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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO and PRINCE GOLEZ
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Thursday, March 8, 2018
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ILOILO City – A complaint for slight physical injury was filed at the Iloilo City Prosecutor’s Office against the barangay captain of Libertad, Lapuz district for punching a newspaper columnist.
According to veteran journalist Herbert Vego who writes a column for this paper, sans any provocation from him Sumakwel Nava hit him twice on the face at Hotel del Rio yesterday around 9:30 a.m.
The 68-year-old Vego of Villa Carolina Subdivision, Arevalo district sustained bruises on the face. He was having coffee with a friend when Nava suddenly attacked him.
The barangay captain quickly left after the physical assault. He could not be reached for comment as of this writing but according to his son Councilor Plaridel Nava in a Facebook post yesterday, Vego owed his father money and failed to settle this “long-overdue debt.”
“Wala ko ‘ya utang sa ila (I don’t owe them money),” insisted Vego.
He said the attack on him happened following an exchange of posts with the city councilor on Facebook on Tuesday.
“I was surprised he (Barangay Captain Nava) punched me. He tried to beat me again but he was pacified by the waiters and his bodyguard. Some witnesses saw him holding on to something in his waistline,” said Vego.
FACEBOOK EXCHANGE
He believed Councilor Nava had told his barangay captain father – who is also a veteran radio and print journalist – about their exchanges on Facebook.
On Tuesday, a post of Nava accused some media practitioners in Iloilo City of “[making] a lot of money” from Cong. Jerry Treñas.
The congressman disclosed Friday last week he was considering running for mayor again in 2019 just 15 months after declaring he would quitting politics.
This disclosure piqued Councilor Nava who could be seeking a higher elective post in next year’s election. He accused the congressman of being a “traidor” (traitor) and on Facebook threatened to hit Treñas with a dos por dos.
Nava then turned to the “kotongs” in the Iloilo media. He blasted them for having “sold their poor souls to the number one grafter and drug protector.”
“Sayang ang respeto ko sa inyo. Just like Treñas, nami man kamo bakulon dos por dos,” Nava wrote.
Vego reacted with this post: “Marami nang nahawa sa kabastusan ni Digong. They are not tolerant of contrary opinions.”
In his “People Powwow” column in Panay News on March 6, Vego wrote: “…(S)o what if he is running for mayor? There is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits an outgoing congressman from seeking another post. If, as his critics insinuate, his constituents already dislike him because of ‘greed for power’ or whatever misdeeds he has done, why not let them junk him like a hot potato in 2019? Let the people – not any politician, political analyst, journalist or radio commentator – decide!”
‘WE’RE NOT DONE WITH VEGO’
The Navas shrugged off Vego’s slight physical injury complaint filed yesterday.
“Is that it? Bring it on. We are not worried,” according to Councilor Nava last night. “My father is already 77 years old. I bet Vego can’t put him behind bars.”
Besides, added the councilor, “We are not done with Vego.”
“Every time we chance upon him, expect that my father will still beat him black and blue. Vego should prepare hundreds of slight physical injury cases against my father,” said Councilor Nava, a lawyer by profession.
Most importantly, according to the councilor, “that case is dismissible.”
“Under the law, a case such as slight physical injury must pass through reconciliation proceedings with the lupon where the respondent resides. In this case, both Vego and my father are residents of Iloilo City, thus barangay proceedings is a must,” explained Nava.
‘NO TREÑAS STOOGE’
Vego said yesterday he never mentioned the Navas in his March 6 column.
“I never mentioned their names in my column. Abi nila maapin ako sa ila (because we’re friends) but I only write what my conscience tells me and there’s nothing wrong about it,” said Vego.
He denied being a Treñas stooge and said he “never received money” from the congressman.
Hours after his father attacked Vego, Councilor Nava posted on Facebook, “Mirisi. It will serve as an example to deter others from committing similar acts in the future.”
According to him, the older Nava “knocked down” Vego “with a combination of right straight and left hook.”
The councilor accused the veteran journalist of being a “PR man of Jerry ‘Traidor’ Treñas.”
Nava, however, apologized to businessman Alfonso Tan, owner of Hotel del Rio, for the incident on behalf of his father./PN
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