, had just arrived home about 10 p.m. of the said date when an unidentified man hacked him near the master’s bedroom. The incident, he said, was witnessed by his daughter Trisha, who ran to her bedroom, and eldest son Royce, who hid with Pascoguin on the car parked outside the house. While the two were outside, someone from about 40 feet away shot but missed them – hitting the victims with bullet shrapnels.

The two cohorts of the unidentified man tried to escape as the victims were being shot. It was then when Pascoguin “was able to recognize one of them (as) the accused Jovel, the former driver.”

When the robbers left, Pascoguin looked for his wife Edwina and found her “bloodied and unconscious” in a nearby townhouse. His mother-in-law Nenita Biag bore stab wounds, and his son Renz was hit with a billiard stick on the head.

Jovel admitted being a driver to the Pascoguins from June 2003 to April 2004 but denied the accusations. He said he went home to Leyte after he was dismissed and stayed there for a year until the police arrested him in July 2005.

Quiambao, in her decision, said Jovel’s denial “cannot prevail in the face of positive identification made by Pascoguin.”

“Although Jovel has tried to demonstrate that he was far away in Leyte when the robbery happened...this court is not persuaded to such alibi much credence since it was uncorroborated and there was positive identification of Jovel as one of the robbers,” the decision read.

It was not explained, however, how Jerry and Delantar were identified as cohorts and who pinpointed them.

Quiambao also reduced the case to simple robbery after Pascoguin’s camp failed to provide proof to support that the violence resulted in serious physical injuries because none of the complainant’s relatives was presented in court to corroborate the statements.

At the same time, the judge said, the medico-legal officer who signed the family’s medical certificates did not testify in court.