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BANGKOK — Thai police have arrested the Philippines' most-wanted murder suspect, giving a grieving mother on Friday a long-awaited chance to confront the alleged killer of her two sons.

Jose Sarmiento Panlilio appeared Friday at Immigration Police headquarters in Bangkok, four days after he was arrested in the coastal city of Pattaya and seven years after the double slaying for which he is the prime suspect.

The 56-year-old has been charged by Philippine authorities with murdering two brothers—Albert Gutierrez and Ariel Real—and stealing 250,000 peso ($5,400) on July 15, 2003 in Calamba city in Laguna province south of the capital, Manila. He was believed to have fled the country immediately afterward.

The victims' mother was at the police station Friday. An emotional Carmencita De Castro told reporters she had been chasing Panlilio around the world since the killings and was grateful to Thai police.

"For almost seven years ... I have been in agony and pain working for the capture of this fugitive," De Castro said.

"In a short period of time, he was captured here. I don't know how I can thank these officers," she said, adding that she had spent about 1 million pesos ($21,500) in tracing Panlilio.

In Manila, Rolando Garcia, director of the Philippine Center for Transnational Crime, hailed Panlilio's arrest as "a good development" saying the suspect has been on Interpol's "red notice"—its highest-level alert for outstanding international arrest warrant—for a long time.

Garcia said Panlilio has been charged with robbery with homicide and he is not eligible for bail.

"The long arm of the law will catch up with anybody," he said. "The world is shrinking for fugitives because of international law enforcement cooperation."

Acting on a tip, Thai immigration police arrested the suspect—nicknamed "Bong"—at a jewelry company in the eastern province of Chonburi on Monday.

Charged with violating immigration law in Thailand, Panlilio will be issued a temporary passport and taken to his home country by the Philippines office of Interpol, said Pansak Kasemsant, deputy commissioner of the Thai Immigration Police.

Associated Press Writer Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report from Manila.