‘Suicide’ rate is highest in PHL

More than 25,000 Japanese took their own lives in 2014 or an average of 70 every day. However, Japan is second only to South Korea with the highest suicides rates in the world, reported the BBC.

Among those who committed suicide in Japan and South Korea were government officials who had been embroiled in scandals, especially allegations of corruption. A number of them jumped off buildings.

According to Wataru Nishida, a psychologist at Tokyo’s Temple University, many Japanese look at suicide “as a way of taking responsibility” akin to the Samurai practice of committing seppuku (self-decapitation) or the suicide missions of kamikaze pilots of World War 2.

For disgraced government officials and other high-profile personalities especially in Japan, suicide is seen as the ultimate public apology with its cathartic or restorative effect in redeeming family honor.

In the Philippines, suicide by dishonored public officials is practically unheard of with the exception of the suicide in 1987 of an ex-Cory Aquino minister and in 2011 of an Arroyo Cabinet member.

Par for the course for Filipino politicians with thick hides is to cling to their elective or appointive positions even if already caught with their hands inside the proverbial cookie jar.

Why commit suicide, many of the said politicians would ask, when they could hire the best lawyers to stave off being jailed and then continue living their pampered lives with the taxpayers’ money they’ve looted?

Yet, the suicide rate in the Philippines is higher than in South Korea and Japan. The suicide committed by millions of Filipino voters every three years by electing inept and corrupt leaders. –End-

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