Troubled man found hanged in Quezon City barangay hall

QUEZON CITY, Philippines – An alleged drug dependent finally succeeded in killing himself after three tries inside a Barangay Sauyo detention cell in Novaliches, Quezon City, on Monday morning. The alleged suicide, identified as Arvin Tujan, 28, of Area 5, Sitio Cabuyao in the same barangay, reportedly hanged himself inside his cell with a belt strung from an iron grill. He was taken to the Bernardino Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. His body was transferred to a crime laboratory for autopsy. According to the victim’s family, it was not the first time that Tujan, who allegedly is fond of using illegal drugs, tried to hang himself. The first two tries he was found out. His sisters Irene, 22, and Alma Tujan, 15, along with Susana Dantes, suicide’s mother-in-law, were at the barangay hall to talk with Tujan’s complainant Rina Baron when the suicide happened at about 2:10 a.m. Tujan's body was discovered by Richard Pormilos, a barangay watchman, according to Chief Inspector Lino Banaag, chief of the Homicide Section of the Quezon City Police District. Banaag said, the barangay watchman immediately informed the incident to the relatives who were just few steps away from the main door of the hall. The relatives said they were aware of the Tujan's suicidal tendency, but they did not think that he could commit suicide inside right inside the cell since he was with another detainee. Banaag stressed that they would interrogate the other detainee, Ryan Maralino, also a resident of the barangay, to get a clearer story of the incident. Tujan was detained at the barangay hall on the complaint of Rina Baron for alarm and scandal, as he had been creating trouble in their neighborhood while under the influence of liquor at about 11 p.m. on Sunday. At the barangay hall, he had an argument with the complainant, prompting Pormilos to put him behind bars to cool him off. Minutes later, Maralino was also put inside the detention cell on complaint of his brother-in-law. He allegedly was asleep when Tujan committed suicide. - Lea Botones, GMANews.TV