4 suicides recorded within 10 days

CEBU, Philippines – Two men were found hanged in apparent suicides on Monday in the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue, an addition to two other cases already reported within a span of 10 days.

In Sitio Kagudoy, Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City, nervous breakdown due to drug dependence was said to lead Roberto Tumulak, 47, to end his life.

Jobless Tumulak was discovered hanged inside his room by his 12-year-old son “Butchoy” around 7 p.m.

According to Police Officer 3 Lydo Pinos of Lapu-Lapu City Police Office, Tumulak’s daughter, Veronica, 16, called her father to join her for dinner that night when she and her live-in partner noticed that Tumulak’s bedroom door was locked.

Veronica then asked Butchoy to check on their father by peeping through the window.

To his fright, Butchoy saw his father hanging from the ceiling with his neck tied with a nylon rope, apparently lifeless.

After Butchoy told Veronica and her live-in partner that Tumulak had hanged himself, they immediately called a barangay tanod to report the incident. Later, police were then contacted.

Before the incident, Veronica said a conversation between her father happened around 5 p.m. that day wherein Tumulak reportedly asked her to check the rice that was cooked at their kitchen.

After that, Veronica was about to go out to buy noodles in a nearby store when his father allegedly asked her to buy him an alcoholic drink.

It was thought by Tumulak’s relatives that by the time he was drunk, he found a rope and then hanged himself.

Medical respondent declared Tumulak dead so his body was brought to Surelife Funeral Homes. He left seven children.

In a related case, a man was found dead after he allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope around his neck in their house in Sector 2, Barangay Pagsabungan, Mandaue City around 4:30 p.m. last Monday.

The victim, who was identified as Garry Gulang, 28, single and a resident of the said place, was discovered by his neighbor Mira Noynay hanging when she happened to pass by his house.

Noynay immediately informed the Basak Police Station about the incident, and when police operatives arrived, the victim no longer had pulse and was declared dead by the Emergency and Rescue Unit Foundation personnel who also came to respond to the alarm.

During investigation, families and relatives of the victim could not tell the police on the cause of the victim’s suicide.

They found no problem with him because he seemed jolly during the observance of the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, a family member told police.

Police also failed to recover any suicide note from the victim.

Ten days ago in Lapu-Lapu City, distraught families were also mourning over the death of two residents who apparently ended their lives by committing suicide.

While the two took their lives through different modes and in different locations, the incidents nonetheless took place in the same barangay – Pajo.

Romeo Mula, 59, shot himself in his right temple, causing his instantaneous death, while Niño Jaculbe, 33, hanged himself from the ceiling of their house with the use of wire.

Mula was said to be suffering from depression while Jaculbe could not have accepted that his live-in partner was to leave the country to look for work in Hong Kong. — with Flor Z. Perolina