2 brods charged for Iloilo slays

ILOILO CITY — Police filed charges yesterday against two brothers aged 23 and 18 for the killing of their businessman-father, stepmother and half-sister last Monday.

The 6th Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) charged Archie Tan, 23, and his brother, John Michael, 18, sons of slain fertilizer trader Francisco Tan from his first marriage, with one count of parricide and two counts of murder in the Iloilo City prosecutor’s office.

The elder Tan, his second wife, Cynthia Marie, and their six-year-old daughter were found dead with multiple stab wounds inside the family residence in Molo district here Monday afternoon.

Archie and John Paul, who had just arrived home from late-night bar-hopping, were the ones who supposedly discovered the killings.

But Superintendent Renato Gumban, 6th CIDG chief, told The STAR that the results of forensic tests and circumstantial evidence point to the two brothers as the alleged killers.

"Hatred is the motive (behind) the killings," Gumban said, adding that Archie often argued with his father and stepmother over business matters.

"They killed them before they went out to party, which then served as an alibi that they were out of the house when the crime happened," he said.