City Jail inmate commits suicide

CEBU, Philippines - A murder suspect, who was reportedly mentally unstable, was found hanging dead inside his detention cell at the Cebu City Jail in Barangay Kalunasan early yesterday morning.

The fatality was identified as Reagan Dano, 21, a native of Loboc, Bohol Province. He was imprisoned at the Cebu City Jail since April this year after stabbing a woman dead last March.

Edwin Soque, a rape suspect who shared the same detention cell with Dano, said he woke up at past 5 am yesterday only to get surprised upon seeing Dano’s body hanging from the ceiling.

Soque said Dano tied the edge of his malong to the beam and the other end to his neck.

He believed that Dano committed suicide while his fellow detainees were sleeping.

Homicide Section investigation showed that Jail Officer 1 Manuel Egay, upon sensing the commotion, went to the detention cell and assessed the prisoner to be dead.

 PO1 Eric John Samosa of the Homicide Section said Dano was detained at the Therapeutic Community Modality detention cell number 2, a psychiatric cell of the jail facility, considering the detainee’s mental condition.

Samosa said that according to Dano’s fellow inmates, the victim would often space out prior to committing suicide. The prisoner was allegedly sad that his family didn’t visit him often.

Dano was charged for murder after stabbing to death Mary Jane Aguilos, a private tutor, while the victim was jogging in Barangay Pardo late last March.

The suspect then said he stabbed Aguilos because the latter looked intently at his cousin, which he didn’t like.

The victim reportedly often suffers from nervous breakdowns and was taken to the psychiatric ward in Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center last February.

Efren Nemeño, deputy regional director of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, said he will order a separate investigation on the case.

Nemeño, formerly Cebu City Jail warden, said that during his time, an inmate at each detention cell was tasked to monitor their fellow inmates to prevent such suicide incidents, among others. —/MIT (FREEMAN)