17 suicide deaths in Cavite in 2 months; Church leaders alarmed

Interaksyon.com reports that the Imus Diocese’s Peer Counseling Group-which is composed of members of the Our Lady of Pillar Cathedral Team Ministry, namely Fathers Adrian Ranola, Ronel Ilano and Allan Valerio and Ugat Foundation Inc. and some 20 volunteer workers from different sectors-met this weekend to address a reported rise in suicide cases in Cavite.

The report pointed out: "Cavite, the country’s most densely-populated province, and home to nearly three million people as of 2007, is supposedly seeing a troubling increase in suicide numbers."  Diocesan officials said that in December 2011 and up to the present alone, the Cavite Police Provincial Office (PPO) has already recorded at least 17 suicide cases in the province.

In any case,  Tempo article posted online on November 28, 2011 was about a 26-yea-old P.E. teacher Jhade Javier Navarette who jumped from the belfry of the Our Lady of Pillar Cathedral in Imus, Cavite.  By December 3, 2011, another Tempo article posted online reported another incident involving "a young man who hanged himself in his house." Back then, the report noted: "Cavite Police Provincial Office (PPO) reports showed that the incident was the second in the town and the fifth in the whole province" and pointed out that Cavite had recorded "five suicides in 10 days."

According to the Interaksyon.com report, the Imus Diocese’s Peer Counseling Group want to "help individuals with moral and spiritual guidance, and to mitigate against depression that could afflict them."

For more on this story, log on to Interaksyon.com and Tempo Online.