The mayor of Clarin town in Misamis Occidental was arrested at Mactan-Cebu International Airport yesterday afternoon after he allegedly assaulted a masseur.
Mayor David Navarro allegedly beat up victim John Dueñas in a fit of rage after being being informed that the spa he visited in Cebu City’s Fuente Osmeña district did not have a female massage therapist to attend to him, Rappler reports.
Navarro allegedly showed up to the spa visibly drunk with three bodyguards in tow. Dueñas reportedly drew the mayor’s ire after he came to the aid of the spa’s cashier, who was being berated by Navarro.
“The cashier said to him, ‘I’m sorry, sir, we don’t have female therapists available,'” Dueñas said in Cebuano. “Then he said, ‘Where are your guys? I’ll pay them PHP500 (US$9.75), PHP1,000 (US$19.51), to fight me.'”
Upon seeing his colleague being verbally harassed, Dueñas told the mayor to calm down before heading back to his quarters. But instead of cooling his jets, Navarro allegedly went after Dueñas, punching him in the stomach and locking the masseuse’s arms behind him. Navarro only calmed down after the spa’s manager promised to send a female masseuse to his hotel room, SunStar Cebu reported.
But the sordid affair didn’t end there.
The female masseuse who was sent to Navarro’s hotel room later complained that the mayor wanted her to give him a happy ending — shocker! — which prompted the manager and Dueñas to finally file a report with the police.
Cops went to Navarro’s hotel to arrest him but learned that he had checked out. They caught up with the mayor at the airport, where he was about to board a flight to Manila, and arrested him.
Navarro, meanwhile, denied to reporters at the police station that he beat up Dueñas. He did not, however, address his alleged request for the, ahem, intimate massage.
The mayor will be charged with acts of lasciviousness and physical injury, ABS-CBN News reports. Navarro first gained infamy after President Rodrigo Duterte added his name to a “narco list” or a list of politicians who were allegedly involved in the drug trade.
Read more Coconuts Manila articles here.
