2 Britons face charges for Boracay slays

Two British nationals were included in the investigation being conducted by the police in connection with the gruesome murders of three foreigners and a Filipino maid in Boracay early this month.

Chief Superintendent George Aliño, Western Visayas Regional Police Chief, however, refused to confirm if Keith Redturn and Patrick Higgs will be included in the charge sheet for robbery with homicide filed with the local prosecutors last week.

Aliño told The Star in a telephone interview that Higgs and Redturn were only summoned for questioning to shed light in the incident.

"Charges have been filed. We have not made any recommendations for the amendment of the names of the accused. They were invited but they were not included in the filing of charges," said Aliño, who went to the island resort last weekend to supervise the developments in the case.

When pressed further, Aliño said it is not clear yet whether Higgs and Redturn would be charged along with Uwe Friezel and Chito Catalogo for the Boracay slays.

Friezel was charged as the primary accused in the killing of villa owner Anton Faustenhauser, Hong Kong gallery owner Manfred Schoeni, Hong Kong-based British architect John James Cowperthwaite, and housemaid Erma Sarmiento last May 3.

Also indicted for robbery with homicide were Chito Catalogo and three other John Does.

In indicting Friezel and his cohorts, the police used as scientific evidence a bloodied footprint found in a bathroom on the second floor where the bodies were found, that matched Friezels right footprint.

Other technical findings point to both Friezel and Catalogo as assailants. Evidence and other testimonies are still being collated to pin down the three other suspects, according to Superintendent Remus Canieso, head of police Task Force Anton.