A man who admitted being a drug addict went wild Wednesday evening causing a commotion beside McDonald’s, an outlet inside the BQ Mall Complex located at the corner of CPG Avenue and H. Grupo St. Two days before the BQ Mall episode, Mario Magat, Jr., 32, married and a resident of Mansasa district this city, barged into the studios of Station DYRD where the top rated radio program was in progress and asked the anchormen that he be allowed to go on air. Since the radio program’s format is public service, the anchors allowed him to go on air only to mouth ground breaking statements on the state of Bohol’s alarming drug problem. It was during the same radio program that he admitted being a drug addict. Sensing that the program was taken for a ride involving a person not in his proper mental faculty, the anchors succeeded in having the “intruder” stopped in his tract before he kept on mouthing tirades not fit for broadcast.

In the BQ incident, the ruckus started after Magat broke an enclosure housing a fire extinguisher, a fire hose and an ax. After getting hold of the ax, he brandished the carpentry tool causing commotion in the area resulting in several curious seekers milling around the McDonald outlet. He was promptly subdued by responding policemen after about an hour of intense negotiation for Magat to calm down. As a result of the Magat caper, the city police filed charges of alarm and scandal and malicious mischief. It was during the same incident that Magat mouthed his favorite line calling officials concerned to put an end to the rampant use of illegal substance like prohibited drugs. Admitting that he’s a user of illegal drugs, the young Magat, during the same occasion, uttered the same familiar call on the stop of the illegal drug traffic, the same call heard with clarity by a sea of curious onlookers, who did not mind what would happen next while some policemen just wait in a distance for the right time when to pounce and subdue the drug-crazed man.

 Although he did not harm anybody, Magat, Jr. kept on talking as the crowd were getting thicker to get a peep on him and police officers came to convince him to hand over the ax and turn himself in. Police records said that Magat, Jr., got hold of the ax after he destroyed the fire hose and other firefighting equipment like the ax. He used a trash can in trashing the fire hose.  Magat, Jr. did not heed the police persuasion few minutes later he got the ax that resulted to a virtual standoff for about an hour at the second floor overlooking the mall’s entrance facing the McDonald’s fast food along Grupo street. It was only after his father and a brother came to persuade him to calm down that he handed the ax.  Police officers who were at the back side of his father handcuffed him after a brief embrace of his brother before he was led to the waiting police vehicle that brought him to city police station for investigation.  Prior to his disorderly exploit before the curious crowd, the young Magat tried to meet Gov. Edgar Chatto at the Capitol at past five pm to bring his cause to the governor only to learn that the provincial executive was out of his office. In past elections, not including the latest, Magat,Jr. was a regular fixture either running for governor or congressman.  Well off, the Magat family is into a multi-million buy-and-sell of antiques and allied products. The family is also a partner of a restaurant business known as the Crabhouse Restaurant and Hotel Esta Villa.  Following the BQ Mall spectacle, police said, Magat, Jr. was sent to Cebu Friday morning for “drug rehabilitation.”