Abra solon, cop-bodyguard gunned down at QC church

(2nd Update) Abra's lone district Representative Luis Bersamin Jr and his bodyguard were gunned down Saturday afternoon by one of the two motorcycle-riding assailants at the Mt. Carmel Church in New Manila, Quezon City, radio DZBB reported. The radio station's reporter said the attack took place around 5:30 p.m. when Bersamin, 62, and his security aide Senior Police Officer 1 Adolfo Ortega were walking toward their vehicle after attending the wedding of the lawmaker's niece. Bersamin and the bodyguard were shot twice in the head by a .45 caliber pistol. The lawmaker died on the spot, but the bodyguard was able to return fire before dying. Bersamin's driver, Allan Sumatan, was wounded in the leg as he traded shots with the gunman, who escaped on a motorcycle driven by another man. The report added that a 13-year-old boy was wounded in the leg by stray bullets. An hour after the shooting, police found the assailants' motorcycle abandoned on Balete Drive near the Aurora Boulevard intersection or almost a kilometer from the church. The attack came in the wake of claims by officials of an alleged plot to assassinate Rep. Prospero Nograles, majority leader of the House of Representatives, and the narrow escape from a car bombing of another congressman, Rep. Robert Jaworski Jr. Bersamin hailed from a province impacted by political violence for years. In early November, the lawmaker’s relative, Abra’s board member James Bersamin, was gunned down by motorcycle-riding men while he was jogging at the Abra town plaza. Luis Bersamin, first elected to the House in 2001, was serving his second term as lawmaker. Bersamin started his political career as mayor of Bangued, his hometown, where he was born on March 15, 1944. He served as officer-in-charge from June 1987 to March 1988. He was then elected Abra vice governor, serving from July 1998 to June 2001. Bersamin earned degrees in B.S. Psychology from the University of Santo Tomas and B.S. Commerce from the University of the East. He also had a post graduate degree at the Ateneo Business School. Before entering politics, Bersamin was manager of the Bangued branch of Allied Bank, where he worked from 1977 to 1985. — GMANews.TV