Ex-Abra vice mayor nabbed for Bersamin slay
Another suspect in the murder of Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin Jr. in Quezon City last Dec. 16 was arrested Sunday by police authorities in Baras, Rizal.
Former La Paz vice mayor Freddie Dupo was collared by joint elements of the Cordillera police and Rizal Philippine National Police (PNP) as he was coming down from the mountain where he had gone into hiding after escaping the police dragnet during the arrest of fellow suspect Sonny Taculao last Friday.
A STAR source said Dupo did not resist arrest when cornered in Baras town at
“He was hungry and tired. He committed a grave mistake of going down the mountain, apparently thinking that policemen have stopped efforts to get him,” a police official told The STAR.
Dupo is scheduled to appear before PNP chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr. in a press briefing today at
In his confession before Cordillera police director Chief Superintendent Eugene Martin, Taculao said it was Dupo who brought him to their mountain lair in Baras town several days after the killing of Bersamin and his bodyguard, SPO1 Adelfo Ortega.
“Taculao has been very cooperative with us, he was the one who tipped off Dupo’s return in Rizal that’s why we were able to arrest him,” said Rizal Provincial Director Senior Superintendent Freddie Panen.
Panen, however, refused to identify the suspected mastermind pending investigation.
It was Dupo, according to Taculao, who acted as the middleman of his group with the mastermind in Bersamin’s slaying.
Dupo also gave him the P20,000 to purchase a motorcycle he used in shadowing Bersamin in Metro Manila.
The motorcycle, Taculao said, was registered in the name of Sgt. Rufino Panday, who confessed complicity in the killing but later retracted his statement.
Taculao pointed to a certain Gerry as the triggerman.
Martin ordered a massive manhunt against Gerry and other personalities identified by Taculao as cohorts in the ambush-slay of Bersamin.
Taculao said Dupo gave him P30,000 for his role as a lookout in Bersamin’s ambush-slay.
Dupo, Taculao and former Constable Salvador Barbosa were charged before the sala of Judge Lydia Barbosa of the
Armed with an arrest warrant issued by Barbosa, the Cordillera police and Rizal PNP swooped down on a hut in the mountains of Baras town and collared Taculao, who yielded a caliber .45 pistol.
Martin said Dupo was in the vicinity of the safehouse during the raid.
However, he escaped after seeing the approaching raiders.
Dupo is now undergoing tactical interrogation.
His confession and that of Taculao will be used in pinning down the mastermind in the murders of Bersamin and Ortega. – With reports from Ed Amoroso, Arnell Ozaeta
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