“It’s a great loss.”

This is how film director Quark Henares summed up the untimely death of his friend, Filipino-Canadian film critic Alexis Tioseco.

Tioseco, 29, was found dead along with his lover, Slovenian freelance film journalist Nika Bohinc, last Sept. 1 in their Quezon City home.

Both died from bullet wounds -- apparent victims of a violent burglary.

“It was a shock actually. I heard the news and a common friend, Erwin (Romulo, writer) confirmed it,” Henares added.

Henares thinks the crime may have been an “inside job.”

“That’s as far as I heard from the house help,” he reasoned.

In a statement submitted to Quezon City police, household helper Magdalena Patpat said it was another maid, a new one, which she could only identify by the name “Criselda” who let three gunmen enter the couple's home on Time St., Barangay West Triangle, around 10 p.m.

Patpat told police investigators that the gunmen tied her, covered her mouth with a piece of cloth, and pushed her inside one of the rooms.

“The robbers actually waited for Alexis. I mean, I think they did ‘cause if it’s plain robbery, you would want to leave the crime scene as soon as you can but…they waited. They waited for at least an hour,” Henares said. 

According to the police, Tioseco and Bonhic were shot as they entered their house.

“The maid said she just heard shots, and from what I gathered, Alexis received eight shots. He even had one (gunshot) in his hand, as if he was trying to stop the bullet,” Henares said.

It was the driver of the couple’s neighbor who rushed to the barangay hall to report the shooting incident around 11 p.m.

According to the police, the driver said he heard at least four gunshots and screaming coming from the couple’s home, prompting him to ask for help.

The assailants escaped using the couple's white Ford Lynx with plate number CPW-329 bringing “Criselda” along with them.

The vehicle was recovered by police around 4 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3, along West Avenue, Quezon City.

Henares said he and his friends such as Romulo and director Lav Diaz are planning to do a tribute of sorts for Tioseco.

“Personally, I will be doing him a tribute every day by taking over his classes,” Henares said.

Tioseco is a faculty member of the arts department of the University Of Asia and the Pacific. He was also a writer, contributing for a magazine  and several local dailies.

He was also a contributor for foreign publications such as Screen International, Ekra, Panic, Senses of Cinema.com, Osian's Cinema.com, and catalogues of the Torino and Pesaro International Film Festivals.

Tioseco was also the founding editor of Criticine.com, a film critique site on Southeast Asian Cinema.

Bohinc was editor-in-chief of Ekran film magazine and a known personality in Slovenia’s film industry.

Bohinc was supposed to fly home to Slovenia on Sept. 2.

“Well, Alexis shouldn’t have been there in the house or in Manila, too, for that matter because his parents had asked him to move with them to Canada a few years ago,” Henares related.

“But Alexis refused to go to Canada. He said he wanted to stay put.”

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See also:

• Alexis and Nika, a love story cut short
• UAP teacher, partner killed during robbery