‘Bersamin slay suspects met in La Union resort’ to discuss assassination

CAMP DANGWA, Benguet -- The Cordillera police confirmed an arrested suspect, the alleged mastermind and other players in the gunslaying of Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin and his police bodyguard in Quezon City last Dec. 16 met in a beach resort in nearby La Union province days before the killing.

Chief Supt. Eugene Martin, Cordillera police director, said workers at the Nalinac beach resort in San Fernando City positively identified former La Paz vice mayor Freddie Dupo as one of the men who met in the resort days Bersamin and his bodyguard, SPO1 Adelfo Ortega, were gunned down in front of Mt. Carmel Church in Quezon City.

“My men presented the picture of Dupo to the workers of the beach resort and he positively identified as one of those in the meeting,” Martin told newsmen.

In his statement to police investigators, Dupo claimed he and the mastermind and other key players in the Bersamin killing met at a beach in La Union to discuss the “job.”

Martin dispatched Supt. Jess Cambay to the beach resort to verify Dupo’s revelation.

“The positive identification of Dupo showed that he is telling the truth. But we are still evaluating other important aspects of the case he revealed to our police investigators,” Martin said.

Cambay said the beach resort workers also described the men who met with Dupo, possibly including the mastermind and other political figures and other political figures in Abra who were linked by the former vice mayor to Bersamin’s murder.

“What we have is the picture of Dupo,” said Cambay. “We don’t have a hunch who was with him at the time.”

Cordillera police arrested Dupo and his cousin, Sunny Taculao, in the mountains of Baras, Rizal two months ago.

They yielded a Cal.45 automatic pistol, which the Philippine National Police crime laboratory found to be the same firearm used in the Bersamin killing.

Dupo earlier promised to reveal all he knew about the case but wanted the safety of his family to be guaranteed.

Meanwhile, Director Edgardo Doromal, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, scheduled the re-enactment of Bersamin’s slay last Nov. 30 but cancelled it at the last minute because of the takeover by renegade soldiers led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV of the Peninsula Manila hotel in Makati City.

Cambay said the re-enactment is necessary for police investigators to compare the physical evidence with the testimonies of their witnesses, including Dupo and Taculao.