CEBU, Philippines - Three people, including a 16-year-old girl, ended their lives in separate incidents over the weekend.
In Cebu City, an inmate of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) was found dead inside his cell yesterday morning.
Jail Warden Romeo Manansala identified the inmate as Jupiter Sasing who was detained for drug charges.
Manansala said it was Sasing's cellmate who found the man hanging dead from an improvised rope around 11 a.m. The improvised is made of strings Sasing had gathered from sacks of rice to use as clothesline.
The cellmate went to the cell when Sasing did not go out despite having been paged that his wife was around.
"Nakit-an na siya sa iyang kauban, gi-page man na siya pero wala mogawas (He was seen by his cellmate. He was paged but he never went out)," Manansala said.
Manansala said they immediately brought Sasing to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center but he was declared dead on arrival.
"Ako na siyang gipadala sa Vicente Sotto kay init-init pa man pero gi-declare na man siya nga dead on arrival (Because he still had body heat, I had him brought to Vicente Sotto but he was declared dead on arrival)," the warden said.
Manansala said Sasing and his wife had misunderstandings in the past, which might have prompted the inmate to end his life. Sasing's family reportedly told him that the remains would no longer be subjected to autopsy.
Meanwhile, in Barangay Bato, Toledo City, a third year high school student was found hanging lifeless from a curtain tied around her neck inside her room around midday last Saturday.
The girl's family said they noticed the girl lonely a few days prior to the incident.
SPO1Benedicto Bobilles Jr. said that the older sister had hidden the girl's mobile phone last Saturday, which resulted to a fight. The girl then left and went to her room and hung herself.
"Ang sa iyang igsuon gibinuangan ra ni siya... duna kuno ni uyab pero walay gisulti nga problema… nananghid pa gani kung pwede ba maka-ngadto sa ilaha (her sister tried to play around with her… she had a boyfriend but never mentioned any problem… she even asked permission to go to her boyfriend's house)," Bobilles said in the phone interview.
Evening on the same day in the neighboring Aloguinsan town, an 80-year-old man hang himself using a nylon rope after he reportedly felt bad that his wife did not allow him to go to a benefit dance.
SPO1 Eliseo Paquit Jr. said Alberto Mantalaba was found by his daughter dead past 9 p.m. at a bushy area.
Three hours earlier, Mantalaba reportedly asked his wife's permission to attend a benefit dance in another barangay, but his wife did not allow him, which disappointed the man. Mantalaba then left the house without a word just like what he reportedly always did each time he and his wife had an argument.
Minutes later, his daughter found him dead. His family insisted that no foul play was involved in Mantalaba's death. — (FREEMAN)