BY HERBERT VEGO
AS I WAS saying in a previous column, 77-year-old Sumakwel Nava and his bodyguard had escaped by the time two policemen arrived at Hotel del Rio’s coffee shop to arrest him Wednesday morning (March 7) for punching me on the face.
By then, most of the breakfast customers had scampered away, wondering whether the old man had gone mad. I comforted myself, contemplating the quotation, “If someone treats you bad, just remember that there is something wrong with him. Normal people don’t go around destroying other people.”
Accompanied by the police, fellow media men Ibrahim Calanao and Vicente “Danny Baby” Foz, I drove to the Molo Police Station (not Arevalo as previously stated) to have the freak crime recorded in the blotter. I said “freak” because the perpetuator is my kumpare, a barangay captain and a former broadcaster I had known for 36 years – hence unexpected to hurt an unprepared prey.
As a reader was asking, “Was he not your co-panelist in the cable TV show Reklamo Publiko?”
The Hotel del Rio people also came to the police station to report the same crime. It was not the first time that Nava had scandalized the hotel.
I moved on to the West Visayas State University Hospital for check-up and x-ray. Sorry, I must have annoyed some doctors and nurses due to broadcasters taking turns to interview me on the phone. Cherry Palma and her crew from ABS-CBN personally came. Whatever I had to say that morning would be aired on “TV Patrol” in the evening.
One of the questions she asked: “What could have prompted Sumakwel Nava to box you?”
It was not the “what” but the “who” that entered my mind, since it was his son Plaridel, an Iloilo City councilor, who had maligned me for writing a column (Panay News, March 6 issue) allegedly favorable to Cong. Jerry Treñas, hence unpalatable to the councilor.
On the air and on Facebook, Plaridel had threatened to beat Treñas with dos-por-dos for announcing that most barangay leaders would want him to run for mayor in 2019 despite his promise to quit politics.
I had written, “So what if he [Treñas] 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!”
Had I aped Plaridel’s line of thinking, then I would have demonized Treñas for changing his mind from “running” to “not running.” But what’s wrong with that? Everybody changes his mind.
From the hospital, I proceeded to the City Prosecutor’s Office, where a policeman and more colleagues from the media were waiting to see me file a case for slight physical injuries against Sumakwel Nava.
“Why not charge Nava with frustrated murder?” one of the radio reporters asked, adding that a hotel waiter claimed to have seen him holding what appeared to be a gun.
I could not, not until after the police would have acquired a copy of the CCTV footage showing Mac Nava brandishing a gun at the coffee shop.
So far, I haven’t heard Sumakwel Nava air his side. It was Plaridel whom I saw on TV lying that I had owed his dad P20,000.
If Plaridel Nava is the “trapo” now egging on Mayor Jose Espinosa III to break his time-tested alliance with Rep. Treñas, then Joe should remember the saying, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
