By CALVIN CORDOVA
CEBU CITY – The mayor of Clarin, Misamis Occidental was shot dead while being transported by the police to the fiscal’s office to undergo an inquest proceeding here yesterday.
Mayor David Navarro was arrested at the Mactan Cebu International Airport last Thursday afternoon for charges of slight physical injury and acts of lasciviousness.
The arrest took place a day after he allegedly assaulted a male massage parlor attendant and sexually harassed a female therapist.
The incident happened shortly before midnight last Wednesday at a massage parlor located inside a hotel on Fuente Osmeña, this city.
Navarro was aboard a police vehicle accompanied by four policemen, including the chief of the Clarin police.
The daring attack happened at around 2:20 p.m. on Velez St. in Barangay Guadalupe, about 100 meters from the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office.
Witnesses said that as the police vehicle carrying the mayor was about to turn left, a white van from the opposite
lane blocked its path.
Four mask-wearing men carrying long firearms got off the van and fired shots to ground.
The armed men pointed their firearms at the police escort before one of them yanked Navarro out of the vehicle and repeatedly shot him.
The assailants also fired shots at a Hyundai Starex van carrying the mayor’s relatives who accompanied him to the fiscal’s office.
The assailants drove off after the attack, leaving the bloodied mayor slumped on the ground.
The chief of the Clarin police, who was not immediately identified, and Police Corporal Eutemio Catalan, investigator of the Abellana police station here, were wounded in the incident.
Two passengers of the Starex van were also wounded and were rushed to the hospital Navarro was included in the list of narco-politicians that President Duterte released in March 2019.
The mayor’s sister Princess, who was also in the police vehicle but escaped unharmed, said her brother has tried his best to clear his name. “He has implemented several anti-illegal drug programs in our town,” said Princess.
According to the police, Navarro was drunk when he arrived at the massage parlor with three bodyguards.
The mayor wanted a masseuse, a female therapist, to attend to him. Navarro allegedly became rowdy when told that there was no masseuse available.
When Navarro confronted spa manager, John Dueñas, one of the male therapists intervened and asked the mayor to calm down. Navarro allegedly got irked and turned his anger at the 23-year-old Dueñas.
In a video footage captured by the spa’s closed-circuit television, Navarro was seen punching Dueñas in the abdomen before locking the victim’s arms behind his back. A man pacified the mayor, who then freed Dueñas.
Later, the spa manager told the mayor that a female therapist will be sent to his hotel room. The trouble didn’t end there when the 23-year-old masseuse complained that the mayor asked her to masturbate him.
The two spa workers complained to the Abellana police station.
Police Major Eduard Sanchez, chief of the Abellana police, went to the mayor’s room but the mayor didn’t open the door of his room and asked the police if he could just settle matter in the morning.
The mayor didn’t show up at the police station in the morning, prompting policemen to return to the hotel only to be informed that the mayor had already checked out.
Sanchez said they rushed to the airport in Lapu-Lapu City when they received a tip that the mayor was about to board a flight bound for Manila.
Navarro was eventually arrested at the boarding area of MCIA.
