Cops tagged in massacre showing signs of severe depression

MANILA, Philippines - Policemen implicated in the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre have been showing signs of serious depression and need immediate intervention by psychologists, a wife of a detained senior police officer told reporters yesterday.

Hadja Jalila Maguid, spouse of Superintendent Sam Maguid, former director of the Maguindanao provincial police, said most of those apparently in distress were those detained because they were on duty at the police headquarters around Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao when the killings were perpetrated.

Maguid, vice president of the 1123 Advocates, whose members are the wives of policemen linked to the massacre, said Police Officer 2 Hernani Decipulo Jr. reportedly acted strangely before jumping from the rooftop of the prison at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City Monday.

Decipulo’s body was flown to Cotabato City Tuesday and buried immediately in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao according to Islamic rites. “He committed suicide because he was so depressed he was in jail for almost three years when in fact he was off duty at the time the massacre happened,” Maguid said.

Some of the detained policemen were nowhere near the scene when the killings took place, according to Maguid.

“We can only wish that these policemen could be litigated separately to hasten their prosecution,” she said. “We are convinced that PO2 Decipulo committed suicide not because he was bothered by his conscience, but because he was already despondent over the slow litigation of the cases filed against them.”

Maguid said experts from the Department of Social Welfare and Development also have to help the detainees overcome their depression through social and psychological interventions.