Reason for suicide unclear: Cop kills self

CEBU, Philippines - A policeman, who helped keep the peace during last weekend’s Sinulog Festival, was found dead inside his rented room in barangay Sambag I in an apparent suicide last Monday night.

The fatality was identified as PO1 Erman Bayot Yap, 26 years old, of the Regional Public Safety Battalion based in the town of Sibonga, Cebu.

Yap left a suicide note asking for forgiveness from his parents, siblings, wife and children, but it was not written how come he was apologizing and why he is taking his life.

He was found by fellow tenants of the boarding house owned by Elenita Ulgasan located along Ascension St.

Yap was a native of San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.

Efren Pepito, 25, and Mark Antony Maur, 20, who are also renting rooms in the same house, said that they heard a gunshot coming from the room of Yap at around 10 p.m. When they went out of their room to check, they saw blood on the floor and immediately called for police assistance.

MPG Personnel led by PO3 Ricardo Hisoler rushed to the house and forcibly opened the door of Yap’s room.

The police found the victim already slumped on the floor with a single gunshot wound on his head. They surmised that he shot himself through the mouth.

Recovered from the scene was a Norinco caliber .45 with six live ammunition and one empty shell.

The gun was still in the right hand of Yap when it was found. 

The policemen also recovered the pen believed to have been used to write the suicide note as well as a fan knife inside a drawer.

PO2 Jodan Batucan of the Homicide Section said they have not found any indication that might suggest foul play.

Batucan said though that they are not yet sure what prompted the victim to kill himself.

The victim’s landlady, Ulgasan, 45, said that Yap confided to her some time on the third week of September about some problems with his marriage.

He was quoted by Ulgasan as having said, “Kun buwagan ko sa akong asawa, maghikog ko.”

Ulgasan said the victim, who has been a policeman for three years, then seemed to be depressed and sounded depressed also due to financial problems.

Lawrence Wee, uncle and at the same boardmate of the victim, said the latter also experiences financial problems with his family, but he wasn’t sure if the victim also had marital problems.

“Na-pressure na siguro kay nag-sagol-sagol na iyang mga problema maong naghikog jud tawn,” Batucan said.

Batucan said the victim’s wife and two children occasionally visited him at his boarding house.

The content of the suicide note, Batucan said, basically expressed the victim’s thanks and apology to his parents and siblings, and to his wife he identified as “Mama Icy” and kids “Dirk” and “Dane”.

“Ang sud sa duha ka-bond paper na iyang gisulatan puros pangayo og pasaylo, pasalamat ug panugon sa iyang anak nga si Dirk nag dili pasagdan iyang manghod ug di daw magpabadlong sa ila mama. Wala gyud maghisgot nganong maghikog siya,” Batucan said.

He added that the few messages in the cellular phone of the victim did not also show any evidence that would possibly help them in their investigation.

The investigator said the only one who could shed light on the incident would be the victim’s wife. However, as what Wee told them, the family would just meet Yap’s body at the port in San Carlos City and would no longer come here.

His cadaver was taken to St. Francis Funeral Homes for autopsy.

Homicide Section investigators said the victim will also undergo a paraffin test to check if he really was the one who fired the gun to erase suspicion of foul play.

In July last year, PO2 Alejandro Laborte tried to kill himself by drinking bleach and refused to go out of the room unless his wife would talk to him.

SPO4 Alex Dacua of the Homicide Section said the last incident resulting to death involving a fellow member of the force happened in January 2007 when a policewoman from Region 6 who was assigned here as part of the field training program killed herself inside a comfort room.

PO1 Karesh Valenzuela, also 26, reportedly shot her head inside the ladies’ comfort room of a bakery inside the compound of the Basilica del Santo Niño.

She did not leave any suicide note prompting the belief that she might have accidentally shot herself.

Dacua said that despite the several trainings policemen undergo that would test their physical as well as emotional strength, they are also human.

“Depende ra na sa tawo, nya tawo ra sad baya mi. Dili baya tanan pareho og utok. Desperate na jud to siya tungod sa mga problema nga nagtuo siyang dili na ma-solve, wala sa’y nakatambag,” Dacua said. –/NLQ (FREEMAN)