Desperation over lack of money drives laborer to suicide

Apparently distraught over mounting bills due to his child’s illness, a laborer hanged himself at a construction site in Quezon City Thursday morning.

The decomposing body of Rolando Garcia, 43, was discovered in a rest room at the Mega Parking construction site in Barangay Culiat around 6:50 a.m.

Case investigator SPO1 Cristituto Zaldarriaga said the victim may have hung himself four days ago as his body was in a state of decomposition.

“You can hardly recognize his face,” Zaldarriaga added.

According to him, Garcia’s coworkers told the police that they last saw him on Dec. 23 while the victim was trying to borrow money for his sick son.

A fellow worker, Francisco Pamanan, 41, told the police that he had just arrived for work Thursday at the site on Central Avenue when he smelled something foul inside the compound.

He conducted a search until he discovered the source of the stench inside the toilet.

When found, Garcia had a rope tied around his neck. One end of the rope was hanging from a steel beam.

Zaldarriaga learned that days before he killed himself, the victim was trying to find money for his child who was in the hospital for bronchitis.

Another coworker, Raymark Rafil, recalled that in the morning of Dec. 23, he lent P500 to Garcia for the child’s medication.