Lapu jail inmate commits suicide

CEBU, Philippines - An inmate of the Lapu-Lapu City Jail in Barangay Soong committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope inside his cell's comfort room yesterday dawn.

Rodolfo Dungog, 37, of Barangay Bangkal, Lapu-Lapu City was seen by his fellow inmate Henry Tumulak hanged dead at around 4:45 a.m. yesterday when he was supposed to relieve himself at the comfort room.

Tumulak called out the other inmates who then removed the rope around Dungog's neck and immediately rushed him to the Lapu-Lapu District Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Police investigators recovered a suicide note from Dungog's cell. On a cigarette wrapper, he wrote an apology to their cell's leader Edwin Remultas for what he was going to do. Dungog said he could no longer bear his problem.

Police learned from his fellow inmates that the victim has been sad lately after he learned that their family's land property had been sold and when he wanted to ask for his share, he had been reportedly ignored by his siblings.

PO2 Giancarlo Jocutan said Dungog has been staying in jail for five years, although it was not clear for what charges.

Jocutan said there were no visible wounds on the inmate's body. Jail personnel told investigators Dungog could not have been murdered because there were no conflicts among the inmates.

But still the victim's dead body will undergo an autopsy as a standard operating procedure, according to Jocutan, even if the family said that they would no longer be interested to have it autopsied as they have accepted his death.