‘Abra town mayor’s killers paid P3 M’
The suspects’ in the killing of a town mayor in Abra two years ago were paid P3 million by the mastermind, it was learned yesterday.
Former La Paz vice mayor Freddie Dupo said there are at least six suspects in the murder of 31-year-old La Paz mayor Mark Israel Bernos at the height of a basketball game during the town’s fiesta celebration on Jan. 13, 2006.
Dupo made the disclosure in the course of the investigation into the murder of Abra congressman Luis Bersamin in front of
He admitted that the suspects in the ambush-killings of Bersamin and his police escort, PO2 Adolfo Ortega, and Bernos were almost the same.
Police claimed that Bersamin and Bernos were killed because they were “threats” to a local political figure.
“Like Bersamin, Bernos, before his death, made it known in the whole province that he was bent on running for a higher position in Abra, so he was killed,” a police official said.
Earlier, Chief Superintendent Eugene Martin, Cordillera police director, claimed that Dupo, along with his cousin, Sunny Taculao, Sgt. Leandro Barbosa and Gerry Turqueza were charged for the murder of Bernos.
And like Martin, Bernos’ father, former Abra governor Andres Bernos, 70, claimed that Dupo is not telling the whole truth in his son’s murder.
“There is only 50 percent truth in his statement with regards to my son’s murder,” the elder Bernos told The STAR.
Based on his own investigation, Bernos claimed there were more than six people who were hired to kill his son.
“The amount involved was more than P5 million because there were so many players in the murder and the way they operated involved a lot of people,” he said.
The elder Bernos said his son was informed by his close friends of the threat to his life but he deliberately ignored them.
He, however, said that he is satisfied with the police investigation into his son’s killing.
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