It’s been two years since film critics Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc have been murdered but authorities are nowhere near the resolution of the case.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) which is now leading the investigation has pointed to the couple’s housemaid Criselda Dayag as the only suspect positively identified by a witness.
Family and friends of the two victims have raised PhP1 million reward for information that would lead to the arrest of Dayag.
Last August 26, the couple’s family and friends went to NBI to announce the bounty for Dayag.
The forty five year-old maid was the one who opened the door for three men to do the heist inside Tioseco’s house on Times Street in West Triangle, Quezon City.
Once inside, the men waited for more than two hours for the couple to arrive. When they arrived, the men shot the Filipino-Canadian and his Slovenian girlfriend several times at close range, looted the house, and then escaped using Tioseco’s own car.
Here is the official statement of the Tioseco family on the occasion of the 2nd death anniversary of Alexis and Nika Bohinc:
“We, the Tioseco family, are appealing to the authorities for help with the investigation of the murders of Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc. It’s been exactly one year since my brother, Alexis and his Nika were savagely murdered here in our home, which has been with our family for more than thirty years.
It has been a year of no answers. More so, it has been a year with even more questions.
While the police have filed a case for robbery with homicide, many questions remain: who planned and ordered the killings? who paid the killers? Why did they want Alexis and Nika dead? There has been no thorough investigation nor has there been any significant movement on the case. It was only last month that the warrant for the alleged accomplice, Criselda Dayag, was issued by the Quezon City courts. To this day, it has not been implemented and the woman remains at large.
For the past 12 months, the family and friends, together with our lawyer, Theodore Te, explained the case and appealed for help from the appropriate authorities. Despite this, nothing has happened…
…We appeal to the current administration, whom we believe is sincere and steadfast in its aims of making a better and safer Philippines. We know this because we have been neighbors with the Aquino family for the last three decades. Their house is only 8 doors down from where we are tonight. We believe in President Noynoy Aquino as much as we believed in his mother, Cory, whose death last year greatly affected Alexis.
We pray that not another year goes by with still no answers or movement on the murder of my brother and Nika. We implore the authorities to act on the warrant of arrest for Criselda Dayag that was issued. It is a crucial first step, but it is still, only, a first step. There are still leads that haven’t been explored, and many questions yet to be answered. We understand that it won’t be easy, but we will not settle for anything less than a thorough and exacting investigation. How can we not strive for justice for my brother and Nika, who died with the love of this country in their hearts?
We hope that justice will soon be served.
God bless the Philippines.”
