In memory of: Paul Mabaquiao.

SUICIDE. Ooh. It's the latest trend. Everybody's doing it and so the story goes.

The news came to me the other night, May 24th. He shot himself because of his "grades". As what the rumors have spread through text messages. He was found dead in their compound and was known to have died last May 22 but was found on the 24th. He was a nursing student and a friend of mine. He was a year ahead of me, and he courted me before. He would accompany me in going home just weeks before their High school graduation.

He was tall, funny and nice to be with. We kept a friendship that shared friendly nods and smiles when we've crossed paths.

He was an incoming nursing sophomore and maybe he dreamed of having a family, a home with a great wife and a stable job. But it all ended in a flash.

His dad found him lying in his own blood a gun in one hand and his cellphone in another. I know it broke his father's heart to see his son die. It was about 3 days before his body was found and word spread around easily. His face was never the same again. Looking at his face in the casket, as what my friend told me, it was different from what we last saw of him.

Maybe it was disappointment that drove him to do it, but it is not the answers to our problems. SUICIDE is a one-way ticket to HELL and beyond.

I pray for PAUL ANTHONY MABAQUIAO. For those who knew him as TONY BANGS, a good friend who puts smiles on our faces. For those who do not know him, please join us in praying for him. Prayers will help in reaching out to GOD to help him.