Students opt to jaywalk due to ‘unsafe’ skywalk

CEBU, Philippines - A skywalk on a street in Barangay Looc, Mandaue City is not reportedly serving its purpose.

The lack of proper facility to ensure the safety of pedestrians is said to be the reason why nobody would want to use the skywalk.

The skywalk is located near the University of Cebu in Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue.

But students and pedestrians instead opt to “jaywalk” for fear that they might become victims of criminality if they use the government facility.

The said skywalk was constructed during the administration of former Cebu sixth district representative Nerissa Soon-Ruiz.

The original goal was to ensure the safety of pedestrians; they would no longer cross the street which is a busy stretch leading to the Mactan-Mandaue Bridge.

Right after it was constructed, pedestrians were supposed not the cross the street anymore and take the said skywalk instead if they wanted to go to the other side of the road.

However, this has not been the scenario in the area for several years now because the area is dark.

Ryan Figer, a representative from the UCLM College of Criminology, said to avoid incidents due to jaywalking, criminology interns are deployed to forbid students from crossing the street and to tell them to use the skywalk.

However, jaywalking becomes a problem during the night since there will be no more interns to man the streets and students will again risk their lives to jaywalk rather than use the skywalk with no lights.

The skywalk has also been a favorite hang-out of the street children, it was learned.

School officials sought the help of the police before but were only told that the facility does not belong to the city.

With this, officials of UCLM during their visit to the City Hall last week sought the help of Mayor Jonas Cortes to beef up the security in the area.

They asked that police officers can at least be stationed in the area to deter the crimes as some students have been victims to snatching and robbery in the area.

Cortes assured them that he will be meeting with the police to discuss the matter in order to come up with a solution to the issue.

He said he will ask the city police to detail cops in the area so that the students will no longer worry about their security when they pass through the skywalk. (FREEMAN)