Foreign filmmakers killed in Quezon City

MANILA, Philippines - Two foreign independent filmmakers who chanced upon armed robbers when they arrived home Tuesday night were killed by the burglars, who gained entry into the residence suspected to be through connivance with the victims’ housemaid.

Victims were Canadian Alexis Tioseco, 29, and his live-in-partner Slovenian Nica Bohinc, 30, both died on the spot after they were gunned down inside their house at 39 Times Street in Barangay West Triangle.

Chief Inspector Benjamin Elenzano, head of the homicide investigation section of the Quezon City Police District, said the two victims were independent filmmakers.  

Internet information showed Tioseco was a faculty member at the Arts Department of the University of Asia and the Pacific.  Bohinc, meanwhile, was a freelance film journalist and programmer who worked as European Content Provider for SEA Images.

Elenzano said that they are now locating the couple’s new helper identified only as a certain Criselda, 46, and the three male suspects involved in the robbery-homicide case.

The police official said that the suspects took off aboard the couple’s Ford Lynx (CPW-329) and still undetermined types and amount of valuables from the house.

Magdalena Patpat, who has been working as a maid for the couple for three years, told policemen that Criselda has been working for the couple for a month after a friend recommended the suspect to her.

At around 10:40 p.m. on Tuesday, Patpat was watching television when Criselda asked permission to go out to a store. Criselda then returned accompanied by three armed men who hogtied and gagged her before she was locked up inside the maid’s quarters.

The couple then arrived at the house, causing a commotion, followed by gunshots. The suspects fled the house aboard the couple’s Ford Lynx which was later found abandoned along West Avenue that same night.