Depressed inmate dies in North Cotabato jail

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - A peasant charged with frustrated murder died of fasting-induced hypoglycemic shock in a town jail as a consequence of depression triggered by failure of relatives to visit him for some time.

Laurencio Umpay perished in a hospital on Tuesday where he was rushed by guards at the municipal jail of Makilala in the second district of North Cotabato.

Inspector Renz Joseph Baskogen, jail warden, said they decided to bring Umpay, 53, to a hospital after he manifested signs of diabetic stroke.

Umpay went on a hunger strike for days prior to his death in protest of his not having been visited at the jail for a long time by any member of his immediate family.

Baskogen said they repeatedly tried, but failed to persuade Umpay to consume his meal rations.

Umpay of Magpet town also in North Cotabato was detained since April in connection with a frustrated murder case where he was tagged as primary suspect.

The death of Umpay was first reported by a popular Central Mindanao radio outfit, the Notre Dame Broadcasting Corporation (NDBC), which said in a report that no one from among his relatives went to see him at the Makilala municipal detention facility since May.

The NDBC, which has six stations in Mindanao, including dxND in North Cotabato’s provincial capital Kidapawan City, also reported that Baskogen and his men transported another inmate to a mental hospital in Davao City after showing signs of psychotic tendencies.

The detainee, whose name Makilala’s jail management core requested not to be published, was being prosecuted for illegal possession of explosives.   

Baskogen had clarified the detainees under their custodial care are well fed and are sleeping in clean and well-ventilated cells.

They are also supplied with adequate safe drinking water, he added.