Suspect in killing of Australian couple in the Phillippines surrenders to police

The man was seen on hotel security cameras walking out of the victims' room a few hours before their bodies were discovered.

The suspect surrendered on Wednesday. Source: AP / Aaron Favila

The suspect in the killings of two Australians and their Filipina companion last week at a hotel in a popular resort city south of the Philippine capital has surrendered, officials say.

Police said the man was a former hotel pool cleaner who wanted revenge for his dismissal.

The bodies of the victims, whose hands and feet were tied, were found sprawled on the floor in a room at the Lake Hotel in Tagaytay City a week ago.

The victims were identified as David James Fisk, 57, and his wife Lucita Barquin Cortez, 55, a Philippine-born Australian citizen.

Lucita Barquin Cortez and David James Fisk had flown from Sydney to Bali for a holiday and were taking a short break in the Philippines before returning to Australia. Credit: Supplied

Tagaytay police chief Charles Daven Capagcuan told the Associated Press that the breakthrough in the week-old case came when at least three hotel employees identified the suspect based on his image, captured by security cameras showing a part of his masked face.

The identification of the suspect eventually led to his home province of Batangas near Tagaytay where he decided to surrender, Capagcuan said.

Tagaytay mayor Abraham Tolentino and Capagcuan presented the handcuffed suspect, wearing a hoodie, dark eyeglasses and a face mask, at a news conference. The man's name was not announced.

Officials planned to file criminal complaints of robbery in addition to the killings against the suspect, who allegedly acknowledged he took the watch and shoes of the Australian man after attacking him with a knife and suffocating his partner, and her Filipina daughter-in-law, Capagcuan said.