Series of suicide incidents alarm Iloilo police

By Jennifer P. Rendon 

How do you solve a problem that is suicide?

The Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) on Monday said that it is alarmed by the series of suicide incidents recently.

For the first quarter of 2022, IPPO recorded 25 suicide incidents.

Two more cases happened over the weekend that involved a 14-year-old boy and a 26-year-old woman from New Lucena town.

“We initially thought that the increases in suicide incidents in 2020 and 2021 have something to do with the restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Senior Master Sergeant Francisco Lindero, Jr., IPPO spokesperson, said.

Yet, with everything going back to normal this year, the cases did not ebb.

In 2019, IPPO recorded 82 suicide cases.

It rose to 91 in 2020 and 98 in 2021.

“We talked during the staff conference on Monday on how we could address these cases from increasing,” Lindero said.

He quickly pointed out, though, that suicide incidents are mental health concerns and there are government agencies that are more capable to address it.

“On our part, we asked police stations to dig deeper on the reasons why victims commit suicide. From there, we could make recommendations in the hope that appropriate interventions might be done,” he said.

Based on IPPO records, all victims of suicide died from hanging.

Majority, or 21 out of 25, of the  victims are males.

Almost half of the victims are those with ages ranging from 17 to 39 years old.

Lindero said there appeared to be a variety of reasons for the commission of suicide.

Some were suffering from depression while others were admonished by their parents or loved ones.

Seven of them were suffering from terminal illness.

The Department of Health has constantly reminded those who have problems or those who knew individuals who are at risk of committing suicides that they could seek help and mental health crisis intervention:

The suicide prevention hotline of the Center for Health Development – Western Visayas:

1-800-10-333-8336

09985324047

09255469919

WVSUMC – 3202431 loc. 162 or 209

3292360

WVMC – 3211797 loc. 186

5037708

PMHU – 5298109