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The arrest of former Compostela Mayor Gilbert Wagas last Wednesday has left the opposition group Panaghiusa without a potential congressional candidate in Cebu's 5th district.
“We will have to find another candidate and it's not going to be that easy,” former senator and Panaghiusa convenor John Henry “Sonny” Osmeña told CEBU DAILY NEWS.
Wagas was supposed to challenge the bid of incumbent Rep. Ramon “Red” Durano VI”
Wagas’ younger brother, incumbent Compostela Mayor Ritchie Wagas, is seeking reelection.
Gilbert Wagas presented himself as a challenger to Durano in last September's revival of the Panaghiusa party.
Gilbert was arrested in a mall coffee shop by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) who served a warrant issued by the Sandiganbayan for conviction of malversation charges eight years ago involving P376,618 in public funds.
Cebu's 5th district covers Danao City and the towns of Liloan, Compostela, Carmen, Sogod, Catmon and Borbon and the towns of San Francisco, Poro, Pilar and Tudela in Camotes Island.
Gilbert and Ritchie Wagas attended the Panaghiusa meeting held last Sept.
Osmeña said the Wagas brothers were not among the original Panaghiusa members that gathered to support the late president Corazon Aquino's candidacy in 1986.
The former senator said he was confused with the political loyalty of Ritchie Wagas, who accompanied former president Joseph Estrada in one of his earlier Cebu visits.
Elder brother Gilbert was even in Manila when Estrada announced his candidacy, said Osmeña.
Despite the ambiguity, Osmeña said Gilbert was considered a potential candidate for Cebu's 5th district in Panaghiusa's convention scheduled from Nov. 20 to Dec. 1. But that was before his arrest.
Meanwhile, Mayor Wagas said he is weighing plans to file charges against the NBI-7 agents who arrested his brother.
“I respect the institution (NBI-7)but some of the agents had their biases in how they enforced the arrest of my brother,” Mayor Wagas told CDN.
He said Gilbert, who resisted arrest, had bruises on the forehead and both wrists.
NBI Regional Director Medardo de Lemos said agents had nothing personal against Wagas and had waited for 20 minutes for him to call his lawyer and brother. Gilbert was handcuffed after he tried to punch an agent. Councilor Wilfredo Calo, whom Wagas identified as a Durano ally, earlier asked the NBI to verify the status of a bench arrest warrant against Gilbert which remained unimplemented.
