Abra board member gunned down

BAGUIO CITY — Two motorcycle-riding men gunned down an Abra provincial board member while he was jogging in the capital town of Bangued before dawn last Friday.

Police said board member James Bersamin, who was turning 57 this coming week, was jogging along Rizal street together with several others when the motorcycle-riding men got near him.

Pat Bernardez, one of Bersamin’s jogging partners, said the triggerman, who was wearing a baseball cap and sporting long hair, fired a caliber .45 pistol but it jammed twice.

But determined to kill Bersamin, he even got closer and succeeded in his job, Bernardez said. Bersamin died from seven gunshot wounds.

Reports reaching Camp Crame said two suspects were arrested — Miseal Datoc, the alleged gunwielder, and Julie Aldapa, who was allegedly driving the motorcycle.

Senior Superintendent Eduardo Bayangos, CIDG-Cordillera director, said the two were arrested with the help of witnesses in a safehouse in Bangued.

Abra Gov. Vicente Valera condemned the killing, describing Bersamin as a "man of peace."

"We do not know of anyone who hated him," he said.

Valera suspects that someone wants to taint the image of Abra, which has bounced back from its being the "killing fields" of Northern Luzon.

Valera said they are at a loss as to why Bersamin, a close relative of Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin and a close political ally of the Valeras, was killed in such a manner.

Much as Valera and the whole officialdom of Abra want to order the police to investigate the killing, "we cannot direct them because until now our National Police Commission (Napolcom) deputation has not been restored," he said.

More than a year ago, Valera and all Abra mayors lost their control over local police units upon orders of then Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes following a series of apparent political killings in the northern province.

Valera bewailed that he and the mayors have been rendered "practically naked" in terms of administrative control over policemen and peace and order concerns in the province because the Napolcom has not restored this privilege.

"Imagine, I myself have no police escorts whenever I go around the hinterland towns for my usual tasks," he said.

Bersamin, whose term would expire in June next year, had no police escort when he was killed.

He was expected to run for a seat in the Bangued municipal council in the May 2007 elections. — With Jaime Laude