Jealous man tries to kill self after spat with boyfriend

“Usiseros” gathered Monday at the corner of Panay and Timog Avenues in Quezon City after a man clutching a rosary and a pillow sat on the ledge of a window at the 16th floor of the Victoria Tower condominium.

When it seemed apparent that the man was going to jump, a call was made to the police a few minutes past 9 a.m. and members of the Kamuning police station rushed to the scene.

For nearly three hours, they tried to talk him out of killing himself even as they tried to piece together the circumstances that had led him to contemplate such a drastic move.

Gradually, the story came out: The man’s name was Joseph Fedelin.

He was 44 years old, an English teacher and he had just hurled acid at the face of his live-in partner of five years—Jefferson Quitaleg, a call center agent—who, at that moment, was inside their unit.

Fedelin, who was bleeding from cuts he had inflicted on his wrists, told the police that he and his boyfriend had been arguing since Sunday night over the latter’s alleged affair with another man.

Although Quitaleg had consistently denied the rumor, Fedelin said he recently caught him chatting with his supposed new boyfriend on a social networking site.

On Monday morning, Fedelin was apparently overcome by anger and jealousy.

He threw acid on the face of his boyfriend, grabbed a knife, cut his wrists and then climbed out on the ledge of the window of their unit.

“I love him very much. I want to kill myself. I am under a lot of stress,” he told policemen and rescuers who were trying to get him to change his mind.

Shortly before noon, several of the policemen and rescuers from the Bureau of Fire Protection apparently had enough.

They climbed to the 18th floor and then jumped to the 16th floor where they wrestled Fedelin back inside his unit and persuaded him to give himself up.

At the same time, they took Quitaleg to a nearby hospital where he was treated for acid burns.

Fedelin, however, was not yet done. As he was being taken away, he made the following appeal: “To all men, be faithful to your gay lovers.”

Senior Police Officer 1 John Sales of the Kamuning police station investigation division said they were looking into reports that just before Fedelin snapped, Quitaleg had told him that he was breaking up with him.