Depressed husband hacks wife to death

SOUTH COTABATO, Philippines - A farmer undergoing therapy for depression killed his wife and attempted to kill himself on Saturday in a bloody incident that shook a peaceful peasant community in Tupi town to its core.

Neighbors of Argie and Rona Mae Villarubia first heard the couple exchanging invectives before a brief commotion ensued inside their house.

Chief Inspector Larry Salcedo of the Tupi municipal police said responding neighbors found Rona Mae sprawled on the floor, bleeding.

Argie repeatedly hacked his wife with machete while she was pleading for her life, before he cut parts of his body, including his wrists in an apparent attempt to kill himself too.

Barangay officials rushed the couple to the hospital, where Rona Mae was declared dead on arrival.

Salcedo said the badly wounded Argie is now undergoing medication at a hospital in the town proper of Tupi, about 20 kilometers southeast of the provincial capital Koronadal City.

Salcedo said investigators are still unsure whether or not relatives of Villarubia’s wife would file criminal charges against him. 

The suspect was being cured by a neurologist from depression using regulated anti-depressants since two weeks before he killed his wife.