Killing of Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc

Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc were film critics who were killed on 1 September 2009 in Quezon City, Philippines. The two had been living together as a couple prior to their deaths. Tioseco was a Filipino Canadian film critic and film professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific, recognized as an advocate of Southeast Asian cinema and described as one of Philippine cinema's most passionate champions. In 2005, the Philippine Star named him one of the most important young people in the Philippines for his efforts promoting national cinema. He was the editor of the Southeast Asian film journal Criticine. Bohinc was a Slovene film critic.

Tioseco was born in the Philippines but moved with his family to Canada in 1983, returning to the Philippines in 1996 to complete his college studies and work in the family business. He credited the Lav Diaz film Batang West Side with awakening his interest in Philippine cinema, and he founded the website criticine.com, which was described in Filmmaker magazine as an influential blog on Southeast Asian cinema. He contributed to publications including The Philippine Star, Screen International, Senses of Cinema, and UNO magazine, and served on juries at several international film festivals. Tioseco and Bohinc became romantic partners after meeting at the 2007 Rotterdam Film Festival, and Bohinc later moved to the Philippines to be with him.

On the night of 1 September 2009, Tioseco was killed at his Quezon City home in what was described as an apparent burglary staged by three armed men who fled the scene. He was 28 years old. Bohinc, who had moved to the Philippines to be with him, was also killed. Police at the time were investigating the possible participation of a stay-in housemaid recently hired by Tioseco, who had reportedly fled together with the suspects.

Tioseco was interred at his family's mausoleum in Angeles City.

On 26 February 2016, a woman accused in the murders was arrested in Angeles City. In May 2018, Criselda Dayag, formerly employed as the couple's housemaid, was convicted of robbery with homicide and sentenced to forty years' imprisonment.

This dossier is based on a Wikipedia summary of the case. Two additional sources referenced by that article — contemporaneous coverage from screendaily.com and a column published on rogue.ph — are included here as corroborating references cited by the underlying Wikipedia article, but their specific text was not independently reviewed for this dossier and no new facts have been drawn from them beyond what is stated in the primary source.