An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has called on the government to study the real reason why some people commit suicide.

Msgr. Pedro Quitorio III, CBCP media director, said it is only by studying the root cause of suicide that the government will know how to stop or prevent such incident from taking place in the future.

“They should really study the cause of this so they’ll know how to address it," he said.

Although incidents of suicide have been taking place in the country for years, Quitorio said it is not the kind of problem that should be ignored.

“We should not ignore this problem. They should study this so these things won’t happen in the future,” he said.

CBCP Public Affairs chairman and Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez said that the Church is also partly to be blamed for some people’s lack of value for life.

“Maybe we didn’t teach them enough because moral building is the main responsibility of the Church,” Iñiguez said.

“You see, as the sense of morality decreases, the spiritual dimension also lessens,” added Iñiguez.

The prelate vowed to intensify the formation of the faithful. “The priority of the Church in the Philippines is integral faith formation. I think that’s what we need to intensify,” Iñiguez said.

Several suicide cases were reported in the country recently, the latest of which was that of the 23-year-old son of actor Cesar Montano.