ABC on the Slaying of Congressman Luis “Chito” Bersamin
December 22, 2006
While the rest of the Filipino people knew the motive behind the slaying of Congressman Luis Bersamin Jr. in Quezon City, last Saturday, December 16, 2006, the psychotic Gonzales duo are pointing their fingers to the New People's Army (NPA). Raul and Norberto Gonzales are crazed with their anti-communist witch-hunting that they cannot distinguish reality from their hallucinations
True, unlike most Abra warlords, Congressman Luis Bersamin Jr. maintained a low profile image in the bloody warlord rampage in the province. He maintained a small private armed group and seldom did he have bodyguards, compared to the huge armed force that typical Abra warlords maintain. But contrary to what is being projected, Congressman Luis Bersamin Jr. is not all clean and good. It is common knowledge in Abra that he is a “doble-kara”, maintaining linkages with the 2 main warring warlord camps in Abra – while formally in Gov. Vicente Valera's camp, he maintains political and close personal linkages with the Luna's, Bernos' and Benwaren's. He is a gambling buddy of warlords and of PNP Col. Eugene Martin.
It was not typical for Congressman Bersamin to be overly concerned with local issues, as he is more concerned with national legislation. But he made special exception about the issue of the Abra River Irrigator’s Association (ARIA), where he directly involved himself in what was deemed as internal matters for the association. His interest on the issue is not simple humanitarian, or political; it was also economic and, political survival. The internal contradictions in ARIA are mainly due to funds and equipment plundered by officers in cahoots with certain local government officials; ARIA also became a convenient conduit in the liquidation of PDAF projects, supposedly allocated for the people of Abra. The conspiracy in the November 29, 2005 brutal slaying of Albert Terredano, a human rights advocate, peasant organizer, and a government employee, involved the AFP/PNP intelligence community, local warlords, and certain ARIA officers.
Congressman Bersamin is also a rabid pro-GMA personality, and as such, supported the immoral Cha-cha initiatives of the Majority in the Lower House of the Congress. Like every warlord in Abra, he was willing to support a rotten regime, so long as he benefits from the relationship, and until such time that the regime is able to maintain its failing grip to power.
Abra warlordism caught national attention due to its brutality, indiscriminateness, and resilience despite alleged efforts of the national government, PNP and AFP to crush it. Congressman Luis “Chito” Bersamin is the latest high-profile victim of warlordism, and he is surely not the last. “Doble-kara’s” like him are prone to elimination by his incumbent liaisons, and his future associates. Other possible, though secondary motives, are personal contradictions and vendetta.
But Abra politics is a mere microcosm of the worsening national crisis. Political assasinations of bureaucrats and political killings of activists, media and church people abound and have increased unprecedentedly during the reign of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. To institute decisive and strategic changes in Abra necessitates overhauling the entire rotten system by waging a National Democratic Revolution. Only then can true justice be served to victims of warlordism and state terrorism.
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