New street-cleaning world record eyed

ILOILO CITY — The Metro Manila Development Authority may be able to use this man who will attempt today to set a world record in most streets cleaned in 24 hours.

Jess Caigoy, a professional stunt man dubbed as Asia’s "Master of Pain," said no one has done the street sweeping feat before.

"There has been no attempt yet, so I want to be the first to do it," the 45-year-old Caigoy told The STAR yesterday. Any proceeds earned will be turned over to the Aleosan District Hospital.

Caigoy will be cleaning highways and major streets of the towns of Leon, Alimodian and San Miguel in Iloilo. If successful, he will land in the Guinness Book of Records as having cleaned the most streets in 24 hours.

A short opening ceremony will be held at 6:30 a.m. today at the town plaza of Leon, from which he hails.

After that, he will be sweeping his way down to the Aleosan District Hospital in San Miguel town. He will be sweeping a total of 26 kilometers of highways and major streets. He will stop cleaning at exactly 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.

According to Caigoy, he will be resting for 15 minutes every eight hours, as provided for by the rules set by Guinness. The 15-minute break is mandatory.

The sweeping will be continuous save for the 15-minute break, he said. "I will have my special meals in between."

A camera crew will be filming him non-stop for 24 hours. There will also be a logbook to document his attempt. These, and the testimonies of witnesses, will be used to establish his claim with Guinness.

"I’m quite prepared for this," Caigoy said.

He has been performing stunts since 1994. In the Singapore AXN X-Games in 1999, he performed six "amazing" stunts, earning for him the title "Master of Pain."

In Hollywood 2002, he performed what he called his "superskin" stunt – dragging a three-ton car fastened to his skin. He also had food in his stomach sucked out by a high-powered vacuum cleaner, which he called his "vacuum stunt."

"All my previous stunts were pain-related, so I decided to try something for the environment. I want to promote clean and green; to motivate the people to be mindful of cleanliness," he explained.

Years ago Caigoy, proposed 15 stunts to the Guinness committee, which rejected all but two.

He earlier attempted to attain the highest vertical height in 12 hours, but failed to grab the record because what they counted was the steps — 31,700 in all — instead of the actual distance covered in climbing the stairs.

Today’s street sweeping attempt is the second proposal. At first he only planned to clean Leon’s town plaza for 24 hours, but scrapped it because the rules said "streets."