CEBU CITY, Philippines — A 22-year-old man, whom police believed to have been depressed for being arrested with a sachet of suspected shabu worth P272, was found dead inside the toilet of the Dalaguete Police Station detention cell on Sunday, August 11.
The detainee had died from an apparent suicide, said Police Staff Sergeant Leon Gesim of the Dalaguete Police Station.
Gesim said the body of the detainee was found at 3:47 a.m. by a fellow detainee — the dead detainee was found hanging inside the toilet, where he used a straw rope in the apparent suicide.
Gesim said that the detainee was arrested at 2 p.m. of August 10 or 14 hours earlier during a buy-bust operation in Barangay Balot in Dalaguete, a southern Cebu town at least 84 kilometers from Cebu City.
The police officer said that the man was caught with a sachet of suspected shabu with a Dangerous Drugs Board value of P272.
Gesim said that they believed that the man must have gotten depressed for his arrest, since he just lied down on the floor of the detention cell and had not spoken to anybody including his fellow detainees.
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Tawag Paglaum Centro Bisaya is a 24/7 call-based hotline for suicide prevention and emotional crisis intervention established in Cebu. Anyone in Central Visayas experiencing a mental disorder relapse or suicidal thoughts may reach the hotline at 0939-936-5433 or 0927-654-1629. /dbs