Former mayor rebuffed on hospital request

THERE won’t be any hospital confinement for former Compostela mayor Gilbert Wagas anytime soon.

Mandaue City jail warden Jessie Calumpang said an order received from the Regional Trial Court branch 56 entailed providing security escorts for Wagas only during hearings and not anywhere else.

Wagas, who was detained in Muntinlupa after being convicted by the Sandiganbayan for malversation of public funds, previously managed to secure hospital confinement while attending hearings in Cebu.

But Calumpang said they don’t have enough jail officers to escort Wagas.

He said the former mayor’s lawyer should obtain a medical certificate or a court order allowing him to be confined in a hospital.

Calumpang said Wagas’s lawyer can also ask the court to transfer the former mayor to another jail facility.

He said they have 38 personnel to guard more than 800 inmates and he already asked for additional jail guards to no avail.

The Mandaue City Jail can only accommodate 200 inmates.

Calumpang admitted that Wagas was furious on learning that his request was turned down, as he kept shouting about the protection of his rights.

Wagas, who resisted arrest by police in a mall in 2010, earlier filed contempt charges against four jail guards for refusing to follow a court order allowing him to be confined in a Cebu City hospital.

Wagas’s court hearings in Cebu was in relation to the libel charges filed against him by Daanbantayan Mayor Maria Luisa Loot at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 56 in Mandaue City.

He was spotted by Cebu Daily News staying in a hospital room at the Visayas Community Medical Center for treatment of his diabetes.

Wagas was convicted for failing to account for over P300,000 in funds from the municipal treasury. Correspondent Norman V. Mendoza with a story from Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol