Sunday, June 29, 2008 Families of victims: 'Don't bury them yet' By Annabelle L. Ricalde
FAMILIES of the missing passengers of the sunken ferry in Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental appealed to government officials Friday not to immediately bury the retrieved bodies to give them the chance to identify and claim their dead relatives.
"Ipaila sa unta nila sa pamilya ug bisan sa katapusang higayon makita ang among minahal (Let the families identify and be able see our loved ones even for the last time)," said 55-year-old Luisa Peralta, whose son Evelio is among the 682 passengers of the ill-fated mv Princess of the Stars who are still missing.
Peralta, whose family resides on Barangay Carmen, expressed dismay to the reports that some dead bodies found by the rescuers were buried right away because of health concerns.
She said the bodies should be photographed before they are buried and that these can easily be exhumed after proper identifications.
The relatives of four other victims of the sea disaster echoed her appeal.
Antonio Mindoro, 57, said it would be great relief for them to know whether his son, Marlon, had survived the tragedy.
"The pain is in not knowing whether your son is dead, because you don't have a body to bury if indeed he is dead," said Mindoro, a resident of Barangay
Sihayon, Tagoloan town in Misamis Oriental.
Peralta, who flew to Cebu Tuesday, said relatives of the victims are extremely anxious every time a ship containing bodies arrives.
According to Peralta, the relatives were allowed to view the 49 bodies that arrived Friday from Sibuyan Island in Romblon where the mv Princess of the Stars capsized exactly one week Saturday.
Peralta said the viewing was done by batch of ten persons to avoid possible chaos.
Dr. Renato Bautista, chief of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) medico-legal division, said 19 teams of experts conducted examination on the retrieved bodies before these were presented to relatives for public viewing.
He said certain procedures would have to be followed for the examination of the cadavers. A cadaver will have to be examined by at least four teams -- photo group, dactiloscopy (fingerprinting), pathology and chemical forensics, and then the dental team.
Bautista cannot give an estimate as to how long the examination would take considering the condition of the cadavers, which are in an advanced state of decomposition.
He said, after the cadavers are processed, the families who are scheduled to view the bodies would have to be briefed on proper viewing procedures for possible identification.
The processed cadavers will be placed in caskets and brought to the St. Ignatius Chapel for viewing.
The Department of Health (DOH) meantime asked the public to stop eating fish and other seafood until laboratory results on waters around the sunken vessel show no contamination of pesticide endosulfan, which was sighted inside the ferry Friday.
