Ex-soldier wanted for multiple murder shot dead in Iloilo

ILOILO CITY, Philippines—A former soldier wanted for killing three soldiers and wounding another inside Fort Bonifacio in 2009 was gunned down Friday morning in his hometown Tigbauan in Iloilo.

Supt. Gil Lebin, Iloilo police director, said former Sgt. Elias Tial died of three gunshot wounds after he fired at policemen and soldiers who came to arrest him at his hinterland hut in Barangay Danao in Tigbauan, 25 km south of Iloilo City.

Lebin said a combined team from the Philippine National Police and the Army’s 82nd Infantry Battalion went to Tial’s hut around 7:30 a.m. to serve a warrant of arrest for multiple murder.

Tial shot dead three of his superiors and wounded another when he went berserk at the soldiers’ quarters in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City in 2009.

He has been subject of a manhunt for the killings.

Tial was also facing a murder charge in the killing of an elderly woman in Tigbuan early this year, Lebin said.