Abra mayor shot dead

BANGUED, Abra — A young and outspoken municipal mayor of this northern province was gunned down Friday night while he was watching a basketball game at the town plaza.

La Paz Mayor Ysrael Bernos, Abra’s youngest mayor who was to turn 31 on March 21, was shot dead by a lone assailant at about 7 p.m., said his wife, Joy.

The basketball tournament was part of the town’s fiesta celebration so Bernos was excited about it and had been lax on his security, she added.

The gunman pumped from behind a caliber .45 bullet into Bernos’ head and fired two more shots in the air to cause a commotion.

Mrs. Bernos believes that the gunman had cohorts in the crime scene, saying that other gun-wielding men were heard cocking firearms before her husband fell.

Bernos, one of the two remaining opposition figures in Abra against the administration of Gov. Vicente Valera (the other being Lagayan Mayor Cecille Seares-Luna), was with two bodyguards from the PNP-Special Action Force when he was attacked.

Valera condemned the killing of Bernos, who, when he was alive, never minced words when he criticized the governor on the unstable peace and order situation in the province.

Bernos also took Valera to task for several unsolved killings in the province, including those of municipal mayors Jose Segundo of Tubo and Clarence Benwaren of Tineg four and three years ago, respectively.

"I am awaiting the results of the investigation as I have asked the authorities to bring the perpetrators of this dastardly act to justice," Valera said minutes after the news of Bernos’ gunslaying broke out.

Valera, who incidentally was one of Bernos’ wedding sponsors, brushed aside politics as behind the killing.

"He was never a threat to me as I never knew that he was to go (against) me," he said.

Mrs. Bernos, however, hinted that her husband’s killing might have something to do with his rumored plan to run against Valera in the 2007 elections.

Mrs. Bernos is a sister of Dominic Valera, who ran against the governor’s wife, Ma. Cita Claustro-Valera, for the mayorship of Bangued, the capital town.

Bernos and Luna had been vocal about their opposition to the Valeras.

Luna has filed a case against Gov. Valera in the Office of the Ombudsman in relation to a foiled slay attempt against her.

Luna alleged that Valera masterminded the slay attempt, something which the governor has denied.

"Politics here is dirty," said Mrs. Bernos, claiming that they have received reports that an eight-man hit squad was out on a mission to kill opposition mayors in the province.

Senior Superintendent Marvin Bolabola, Cordillera chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, went to Abra Saturday morning to personally supervise the investigation into Bernos’ killing.

Authorities were still in a quandary how the gunman managed to flee the crime scene without being confronted by law enforcers or even Bernos’ bodyguards.

"Sana sa mga nakakita ay tulungan kami (I hope those who witnessed it would help us)," said Mrs. Bernos, adding, though, that she was pessimistic that authorities could do anything.

"Wala din naman silang magagawa (They could not do anything, though)," she added.

Abra Rep. Chito Bersamin, provincial chairman of the Lakas-Christian, Muslim Democrats, also condemned Bernos’ killing, describing it as a "dastardly act that has dragged our province further down and away from investors’ sight."

Bersamin, however, declined to comment if politics could have tainted the killing.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes is planning to go to Abra today to personally hear the progress of the investigation.

Bernos’ father, Andit, who also served as La Paz mayor and later as Abra governor in 1982, survived an ambush in 1986.

His five-year-old brother Lino, however, was killed in that attack.

The Bernos couple has three children — Sandrine, 6; Joaquin, 5; and Juan Miguel, 2.

Bernos’ brother Joseph, the vice mayor of La Paz, will succeed him as mayor. — With Jaime Laude