2 reps, Zambo City mayor, fall off collapsed footbridge

Representatives Alfredo “Albee” Benitez and Celso Lobregat, together with Zamboanga Mayor Maria Isabel Climaco-Salazar and other city officials and staff members fell into murky water after a portion of a wooden foot bridge in barangay Rio Hondo, Zamboanga City collapsed on Thursday.

Benitez, Negros Occidental 3rd district representative, is the chair of the House committee on housing and urban development, while Lobregat is Zamboanga 1st district representative.

According to a post on Climaco-Salazar’s Facebook page, the officials were conducting a site inspection of houses for residents displaced by the 2013 Zamboanga City siege, when a portion of the narrow bridge collapsed.

A portion of the NHA-funded wooden foot bridge leading to the houses on stilts in Mariki collapsed a while ago while the…

Posted by Beng Climaco on Wednesday, April 25, 2018

The post indicated that a bridge adjacent to the first one also collapsed several minutes after.

Climaco-Suarez said she has ordered the immediate repair of the bridge and asked security forces to ensure order in the area. /muf