First-time drug user flirts with danger in Quiapo

A man, who had just had his first experience with shabu, climbed a 30-foot electric post in Quiapo, Manila and threatened to jump, causing a monstrous traffic jam on Claro M. Recto Avenue yesterday.

The suicide drama, which lasted more than two hours, attracted a throng of kibitzers and media people, who joined police and rescue teams in waiting for what 40-year-old Joselito Ramos would do next.

The drama ended when Ramos, a freelance graphic designer from Tangos, Baliuag, Bulacan, was brought down using a Meralco basket ladder.

Ramos earlier climbed the twin concrete electric posts at the corner of Evangelista street and C.M. Recto Avenue in Quiapo.

Visibly high on drugs, he stood on top of one of the posts and threatened to jump. He left his pants at the foot of the post, where police recovered his identification card.

Ramos defied the efforts of policemen to bring him down when he did a "tightrope act" by walking on the support wires to get to another electric post to the shock of the people below.

Sta. Cruz police station chief Superintendent Romulo Sapitula ordered the power cut off on the electric posts since the man nearly touched one of the high-tension wires during his stunt.

Sapitula also directed his anti-crime volunteers to hold up tarpaulin sheets and mats to catch Ramos in case he slips and falls.

Police had to restrain several kibitzers, who were urging Ramos to jump. During negotiations, Ramos demanded that police officials and media personalities be brought to the scene.

After more than two hours, a Meralco service crewman on a basket ladder pulled Ramos from his perch after an airbag was inflated on the ground by the Makati Fire Department.

Ramos was immediately rushed to a hospital after he was secured by rescue teams.

At the police station, he admitted using shabu with a friend somewhere in Intramuros, hours before the incident.

However, Ramos could not say what drove him to climb the electric post.

"Ewan ko ba. Di ko maintindihan ang mga pinaggagawa ko. Wala na kong matandaan," he said.

Ramos claimed that it was the first time he tried illegal drugs. He vowed never to use drugs again.

The Baliuag resident said he was in Manila to follow up his papers with the Bureau of Immigration as a requirement for his application for a job abroad.

Sapitula said charges of alarm and scandal would be filed against him.