Cops file more raps vs Valera

Police filed yesterday new criminal and administrative charges against embattled Abra Gov. Vicente Valera as investigators also urged the Ombudsman to place the governor under preventive suspension in connection with the killing of Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin Jr. last Dec. 16 in Quezon City.

Senior Superintendent Eduardo Bayangos, chief of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)-Cordillera, said criminal charges were filed with the Abra prosecutor’s office against Valera and his political ally Lacub Mayor Cesar Baroña after members of Task Force Abra raided the houses of the governor and the mayor in Bangued last Dec. 22.

The police Traffic Management Group (TMG) also filed administrative charges against Valera for the unauthorized possession of firearms and failure to register his brand new sports utility vehicle (SUV).

The TMG also asked the Office of the Ombudsman to suspend Valera pending the outcome of the administrative case filed against the governor.

Bayangos said members of Task Force Abra, which was formed to help in the probe of the Bersamin case, seized from Valera’s house in Emerald Hills, barangay Lingtan, Bangued at least 26 pieces of 9 mm bullets, 16 caliber .30 bullets; 1 bullet of an M1 Garand rifle, one dynamite fuse; one cal. 22 rifle with scope, one air soft rifle, 6 automatic electric airguns.

Authorities seized at Mayor Baroña’s house in barangay Patucanay, also in Bangued some 16 pieces of 9 mm bullets, one M-16 rifle bullet, one empty magazine for a 9 mm pistol, and five sticks of explosives believed to be C-4 plastic bomb.

The raids at the houses of Valera and Barona were covered by search warrants issued by a Quezon City court.

TMG director Chief Superintendent Errol Pan said police filed administrative complaints at the office of Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno against Valera under the provisions of the Ombudsman Act of 1989 concerning the violation of the Anti-Carnapping Act of 1972 as well as the Local Government Code for the possession of unlicensed guns and possession of a hand grenade.

Pan said Valera’s failure to present registration documents of his newly purchased Chevrolet Suburban SUV could be considered a violation of the Anti-Carnapping Act.

Pan said the administrative charges are separate from the criminal charges earlier filed against Valera at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court.

Investigators gathered several pieces of evidence that would prove Valera’s administrative liability for failing to register his Chevrolet Suburban with conduction sticker ZU5599, being a public official who is supposed to abide by the law.

Pan said that the governor could be held liable as a public official for the illegal possession of two caliber .45 pistols and a hand grenade.

Meanwhile, Director Jesus Verzosa, the chief of Directorial Staff of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said Hergielyn Dimagiba, the "friend" of Valera who presented herself last Monday at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), would still be summoned by police investigators of Task Force Bersamin in connection with the killing of the congressman.

"Slowly, some persons are appearing in different government agencies, we are calling them to please report to the Task Force Bersamin tasked to investigate the killing of the congressman so that speculation will be prevented," said Verzosa.

Dimagiba, accompanied by her parents, went to the NBI and denied any "intimate relationship" with Valera, who was tagged as the mastermind in the murder of Bersamin.

Police said Dimagiba had accompanied Valera when the governor purchased his Chevrolet Suburban at the Juno Car Sales in Mandaluyong City two weeks before Bersamin’s murder.

Valera and several of his bodyguards were arrested by the TMG for traveling on board the Suburban with no license plate and with a siren last Dec. 29 along Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City. Several unregistered firearms were also seized from the vehicle.

The TMG later filed criminal charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against Valera. The governor posted bail for his temporary liberty. The Task Force Bersamin has also asked the Bureau of Immigration to issue a hold-departure order against Valera to prevent him from leaving the country.

The case against Valera for the murder of Bersamin was bolstered when former Army soldier Rufino Panday, a self-confessed lookout for Bersamin’s assailants, accused Valera of masterminding the murder and that the governor offered them P5 million for the job.

Panday also identified former vice mayor Freddie Dupo of La Paz, Abra, as the coordinator of assassination plot against Bersamin who was shot dead together with one of his bodyguards, last Dec. 16, 2006 at the Mt. Carmel Church in New Manila, Quezon City, where the congressman had just attended the wedding of his niece.

He said that Dupo provided funds and logistics to the 10-man assassination team, which carried out the attack.

Panday also told investigators that Dupo and Dimagiba accompanied Valera when he purchased the Suburban that was later intercepted by the TMG in Quezon City.

This developed as Benjie Panday, son of Panday, together with several relatives picketed the Quezon City Hall to seek the release of the former soldier.

Panday was scheduled to be arraigned at the sala of Judge Rossana Fe Romero Maglaya yesterday regarding the Bersamin murder, but Assistant Prosecutor Raymond Lledo filed a motion to consolidate the murder and frustrated murder charges filed against the suspects in the killings.

Maglaya approved the motion for consolidation of the charges. The judge also admonished the police for failing to turn over Panday to the Quezon City jail despite a commitment order she earlier issued.

Panday’s relatives had urged the police to transfer their relative from his detention cell at Camp Karingal in Quezon City to the city jail.

They claimed that Panday is suffering at Camp Karingal, but the relatives did not say if he was tortured.

The police said they would immediately comply with the court order to transfer Panday. - With Artemio Dumlao, Perseus Echeminada, Mike Frialde