By Ruevivar “Wowie” Reyes, Southern Leyte Times
For Yahoo! Southeast Asia
SOGOD, SOUTHERN LEYTE – What was to be joyride amongst friends to visit the country’s tallest bridge quickly turned tragic as 20-year-old Lowela Aguero jumped off the Agas-agas bridge and plunged to her death.
According to initial reports from her relatives Lowela Aguero who is a native of Maasin City invited her friends to go to Sogod town to visit the bridge since it was reportedly one of her favorite places to visit. Little did her friends know that Aguero had something else in mind as she suddenly started to distance herself from them while at the bridge.
Alarmed, her friends started to lead her away from the edge of the bridge, and then she pushed them away and suddenly jumped.
The 90-meter tall (30 stories down) Agas-Agas Bridge, the tallest in the country was opened to the public on August 8, 2009 as an essential link in connecting the Visayas and Mindanao road network.
Many Southern Leytenos who attended Aguero’s wake said that such a waste of life could have been prevented if proper safety precautions were built on the bridge.
Before the incident the provincial government of Southern Leyte and the Southern Leyte Chamber of Commerce have revealed proposed plans to make the bridge and its surroundings to a extreme sports venue wherein bungee jumping and zipline rapelling would be offered to the public to help generate tourism revenue for the local government.
Many sectors now in Southern Leyte have expressed their concerns after the death of Aguero on the bridge’s inadequate safety measures for the public and also the bridge’s lack of security from any terrorist attack.
You may email the author at slteditors@yahoo.com.
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