A Filipino murder suspect who lived in the Bay Area has been deported back to the Philippines.

Ezra Dave Maling, a Philippine national and fugitive, was accused by Philippine officials of strangling his partner, Rebeny Vergara, to death in March 2003.

Shortly after, Maling fled to the United States and obtained a religious visa through the Bay International Church in Hayward, California for which he worked as a musical director. 

According to the Internet Movie Database, Maling worked on the soundtrack for the 2003 Filipino movie “Ngayong nandito ka.”

Maling was arrested in 2015 after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was notified of an arrest warrant for Maling (The DHS had received the warrant in 2011). He was arrested for violations of federal law relating to immigration fraud and was later ordered for deportations by an immigration judge.

After his deportation on May 14, Maling is currently in the custody of the Philippine Bureau of Immigration and the Philippine National Police. (Klarize Medenilla/AJPress)