LOS ANGELES – Two Filipino American brothers who were arrested by the Bureau of Immigration in the Philippines early this month will arrive here shortly to face a string of murder charges. The arrested fugitives are Marvin Mercado, 34, and brother Pierre, 33. Manila authorities said they were caught in their condominium unit in Quezon City after 10 years of hiding from federal and local authorities. Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said the two have been on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s wanted list since 1997 after they left the US to elude arrest and prosecution.

The US State Department had cancelled the US passports of the two fugitives, making them undocumented aliens automatically qualified for deportation. BI technical assistant for intelligence Victor Boco said they found that the brothers were both members of the notorious Asian Boyz gang in California and were described as “extremely violent” by US authorities for their alleged involvement in a series of gang-related murders there in 1995. BI records showed that the older Mercado arrived in Manila on June 12, 1996 while the younger brother arrived on April 12, 2000. The FBI said Marvin was charged with six counts of murder, 13 counts of attempted murder and four counts of conspiracy to commit murder with a firearm. He was allegedly involved in murder of two Hispanic gang members in Van Nuys, California where one of the victims was shot 43 times.

Pierre, on the other hand, is facing two counts of attempted murder, including a car-to-car shooting at a Los Angeles freeway.