DSWD to probe girl's poverty-triggered suicide
11/08/2007 | 08:17 AM
\The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has
ordered an investigation into the extent of poverty in Davao City
that reportedly drove an 11-year-old girl to commit suicide last
weekend.
Radio dzBB reported Thursday that DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral
ordered the DSWD regional office in Region 11 to check the poverty
that drove Marianeth Amper to kill herself.
Cabral also ordered the DSWD regional office to extend help to
Marianeth's family, despite Health Secretary Francisco Duque III's
insistence Wednesday that Marianeth's was an "isolated" case.
Marianeth, daughter of a local carpenter, left behind a letter and
diary where she asked God to help her parents make ends meet.
She also said she could not go to school because she always lacked
money for transportation and food.
Her death saddened the city, whose residents pitched in to provide
financial assistance to her family.
Before she died, the girl wrote "Wish Ko Lang," a reality-based
program, "wishing" for shoes, clothes, a bag and a bicycle so she
could continue going to school. - GMANews.TV
also in straits time today 
