By Mae Singuay
Two employees of the number one regional newspaper were trapped inside the elevator on the ground floor of the Bacolod City Government Center (BCGC) yesterday morning.
Panay News’ circulation manager Haydee Libo-on and newsboy Edrail Paderna used the elevator to go to the second and third floors of the BCGC to deliver the complimentary copies of the newspaper at the offices of Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, Mayor Alfredo Benitez, and at the Public Information Office (PIO).
Libo-on said that around 9:45 a.m., they entered the elevator from the ground floor and noticed that it was not functioning.
She rang the elevator’s bell for almost 30 minutes already but nobody responded.
Fortunately, she tried to contact the city government’s PIO. That was the time the employees responded to rescue them.
“We were almost there for about 45 minutes,” Libo-on claimed.
She said that she got stressed and experienced difficulty breathing because there was no ventilation while they were inside the elevator.
Libo-on is also asking the city officials to assign even one employee inside the elevator to assist the public when using the elevator, just like other establishments are doing.
On his part, Lawyer Karol Joseph Chiu, Mayor Benitez’s secretary, said an investigation will be conducted in relation to the incident.
He directed building administrator Engineer Amy Tentia to make an incident report about it, review closed-circuit television camera footage, and the maintenance records to know what really happened.
Chiu said after they got the information that there were people trapped in the elevator, their personnel immediately responded by opening the elevator because there was a manual key.
Following the incident, the city official said the city government shut the elevator and cordoned it off.
“We received information that there were persons trapped in the elevator. We immediately responded and were ready to rescue them,” Chiu said.
He assured the public that when the elevator is operational again, the public is safe to use it./MS, WDJ