NEWS BRIEFS

ACCESS ROAD OPENED

ROADBLOCKS put up by a lot owner were removed yesterday from a 50-meter access road leading to the Cabancalan bridge in Mandaue City .

The access road was opened at 6 a.m. Thursday. Plywood, sacks filled with sand and two multicabs were removed from the road along with a sign that read “This lot is private property,” said city legal officer Giovannie Tianero.

The road, an alternate path for private vehicles headed to Cebu City, was earlier closed by the Remedio clan on Wednesday.

Only pedestrians were allowed to cross the road after the lot owners set up a barricade.

Tianero told reporters the barricade was a surprise since the road had been used for decades.

City Hall representatives negotiated with the Remedio family who eventually relented and allowed use of the road.

“The traffic will worsen if we didn’t negotiate,” Tianero said. He said the family got worried since the Mandaue City government had failed to compensate them for the property for years now.

Tianero said the Mandaue City legal office will establish the property value for the road and include annual interest in the payment.

“They tolerated it for some time, so it was presumed to be a public road,” he said. Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos

JOAVAN SAVES PEDICAB DRIVER

AFTER having made a reputation as a troublemaker due to the string of criminal cases against him, Joavan Fernandez surprised many by assuming the role of accidental hero.

The controversial adopted son of Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez was on an errand to monitor the presence of persons extracting gravel from the river when he spotted a pedicab driver about to commit suicide.

Joavan said he managed to convince 34-year-old Ricky Marlon Bartulata from jumping off a bridge in sitio Bahala, barangay Dumlog, Talisay City, last Thursday evening.

Bartulata said later he was drunk at the time.

Joavan called the police for assistance after convincing Bartulata to get down from the bridge.

Bartulata said he was depressed after his mother didn’t give him money or food. He said he slept in the barangay hall of Dumlog.

Social worker Coleen Enajada said Bartulata’s mother Maneja earned from proceeds of a property in barangay Dumlog but she didn’t support her adult son.

The mother said it was her son who had abandoned her.

Maneja said her son was disappointed when barangay officials didn’t pay him after he worked in the barangay hall.

But the officials said Bartulata wasn’t their employee and that they only allowed him to sleep in the hall.

Bartulata said the Talisay mayor promised to give him work. Correspondent Gabriel C. Bonjoc