Live wire electrocutes mango plantation worker

A man was electrocuted when he stepped on a live wire while spraying insecticide at a mango plantation in barangay Magdugo, Toledo City Saturday afternoon.

Toledo City police investigators said the fatality was Bernie del Rosario, a resident of barangay Lutopan and a worker at the mango plantation owned by a certain Jack Badiana.

Del Rosario was with his wife Justina when the incident happened, said Sr. Insp. Eliakim Awit and Engr. Eugene Daclan, of the Cebu Electric Cooperative, who went to the scene to investigate.

The two investigators found out that del Rosario stepped on the live wire that was attached to the gate of the house of Bienvenido Lenihan, the plantation caretaker.

The police arrested Lenihan after he admitted that he installed the live wire two weeks ago purposely to drive away thieves from the plantation.

Awit also confiscated the wire and brought it to the police station where Lenihan has been detained.

An autopsy would be done on the victim’s body while the police have prepared the affidavit of his wife for the filing of charges against Lenihan. — Flor Z. Perolina/RAE