Man ‘hangs’ self on bridge

CEBU, Philippines - Lapu-Lapu City police are still trying to identify the man who jumped off Mandaue-Mactan Bridge late afternoon yesterday with his neck tied to a wire and its other end attached to the bridge railing.

It was an apparent case of suicide, according to Police Officer 3 Lydo Pinos, investigator at the Homicide Section of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office.

Pinos said the man was wearing red T-shirt and khaki pants and was estimated to be around 25 years old and about 5-foot-2 in height. He was already unresponsive when responders arrived.

Construction workers who first noticed the victim's body dangling from the bridge at around 5 p.m. yesterday immediately asked nearby residents to call for police assistance. Personnel from the Lapu-Lapu City Fire District, the first to respond to the scene, successfully retrieved the body at 6:30 p.m.

Senior Fire Officer 2 Agapito Bolotano noted that the victim used a G.I. (galvanized iron) wire to tie his neck and then connected it to one of the bridge's railings before leaping off.

Upon initial examination, investigators found no external wounds or signs of foul play on the man's body, said Pino. However, they recovered from the man's pocket a ticket of a bus that plies the Toledo City-Cebu City route.

Wennie Vercede, a representative of Surelife Memorial Homes in Barangay Pajo, told The FREEMAN that no one so far came to claim the body as of 9 p.m. yesterday. 

It was the second case of suicide recorded at the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge in a matter of five days.

Last Saturday, a 25-year-old man also jumped off the same bridge in an attempt to kill himself after his girlfriend allegedly broke up with him.

Angelou Brent Coste, resident of Minglanilla town, drove his aunt's Suzuki Celerio to the bridge at 10 a.m. that day, abandoned the car in the middle of the bridge and jumped into the water.

He was later rescued by the police with the help of nearby fishermen. —(FREEMAN)