Authorities mulling autopsy on Marianeth
“Right now, we are investigating. We might come into that (autopsy), if need be,” Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said.
Duterte told The STAR he has his misgivings about the incident and cannot believe that poverty was the only reason Amper hanged herself with a rope.
The mayor said he chose to keep his silence in the midst of the media frenzy zeroing in on poverty, especially since Amper left a diary and an unsent letter to GMA-7’s “Wish Ko Lang” program.
“What has come out was more of romanticizing poverty. But let us look deeper into the incident,” Duterte said, adding that poverty is not an excuse to commit suicide.
“Nobody gets hungry in my city. All that people have to do is go to city hall or approach any Central 911 vehicle and they know already what to do,” the mayor said.
The mayor was also not discounting the possibility of foul play in the Amper case.
The STAR also found out from the Ma-a Central Elementary School officials that Amper’s diary and unsent letter to “Wish Ko Lang” were actually school projects that their class was required to submit last Nov. 5.
The possibility of an autopsy on Amper’s remains was reportedly also brought up by several neighbors, relatives and even friends and classmates of the victim.
“It looks like she had a deeper problem,” Amper’s teacher Penelope Magtabog said, suggesting that the incident be investigated further.
Education Undersecretary Vilma Labrador, on the other hand, arrived here Friday to conduct an investigation on the Amper case and to find out what were the lapses of the teachers and school officials at the Ma-a
“We could not ask for the autopsy. But what we are doing right now is to really look into the case if it was really poverty,”
Amper was buried yesterday afternoon at the Ma-a
St. Francis de Assissi parish priest Xenon Ampong officiated the Mass for Amper, despite debates on whether the Catholic Church should say Mass for those who commit suicide.
Tagbiliran Bohol Bishop Leonardo Medroso, chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Canon Law, explained in an interview over Radio Veritas that the Canon Law does not approve of “public sinners” or those people who committed suicide and “they cannot be given any funeral rights in churches.”
But he added that in individual cases, the bishop or the parish priest in that place has to hear the reason why the person committed suicide. From the narration of some relatives, the church official would make a decision whether to give funeral rights or not.
Another Canon Law expert, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, said there has been a change in the Church’s understanding of suicide victims.
“The Church is convinced that those who commit suicide are not themselves and consequently the presumption is that they lack the necessary deliberation to commit a mortal offense against the giver of life and therefore, as of now, there is a relaxation of the law of funeral blessing and burial for those who commit suicide,” Cruz said.
Malacañang, meanwhile, cried foul over the continued blame it has been receiving for the suicide of Amper.
Presidential Ma-nagement Staff head Cerge Remonde stressed that the President has instituted several anti-poverty measures.
Recently, she also ordered the release of another P1 billion for hunger mitigation programs. – With Marvin Sy, Evelyn Macairan
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