Bakery helper hangs self over wife’s mounting hospital bills

MANILA, Philippines – A bakery helper was found dead hanging inside a storage room of his employer’s shop before dawn Monday in Quezon City in an apparent suicide.

Police said Jonathan Pineda, 38, was allegedly driven to hang himself because he could not pay his wife’s soaring hospital bills.

Pineda was found by his coworkers at 7 a.m. at the Echague Bakery on A. Bonifacio Street, Barangay (village) San Jose.

Case investigator Police Officer 2 George Caculba learned that days earlier, Pineda’s wife had suffered a miscarriage after falling from the stairs.

Pineda’s wife has been confined in hospital and he could not raise the money to settle the mounting bills, leaving him depressed and lost, police said.

He even tried to ask for a wage advance from his boss, Caculba said.

His depression was aggravated by talk that he was being blamed for his wife’s mishap.

On Monday morning, Pineda arrived for work at 5:30 a.m. earlier than his 7 a.m. calltime, police said.

When his colleagues showed up for work two hours later, they found Pineda hanging from the ceiling beams with a nylon rope around his neck.