A FOUR-YEAR-OLD girl was rescued from drowning by a motorist and police after her stepfather tried to jump off the Mandaue-Mactan bridge with her in tow last Sunday dawn.
The stepfather’s identity is being withheld to protect the girl’s identity.
The girl’s mother is an overseas worker while the stepfather used to work as a cook at a police detachment.
Chief Insp. Wilbert Parilla, Opao police precinct chief, said the stepfather was spotted riding a motorcycle near the Mandaue-Mactan bridge railings with the child.
Two Air Force officers approached the man who appeared to be groggy and immediately grabbed the child.
The man then crawled and grabbed the steel beams under the bridge slabs.
The Air Force officers called up police who managed to convince the man to surrender.
The girl was brought to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and then sent to her mother’s relatives for safekeeping.
Parilla said they found aluminum foil in the man’s possession.
The stepfather admitted to using drugs. Parilla said the stepfather will be charged with alarm and scandal and illegal drug possession.