CEBU, Philippines - Disappointed that his parents were no longer together, a 13-year-old pupil of the Barangay Maghanoy Elementary School in Barili town hung himself from a mango tree behind his school last Wednesday afternoon.
The Grade 6 student was in the running for valedictorian by the end of the school year.
Motorcycle-for-hire drivers who found him hanging from the tree with a nylon rope looped around his neck rushed him to the Barili District Hospital to no avail.
Zizelyn Balucos, the school’s guidance counselor clarified that the failure of buying the boy a Boy Scout uniform was not the main reason why he ended his life.
Balucos said the boy always wished to see both his mother and father who now have their own families.
Prior to his death, two classmates of the boy admitted that he told them that he would commit suicide if they leave him. Thinking he was joking, both left him alone and a few hours later he was already found hanging from the tree not far from the national road.
The boy, the second of the three children, grew up with his grandmother after his parents broke up and left him and his two other siblings.
Balucos told The FREEMAN that although his grandmother failed to buy a Boy Scout T-shirt for the boy but she bought it for him instead.
Balucos said that they were celebrating Teacher’s Day on Wednesday and around 3 p.m. all teachers of the school went to hear Mass at the St. Anne Shrine, which was only a walking distance from the school.
“Wala man gud mi sa eskwelahan ato hasta ang mga bata gipapauli namo ug sayo ambot lang gyud nganong wala’y nakamatikod niya,” she said.
The boy’s grandmother even wondered why the boy failed to go home that afternoon which was unusual of him.
Balucos added that the last time she talked with the boy he told her “hinaot karon nga month makit-an nako akong mama ug papa sa akong atubangan.”
Aside from being a consistent first honor student throughout his elementary years, he was also a constant winner during inter-school competitions.
Balucos, who grieved for her closest pupil, said she can no longer offer the boy any material gifts except for her prayers. —/BRP (FREEMAN)