Firefighters rescue a man who scaled a billboard scaffold at the corner of Colon and Borromeo streets. (CDN PHOTO/ JUNJIE MENDOZA)
A MAN yesterday scaled a steel billboard frame in downtown Cebu City, causing a commotion, but he was persuaded to come down after being offered a fried chicken meal.
It wasn’t clear why the 40-year-old jeepney dispatcher climbed the scaffolding past 6 a.m. and stayed on top for 45 minutes.
Spectators gawked from below. The incident caused traffic congestion at the corner of Colon and Borromeo Streets.
Harold Alcontin of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, coaxed him to come down by offering him a meal in a fastfood chain.
Fire fighters climbed the roof of the building bringing a Jollibee chicken meal. At the sight of the food, the dispatcher descended to eat.
He was lowered to the ground on a stretcher with a harness and rope. He was then taken to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for a checkup. A week earlier, a despondent teenager from Davao who hadn’t eaten in four days climbed a billboard on Mango Avenue. He was persuaded to climb down by Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella.