KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 18 Feb) – Severe depression could have led a 47-year-old earthquake evacuee in a village in Makilala, North Cotabato to end his life, a village official said.
Chairman Melvin Fortajada, of Barangay Malasila in Makilala, said they saw the body of Marciano Adlaon hanging on a tree at Sitio Balawan around 9 p.m. on Monday.
Fortajada said the victim was among the thousands of residents of Barangay Malasila who evacuated near the barangay hall when a series of strong earthquakes hit North Cotabato in October last year.
The victim is Fortajada’s godbrother.
Adlaon, said Fortajada, was suffering from panic disorder, trauma, insomnia, and loss of appetite after the earthquakes.
They even brought the victim to a doctor at the town center twice so he could recover from trauma.
But the symptoms still persist, according to the village official.
The victim, together with his wife and eight of his children, stayed at the evacuation camp located at the back of the barangay hall in Malabuan, Makilala. Fortajada said the evacuees were told to remain in the camp while the government has yet to purchase a lot as their relocation site.
Some evacuees, however, would go back to the farm in order to earn a living after relief had become scarce.
Adlaon’s farm at Sitio Labawan was among those areas in Makilala town declared as “high risk” for landslides and earthquakes, which all the more caused him to get depressed, Fortajada explained.
Around 6 a.m. on February 17, Adlaon went to work at a farm at Sitio Labawan but failed to return home in the afternoon. This, according to Fortajada, led his family to suspect that something happened to him.
An hour later, his wife and children found his lifeless body hanging on a tree.
Fortajada arrived at the area around 9 p.m., and brought the body to a funeral home for autopsy.
Authorities in Makilala found no foul play in the victim’s death, according to Police Major Arniel Melocotones. (Malu Cadelina Manar / MindaNews)