Another man got trapped in a drainage canal in Cebu City after he went looking reportedly for coins.

Personnel of the Special Rescue Force in Cebu City responded to the man trapped in the sewer who said he felt dizzy and was gasping for breath.

Responders opened quickly the cover of the sewer and pulled the man to safety. He was assisted to the ambulance for medical help.

According to a witness, Jesse Mar Maramara, he heard someone knocking from underneath the drainage cover, and heard a call for help.

Maramara went to check and found out that there indeed was a man trapped in the sewer. He sought the assistance of the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (CITOM) personnel in the vicinity who alerted the rescuers.

The Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CCDRRMO), chaired by Ramil Ayuman, disclosed that the man received medical help but was not confined anymore at the hospital. 

Responders learned that the man went through a gap on the ground near a university in the downtown area and traced the sewer to look purportedly for coins that may have fallen there. But the man said he felt dizzy later on, and was catching for breath so he tried to find a way out. However, the sewer has a steel cover that he could not push open from the inside.

The Department of Social Welfare Services (DSWS) coordinated with the CCDRRMO to provide intervention for the man.

The DSWS expressed alarm over the incidents of persons entering sewage channels or drainage canals to look purportedly for coins.

DSWS, headed by Portia Basmayor, said that persons who do such act are not only financially constrained but are also possibly challenged emotionally and mentally.

To recall, the arm of a 15-year-old boy got stuck in a hole of a drainage grating on June 5, 2025. The boy also went scooping for coins in the canal.

Power tools were used to cut a portion of the grating to free the boy’s arm. The rescue operation took five hours.