‘Methodical’ man wrote 6 letters before suicide

Homicide investigators could only describe as “methodical” a man who wrote six suicide letters before he drank half a bottle of silver cleaner Thursday morning.

Police Officer 3 Jupiter Tajonera of the Manila Police District (MPD) homicide section told the Inquirer that 36-year-old telecommunications company technician Manuel de Leon, a resident of Antonio Rivera Street in Tondo, Manila, seemed to have anticipated everything before he took his life.

“He said goodbye to everybody he knew, [from his former classmates in elementary and high school],” Tajonera pointed out, adding that the letters were written in longhand in multicolored bond papers that De Leon left beside his computer in his room.

His body was found by his 12-year-old daughter at 8:15 a.m. Thursday. It was lying on the floor beside the bed, with a half-empty bottle of silver cleaner nearby.

In the letters, which were addressed to his former live-in partner, members of his family and that of his ex-partner, a classmate from elementary and another one from high school as well as his coworkers, De Leon talked about his former live-in partner whom he allegedly caught cheating on him with another man two weeks ago.

The incident left him depressed, according to relatives he had confided in.

De Leon’s body was discovered when members of his family wondered why he was still at home although it was past 8 a.m.

“He was a model employee. He always left for work before 8 a.m.,” Tajonera said.