Saturday, July 12, 2008 Left by himself, man dies after falling from tree By Garry Cabotaje Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A POLICE team faces an investigation for allegedly abandoning the site where a man, after a 13-hour ordeal, jumped to his death in Barangay Linao, Talisay City yesterday morning.
Geraldine Manreal, 49, a married resident of Sitio San Antonio, Linao, died from severe injuries in the head and body after he fell from a 60-foot high coconut tree shortly before 6 a.m.
Homicide investigators have yet to find out whether he jumped or fell. They theorized, though, that Manreal accidentally fell, exhausted as he was from hunger, lack of sleep and a gash in his left wrist.
Armingol, Manreal’s father, revealed that his son suffered from a recurring nervous breakdown and slashed his left wrist with a knife past noon last Thursday.
His ailment began after a drinking buddy stabbed him in Toledo City in 2003, Armingol said.
To their surprise, Armingol said, Manreal dashed outside their house last Thursday and clambered up a nearby coconut tree around 4 a.m. Efforts to calm him down proved futile.
He stayed atop the coconut tree overnight but, around 13 hours after he first scaled it, fell to his death.
Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) Chief Carmelo Valmoria ordered Supt. Romeo Perigo of the Talisay City Police Station to submit a report detailing the circumstances leading to Manreal’s fatal leap.
Initially, Valmoria said the responding police team should not have abandoned the area until the crisis ended.
Sun.Star Cebu thrice called up Insp. Jaime Santillan, the PNP team leader, by mobile phone yesterday afternoon but failed to get his comment.
“But I still have to know the circumstances, what really happened,” Valmoria said.
Joel Caparida, a friend, also clambered up the coconut tree to convince Manreal to descend.
But when he reached the top, Caparida reportedly got stunned when Manreal grabbed his shirt and held him hostage for several hours.
Caparida escaped past 2 a.m.
Ronnie, a neighbor, also climbed the coconut tree carrying a rope, but later retreated after Manreal threatened to jump.
Apart from Manreal’s father and mother, his wife, Jacqueline, teenage daughter and close relatives joined the call for him to come down, to no avail.
Manreal did not want people to mill around the tree or train their flashlight at him. Neighbors also switched off their house lights.
Mona Bas, a member of the Talisay Rescue Emergency Action Team (Treat), said they were supposed to rescue Manreal but he consistently threatened to jump once they approached.
“We have our harness rope to conduct a high-angle rescue but we could not do it because of his threat,” Bas said.
A Talisay City Fire Station aerial ladder truck could not reach the site because its rough road was too narrow, and the truck parked instead at the unpaved basketball
court.
Concerned residents also placed two beds and mattresses near the base of the coconut tree to cushion the impact of Manreal’s fall.
The Santillan-led police team, whose members were neophyte operatives, and Treat members arrived at the scene past 8 p.m.
Bas said they hid in a nearby hut just to convince the man to come down, but they were frustrated.
Upon the suggestion of Manreal’s close relative, Bas said the police and Treat members left the place at 4:30 a.m.
More than an hour later, the same team found themselves rushing back to the site after they were alerted that Manreal had already plunged to his death.
Manreal missed the two beds and hit the ground, suffering severe injuries in his head and body. While waiting for funeral homes personnel, policemen temporarily covered his body with newspapers. (GC)
