Farmer Dante Bagas walks at his 3-hectare ricefield destroyed by dry spell in Burungutan village, North Upi, Maguindanao. (INQUIRER)
COTABATO CITY — A 37-year-old farmer, who reportedly got so depressed after his farmland got parched by the dry spell, committed suicide in South Upi town in Maguindanao.
Chief Insp. Roel Villarin, South Upi police chief, said by phone that days before killing himself on Thursday, Jimmy Tamberya of Barangay Kigan had already refused food and showed signs of depression.
Villarin said Tamberya’s family had told investigators the farmer had worried so much on how to feed his family after his crop had wilted from the lack of rain.
He said Tamberya – who had one child by his wife – also had failed to borrow cash from neighbors as they too had suffered from the drought.
On Thursday, the victim’s wife – whom Villarin did not identify – went to the town proper to look for somebody, who would lend them money. She went home empty-handed.
“When she returned home, she found her husband dead. He hanged himself,” Villarin said.
South Upi town councilor Lito Bansigan said from what they have gathered from the village, it appeared that Tamberya was so stressed at the thought that his family would go hungry.
“He was so stressed and had possibly thought his problem had no solution that’s why he committed suicide,” Bansigan said, adding that Tamberya would have been alive today had he only waited.
Bansigan said the Maguindanao provincial government and some non-government organizations have already started providing assistance to drought-affected areas and South Upi was among those included in the future distribution areas.