Jilted man causes a stir scaling billboard on EDSA

A broken-hearted man caused a stir for a few hours on the southbound lane of Edsa after he scaled a billboard late Saturday.

Efren Lucban, 32, even lost consciousness as rescuers were bringing him down from the billboard, prompting authorities to rush him to a hospital inside Camp Crame to be examined.

Though doctors did not see anything wrong with Lucban medically, the man apparently had emotional problems after his wife had left him.

And even as village chairman Teresa Jardio of Barangay Bagong Lipunan initially wanted to file a case of alarm and scandal against Lucban, she decided not to press charges.

“The chairman apparently pitied Lucban,” SPO1 Dante Surban, a desk officer at the Quezon City Police District-Station 7, told The STAR. “We’re not sure if (Lucban) really wanted to commit suicide or if he just intended to get the attention of his estranged wife,” Surban said.

It was not clear why Lucban, a resident of Bacoor, Cavite, was in Metro Manila and how he scaled the billboard on the southbound lane of Edsa, corner North Road in Barangay Bagong Lipunan. Bystanders, however, were shocked upon seeing him at the top of the billboard at around 5:20 p.m.

Surban said Lucban, who reportedly also lost his job at a bakery recently, told the crowd about his marital problems. Even in the presence of Lucban’s brother and sister, authorities that included personnel from the QCPD, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and the Bureau of Fire Protection failed to convince him to go down.

At around 8:35 p.m. rescuers decided to climb up the billboard and bring Lucban down.

Lucban did not resist but as rescuers were bringing him down, Lucban fainted.

“Maybe it was because of the heights or he could also be hungry after having stayed there for hours,” Surban said.

Authorities rushed him to the hospital, after which he was brought to the police station for questioning at around 3 a.m. yesterday. He was eventually released. – Reinir Padua