MAYOR Paz Radaza of Lapu-Lapu City has called out persons in charge of monitoring surveillance cameras on the two major bridges, saying suicides can be prevented if these are monitored closely.
Asked what she thought about putting barbed-wire fences along the sides of the Marcelo Fernan Bridge and the old Mandaue-Mactan Bridge, Radaza said that close monitoring of the surveillance cameras may be a better way to deter suicides on the bridges.
“The CCTV (closed-circuit television) cameras should serve their purpose,” she said in her regular new conference yesterday.
The Cebu Provincial Board (PB) recently passed a resolution requesting the City Governments of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu to consider installing barbed-wire fences along the sides of the bridges.
Radaza said the proposal, made by PB Member Arleigh Sitoy, will have to be discussed by the Mactan-Cebu Bridge Management Board (MCBMB), where she sits as a member.
The PB passed the resolution following the suicide of a 44-year-old woman earlier this month.
The woman, believed to be suffering from nervous breakdown, jumped off the old Mandaue-Mactan Bridge and landed on a concrete footing of a wall supporting the structure.
Radaza said she will bring up the need to strengthen monitoring of surveillance cameras on the bridges in the next meeting of the MCBMB.
She said she is not against putting barbed-wire fences along the sides of the bridges, but these should be installed in a way that will not affect the structures aesthetically.
The bridges draw several suicidal persons every year.
It was reported last July that nearly half of the surveillance cameras on the two bridges were not functioning.
The surveillance cameras are monitored by the Maritime Police Unit 7 located under the Marcelo Fernan Bridge.