MY OPINIONS MATTER..... ALL THE TIME: A FRIEND NOW GONE!

I met him last December 2007 during the Marikina Christmas Festival Tiangge along the Marikina River. We own a food stall while this friend was a salesboy of juice drinks (palamig) and quail eggs (tokneneng, kwek-kwek) in a stall beside ours. He was very amiable and he would dance along my playlist of trance and hip-hop music. I just cannot forget the way he danced to the tune of our stall jingle Boy Bondat.

April of this year, I asked him if he would like to work for me as an assistant and will take charge of the chores in my pad. I asked him too if he would like to become my patient for my classes in Medicine in FEU-NRMF. He was okay with all the conditions including a bit smaller pay. We got along well as I would bring him to my school everytime I would go there. He was just silent all the time. I thought that maybe he was just like that, but at the back of my mind I can sense that he has a lot of issues, a very typical introvert. Days have passed this May and I finally got enrolled with him as my assistant and soon-to-be patient. Since classes are yet to start and that i still haven't moved in to my pad yet, I told him that I will just text him if the time comes that I will be needing him.

Third week of May came, my mom told me to ask him to go to come visit us and that he will be working temporarily in our store in front of our house while my classes aren't open yet. I would text and call him but he never replied nor called back. One instant came, he sent me a message saying that he will be coming. The next reply I got from him was a retraction. The same thing happen the second time, he told me that he will be watching over his cousin who is at the hospital therefore he cannot come. The third time he messaged me, he said that he was about to leave and that he will just eat and take a bath before going to our house. He never came. I kept sending messages to him, calling him asking if he's still interested to work with me. There were no replies, no call backs. It was that time I felt that something was wrong, that he was into something, a problem that he can't handle well.

Last Tuesday (June 10) while I was on my way to school, I received a message from him. It was sort of a note or a short letter and there were words of apologies and good byes in it. I didn't gave it much attention since I didn't know the names of the people in the message. I just replied and asked him what the message was all about and that I could not understand the meaning of it. I thought maybe it was just a wrong sent message. Yesterday, I told my mom to look for a new one to replace him since he was not returning my messages and calls. My classes have already started and I needed someone badly to help me out. Nevertheless, I was still hoping that he would reply or call back and express his interest. He never did. I was still expectant, still he never did.

Just tonight, I tried my luck to call his mobile phone. I said to myself, maybe this time he's available to take my call, taking chances that is. To my surprise a lady answered, it was his sister. She told me that he is "gone" in a straight forward voice. Gone as in dead, I asked myself. Judging from the tone of his sister's voice, I can't tell if she was serious or it was just a big joke. He's dead she said. He drank a silver cleaning solution and wasn't able to make it. My heart was pounding fast of disbelief. I even asked her if she was joking, she said she wasn't. I asked for details and she told me that he was brought to PGH (Philippine General Hospital) and that his body is already scheduled for an autopsy. I was still in disbelief! I called up PGH and I was able to confirm that my friend was indeed brought there but I got no information as to his status. I was transferred from one department to another until I reached the PGH Pediatric Emergency Room.

A lady answered, then she said that she was my friend's attending physician. My heart was pounding fast, anticipating for her answer. She then said, "patay na nang dinala siya dito". I was speechless, getting numb, my breath became shorter and shorter every second. Still I couldn't utter a word and felt like something inside my chest wants to explode. I thanked the lady then said goodbye.

Tears were flowing down my face as I was putting the phone down. He is indeed gone, dead! Here is another victim of silver cleaning solution poisoning! Silver cleaning solutions were a constant news content about being used as a suicide agent and I can't believe that one of those who used it to end his life was someone close to me. Goodbye my friend! If only I knew that the message you sent was really intended for me and that you are already telling me of your plan of leaving, I could've done something.