Requiem

Suicides, be they committed by children of our friends or neighbors or strangers we read about in the news, always leave us with a hole in our hearts. We ask ourselves why, and, could they have been prevented? Perhaps it’s natural for many to point fingers at mothers or fathers, teachers or boyfriends as having caused the violent snuffing out of the victims’ lives by their own hands.

In the much-publicized suicide of Kristel Tejada, 16-year-old Behavioral Science student at the University of the Philippines-Manila, a bandwagon for the blame was swiftly unleashed. An accusing finger singled out the UP Manila administration as the culprit, for not allowing her to enroll on account of her not having money to pay her tuition.

Kristel’s death caused an uproar; militant students blamed UP System president Alfredo Pascual and UP-Manila Chancellor Manuel Agulto for “repressive” policies. In fact two UP alumni have filed charges against Agulto and vice president for academic affairs Marie Josephine de Luna with the Office of the Ombudsman for violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

But we ask, how was the suicide attributed to tuition woes? A review of news reports points to UPM’s Behavioral Science Assistant Professor Andrea Martinez, Tejada’s program adviser, as the source of this claim, as reported by the Manila Collegian and the Philippine Collegian on March 15.

Martinez cited the student’s failure to pay her tuition and filing a leave of absence as the immediate cause of suicide and further spoke about the ills of the Socialized Tuition Fee and Admissions Program of the university.

But the student filed her leave of absence on March 13 and the suicide took place March 15. What happened between these dates is not known or never investigated. Nobody has also bothered to check police reports, including an autopsy of the victim’s body. Was a detailed confession made to anybody? What were her last engagements? Who were the last persons she had been with? The Philippine STAR (March 2) quoted a suicide note but there was not a hint of tuition. The student actually spoke about “true love.”

In the UP press conference in Diliman on March 18, it was revealed that Kristel had been to the school’s counseling office at least once. In other words the student was already dealing with some personal problems before the filing of her leave.

The UP-Manila website declares that graduates of the Department of Behavioral Science “are expected to be highly skilled in behavior analysis and behavior change, research and training, human resource development, and community work” and “being part of the health science campus of the university the department also seeks to generate and share valuable information that could enhance the Filipino’s health and well-being . . .”

If a behavioral science professional is thus expected to be highly skilled in behavior analysis, one big question is why Martinez — with whom Tejada confided her woes — failed to act on what could be a problematic case in her hands. As a skilled behavior analyst, did she not detect any sign of deviant behavior of the student likely to commit suicide?

In a letter circulating in the social networks, Martinez had to apologize in the face of criticisms of her failure to act. She said, “Yes, I was one of Kristel’s confidante, even her psychology professor, and it was total blunder that I failed her (this, I admitted from the start). I may have been inept in helping her with her Leave of Absence or LOA problem, because the least that I did was listen to her woes, show compassion, to sympathize and cry with her. Yes, they are not enough.”

Then why pillory the UP Manila administration for the student’s suicide? A professional in the behavioral sciences and related disciplines are expected to know that suicide is indeed a complex phenomenon and that intervention of the closest peers is critical in its prevention.

Kristel has joined the thousands of young people who take their own lives. Dr. Wang Xiangdong, WHO regional adviser on mental health and injury prevention, said in the Western Pacific Region, which consists of 37 countries including the Philippines, suicide is the leading cause of death in the age group of 15 to 39.

Dr. Nadera, a psychiatrist and an associate professor at the UP Open University, has said that not all cases she studied were due to depression, but occurred from a confluence of factors, such as low income and unemployment, medical conditions such as heart diseases and cancer. The leading methods of suicide are hanging, strangulation and suffocation,  and self-poisoning (mainly ingestion of silver cleaner which Kristel resorted to).

There are informal reports that one week before Tejada’s suicide she had said that she may not be seen again. Was this conveyed to Martinez? If so, did Martinez miss this critical warning?

Martinez in her open letter said that when she and her colleagues at her department learned that Kristel had not settled her account, they told Kristel’s father to talk to the vice chancellor for academic affairs and ask her to allow Kristen to enroll, and that the department will shoulder the cost. “But the request fell on deaf ears . . . All of us have been made victims of the technicality of deadline. I am just a junior faculty, I do not have the clout and the power to influence the decisions of the powers-that-be. The department has also been constrained by the mechanical application of repressive policies.”

As it is, chancellor Agulto has been placed in a most unenviable condition, described as “cold and ruthless.” A highly respected eye surgeon, he is the current director of the Institute of Ophthalmology of the National Institute of Health. A stickler for rules, he was simply following the UP system’s rules and regulations. He was shown on TV during a presscon, teary-eyed. Student regent Cleve Arguelles quickly said they were “crocodile tears” shed by Agulto. “Nakakabastos sa alaala ni Kristel ‘yung ginawa niyang pag-iyak,” he was quoted as saying. Bastos din ang ginawa ni Arguelles who jumped to the conclusion that Kristel’s suicide was caused by Agulto, a highly respected professional.

It will be noted that President Pascual had issued a directive relaxing the rules with respect to late payments and leaves of absence — the day before Kristel took her life.  

On the day of Kristel’s funeral last Saturday, Pascual said, “With all UP stakeholders collectively working towards reform, I am confident we can soon truly say that no qualified student is denied education in UP because of financial reasons. Soon we can claim that UP, the country’s national university, has indeed become the University of the People.”

 I support Pascual’s statement.

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