By now, everyone following news of the Mark Dizon murder spree knows that he was captured with a slight struggle in the town square of San Fernando in the province of La Union. By bus, that’s about four hours north of here, Angeles City, where all the killing took place. Dizon’s father was afraid that his son would end up going down in a hail of gunfire and according to one account that is probably exactly what would have happened.
As previously arranged, the youthful looking killer came out into the San Fernando town square to meet his dad. Some news accounts state that Mark tried to pull a handgun once he realized that the meeting was a trick. Thankfully the police team was able to bring him under control before he could use it.
I did a search engine check using “Mark Dizon capture” and was amazed to see how worldwide the interest in this case has become. News groups from Australia, to Hong Kong, To England, to the US, to everywhere in between are reporting on the killings and on the capture of the killer. Its interesting to see how so many headlines are trumpeting how the Angeles City police were able to use Dizon’s Facebook account to identify him and his connections with the daughter of one of the men killed. It's as if Facebook singlehandedly brought a killer to justice. Sensational stuff.
I’ve got to give the AC cops some real credit for how they developed and followed their leads right to the killer. For the most part we who live here tend to think and say negative things about law enforcement. So far though, the way this case has progressed, its gone a long way in beginning to reverse some of that negativity.
In fact, I was so pleased with the outcome of the manhunt that I sent a congratulatory message to the mayor by way of his Facebook. I thought that was apropo considering Facebook is how they were able to crack the case wide open. Either the mayor or one of his staff even sent a response blurb:
Fil Spare July 28 at 12:03pm
Amazing job on the apprehension of Mark Dizon. Not just the foreign community, but everyone living here breathes a collective sigh of relief. Thanks Mayor!
Ed Pamintuan July 28 at 12:47pm Report
Mark dizon has been charged before the court with 5 counts of murder and robbery in angeles city. a separate case of illegal possession of firearms will soon be filed in san fernando city, la union. we did this because of the collective efforts of the city administration, the local police units and the local community, both locals and expats. with this kind of cooperation, angeles city will soon become a haven for foreigners, tourists, residents, retirees or visitors alike. thank you. let's continue to be vigilant.
I was actually quite impressed with Mayor Pamintuan’s response. The way he spreads the credit around to all who helped in bringing in the murderer, including his police, locals and expats shows real leadership. A horrible tragedy took place because of a narcissistic killer but perhaps something good can come out of the way we all came together to bring him to heel.
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I was shocked to see all the views of my blog post displaying the photos of the perpetrator. I don’t check my sitemeter all that often, but I decided to see if anyone was paying any attention to this particular post, and boy oh boy, are they ever!
I went to the sitemeter page showing the referral sites, and it’s obvious where all the traffic is coming from. The “PhilippinesPhil Mark Dizon photo spread” has been linked in the CNN world news site, The Huffington Post as well as in several popular blogs and other news sites from around the globe. With the way search engines work, which is to rack and stack by numbers of hits, after a site begins to build up a head of steam the hits become more and more. In other words, the more hits you get, the more hits you get.
To get an idea of this take a look at this graph from sitemeter showing page views for the month of July up until today, July 28, 2010:
As previously arranged, the youthful looking killer came out into the San Fernando town square to meet his dad. Some news accounts state that Mark tried to pull a handgun once he realized that the meeting was a trick. Thankfully the police team was able to bring him under control before he could use it.
I did a search engine check using “Mark Dizon capture” and was amazed to see how worldwide the interest in this case has become. News groups from Australia, to Hong Kong, To England, to the US, to everywhere in between are reporting on the killings and on the capture of the killer. Its interesting to see how so many headlines are trumpeting how the Angeles City police were able to use Dizon’s Facebook account to identify him and his connections with the daughter of one of the men killed. It's as if Facebook singlehandedly brought a killer to justice. Sensational stuff.
I’ve got to give the AC cops some real credit for how they developed and followed their leads right to the killer. For the most part we who live here tend to think and say negative things about law enforcement. So far though, the way this case has progressed, its gone a long way in beginning to reverse some of that negativity.
In fact, I was so pleased with the outcome of the manhunt that I sent a congratulatory message to the mayor by way of his Facebook. I thought that was apropo considering Facebook is how they were able to crack the case wide open. Either the mayor or one of his staff even sent a response blurb:
Fil Spare July 28 at 12:03pm
Amazing job on the apprehension of Mark Dizon. Not just the foreign community, but everyone living here breathes a collective sigh of relief. Thanks Mayor!
Ed Pamintuan July 28 at 12:47pm Report
Mark dizon has been charged before the court with 5 counts of murder and robbery in angeles city. a separate case of illegal possession of firearms will soon be filed in san fernando city, la union. we did this because of the collective efforts of the city administration, the local police units and the local community, both locals and expats. with this kind of cooperation, angeles city will soon become a haven for foreigners, tourists, residents, retirees or visitors alike. thank you. let's continue to be vigilant.
I was actually quite impressed with Mayor Pamintuan’s response. The way he spreads the credit around to all who helped in bringing in the murderer, including his police, locals and expats shows real leadership. A horrible tragedy took place because of a narcissistic killer but perhaps something good can come out of the way we all came together to bring him to heel.
_________________________________________________________________
I was shocked to see all the views of my blog post displaying the photos of the perpetrator. I don’t check my sitemeter all that often, but I decided to see if anyone was paying any attention to this particular post, and boy oh boy, are they ever!
I went to the sitemeter page showing the referral sites, and it’s obvious where all the traffic is coming from. The “PhilippinesPhil Mark Dizon photo spread” has been linked in the CNN world news site, The Huffington Post as well as in several popular blogs and other news sites from around the globe. With the way search engines work, which is to rack and stack by numbers of hits, after a site begins to build up a head of steam the hits become more and more. In other words, the more hits you get, the more hits you get.
To get an idea of this take a look at this graph from sitemeter showing page views for the month of July up until today, July 28, 2010:
As you can see, normally, I have a very small viewership, which is fine by me; I’m satisfied with the few readers that happen to come across my almost 400 posts. Over the last two days though, since posting Mark Dizon’s photos, which were sent to me by an anonymous source, the PhilippinesPhil site has received an unheard of number of viewer hits.
It will be nice if some of you who happened by my site this way continue to come back and read a few of my other posts, future and past. I think I have a unique way of describing what it is like to live here as a foreigner. Come on back and see.
It will be nice if some of you who happened by my site this way continue to come back and read a few of my other posts, future and past. I think I have a unique way of describing what it is like to live here as a foreigner. Come on back and see.
According to 
The poster I saw today that was delivered to my home, probably by subdivision security, states that there is a 100,000 peso reward leading to his capture. At the current rate that's almost $2200; big money for the average resident of this place.
I've also heard rumors that the reward may even be as high as 500,000 pesos. Now THAT just may bring some results; although, I'll believe when I see it.
When I first saw all these photos it was a bit of a hit to the gut. WHERE and HOW did this guy GET all these guns! Surely his family knew? With that wispy "teen" moustache and the "hard" look he effects in all the gun toting shots, in no way does he resemble the smiling fellow holding the baby. Truthfully though, looking at the way he mugs it up in these photos, he just seems like a wannabe to me, and after what he's done, he's turned out to be a desperate one at that. 
The photo above is particularly chilling since he's probably brandishing the gun and silencer that he used to kill Al Mitchell and four of the other souls that happened to be in his house that day.
This looks like an M-16 or an AR-15; regardless, its an assault weapon. Again, what is he doing with it? According to Harry, the police now have all these photos as well and when they saw them they took great interest in them. Did ONE man really have access to ALL these deadly weapons?! Supposedly its widely known that he was "deranged" in an aggressive way; why then was he allowed access to them? All rhetorical questions of course.
None of the folks that I've communicated with know yet much of the personal background on this guy, other than he claimed to be a computer repairman. In some of the photos such as the one above he poses in a very large garage with some relatively nice automobiles. Makes you wonder if they belong to his family or to his friends. I'm quite sure the police have noted the types of cars and probably already know where this was taken, because of course, the owner would know necessarily about the guns as well. I'm pretty sure that they are illegal for most people to own assault weapons.
Some of these cars are pretty cool and probably very unique as far as around here anyway. Geez, if these are his and or his family's cars, why would he want to get involved with all this gangster killer stuff? In some of the emails flying about and in the local reporting its been reported that he pawned a lot of items. That would indicate money problems. Is all this killing simply about money?
And yet another type of gun...
... and yet another! How DID this guy get like this?
This little miniature would sound like a loud popgun going off, and aimed pointblank directly into the head will kill just as lethally as a magnum or a baretta. Was this the gun he used to kill innocent people without neighbors noticing?
Interesting how the moustache shaved, a smaller smile and a slight change in hairstyle can make him look like an entirely different dude. All ye who live here, take note, take heed.
Here is a profile photo of him. In some of the reporting and mad emails furiously flying about its said he was offering himself out as a bodyguard. Was he trying to make a name for himself, is that why all the killing? Did he watch too many gangstah movies? I will bet that he has a grandiose concept of himself, a total narcissist. I wonder why no tattoos though? Anymore, especially in the US, guys are plastering themselves with those ridiculous things to show how tough and intimidating they are. Then again, tats aren't really that big over here yet. Anyway, the word is that his family is negotiating with the police for his surrender. I hope that is true and they aren't stalling for time while he makes a getaway to some distant province. As my buddy just emailed me: "Let's just wait and see how it pans out."