Suspects in Bersamin slay tagged in mayor’s killing

The key suspects in the ambush-slay of Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin in Quezon City last Dec. 16, 2006 were also involved in the murder of a town mayor in Abra in 2005, police said yesterday.

Former La Paz vice mayor Freddie Dupo claimed that politics was also behind the killing of his political nemesis, La Paz mayor Mark Israel Bernos, in January 2006.

In his statement to police investigators, Dupo alleged that a political figure in Abra masterminded the murders of Bersamin and Bernos.

Investigators of the Quezon City Police District recently took Dupo’s statements on the Bersamin killing in his cell in Camp Crame.

However, in the course of the investigation, Dupo mentioned that Bersamin’s killers were also the ones who murdered Bernos.

But Chief Superintendent Eugene Martin, Cordillera police director, claimed they were not taking Dupo’s statements on the Bernos murder “hook, line and sinker.”

“We cannot say that the Bernos case is already solved because of Dupo’s declaration. We are still in the process of cross-checking that what he is telling is the truth,” Martin told The STAR.

Martin said Dupo and three others, his cousin, Sunny Taculao, former Army sergeant Salvador Barbosa, and Gerry Turqueza were charged for Bernos’ murder, with a warrant of arrest issued against them.

In his statement, Dupo claimed that the mastermind hired at least six hit men for the Bernos killing.

There were also several low-key personalities involved in the Bernos killing, one of them a certain Eguem, he claimed.

Dupo said he recommended to the mastermind that Barbosa be hired if the killing would be done in Manila.

According to Dupo, the “hit” squad followed Bernos wherever he went, even in a Manila hotel or Baguio City where, in one occasion, he was seen talking to a police general.

Bernos was watching a basketball game in the La Paz plaza as part of the fiesta celebration in January last year when a lone gunman attacked him, Martin said.

The mayor was shot in the back of the head and died on the spot.

Dupo was tagged as the primary suspect because he was a bitter political rival of Bernos.

Dupo, according to Martin, suspected that the Bernos camp was behind the failed ambush against him years back. Dupo was a former vice mayor of Bernos until their relationship turned sour.

While admitting his role in the Bersamin murder, Dupo, however, denied having a direct hand in the Bernos slay.

Despite his statements on the Bernos case, Martin said it was still too early to tap him as a witness in the La Paz mayor’s murder.