MANILA: Philippine police on Wednesday said they used Facebook to track down a Filipino computer technician blamed for the gruesome murders of nine people, three of them foreigners.

The suspect, Mark Dizon, 28, was captured by police Tuesday in San Fernando City north of Manila after his father, fearful that his son would be killed in a gunbattle, arranged to meet him.

Dizon was initially identified by witnesses through his Facebook account, where police found out that a daughter of one of the victims was an ex-girlfriend.

"He had an account on Faceboook and two witnesses positively identified him," Senior Superintendent Danilo Bautista, chief of police of nearby Angeles city where the murders took place, told AFP.

"He did not brag about the killings on Facebook, but we found out that a daughter of Albert Mitchell was a former girlfriend."

He said Dizon apparently closed his Facebook account recently after sensing police were on his heels, but two witnesses had already positively identified him using his profile picture.

The suspect tried to pull out a gun when police pounced on him Tuesday, but he was quickly subdued, Bautista said.

Dizon is suspected of killing American Albert Mitchell, 70, Briton James Porter, 51, and Canadian Geoffrey Bennun, 60, their three Filipina partners and three Filipino domestic helpers in separate attacks in Angeles this month.

All the men were retirees and lived in separate gated communities that are popular with foreigners in Angeles, which lies outside a sprawling former US airbase, Bautista said.

The good-looking Dizon allegedly befriended the victims first to gain their trust, allowing him to go into their homes freely on the pretense of fixing their computers, Bautista said.

He then allegedly attacked them using a 9mm pistol, and robbed them of valuables including electronic gadgets which he then pawned.

Murder charges will be filed against Dizon later Wednesday, Bautista said.

"We have an air tight case against him. I believe it is ironclad," he said.


BDST: 1005 HRS, July 28, 2010