SEVENTY-SIX more bodies of sinking victims recovered from the islands of Masbate, Romblon and Sorsogon arrived in Cebu late Sunday night onboard mv Cebu Princess, raising the body count to 282.
But were all the bodies already brought here and those arriving all passengers and crewmembers of the mv Princess of the Stars that sank off Sibuyan Island in Romblon last June 21?
Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama yesterday expressed doubts, noting that smaller sea vessels also sank in the area where Princess of the Stars capsized as typhoon Frank hit the country.
“It might be that Sulpi-cio (Lines) has become a collector of bodies…I wish for some enlightenment about it,” he said.
Rama met with representatives of the International Police (Interpol), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) forensic team, Sulpicio Lines and City Government yesterday morning to plot the next moves with the arrival of a mobile morgue on Aug. 4.
He said even Sulpicio officials were “very much surprised,” especially because the bodies brought here has numbered around 300.
But Cebu City will accommodate all the bodies even as Rama urged the families of the victims in the Princess of the Stars sinking and other sea accidents near the Romblon area to have DNA samples taken.
The City has promised to shoulder the expenses for the needed equipment for the mobile morgue, like air conditioning units, stainless steel tables and water closets.
DNA samples
NBI Medico-Legal Division Chief Renato Bautista said that the bodies that arrived Sunday were in a “far advanced stage of decomposition” given the period they were submerged in water or buried.
He described some of them as “close to (being) skeletal.”
Processing of the bodies has started at the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes along Junquera St., Cebu City.
“We are opening the body bags two or three at a time in order to control the (spread of the) odor,” Bautista said.
With the closing of the Action Center at the Cebu City Sports Center last Saturday, DNA collection continues at the Philippines Center on Transnational Crime Visayas-Field Office (PCTC-VFO) with two DNA stations available.
PCTC-VFO Chief Anthony Obenza is overseeing the DNA collections.
The Cebu City Disaster and Coordinating Council (CCDCC) said that the average time to perform a DNA match is three to four weeks.
“(But) the process also relies on family members having provided the necessary comparison samples so that a match can be made,” it added.
The NBI will notify the families once identification is made, with the legal husband or wife taking precedence over other family members and relatives in claiming a body.
“Sulpicio Lines will provide allowance for the transport of the victim’s remains and the accompanying relatives,” the CCDCC said.
Expert
Early yesterday morning, another disaster victim identification (DVI) expert of the International Commission of Missing Persons (ICMP) arrived in Cebu.
Rene Pape will brief 10 NBI and PCTC-VFO officials on the process of encoding antemortem and postmoretem data, Obenza said.
PCTC-VFO is waiting for the arrival of the equipment used to encode ante-mortem and postmortem data at the Information Management Center.
Laptops, desktop computers, portable hard drives, printers, etc. are currently at customs awaiting release.
Jocelyn Prenciona, 35, of Misamis Oriental arrived yesterday morning in Cebu and went straight to the PCTC-VFO office to have her DNA sample collected.
Prenciona had earlier refused to leave the Sulpicio Lines office in Manila in the hope of finding her husband Ursulo and daughter Ella Jane in the survivors list.
“After two weeks, I lost hope and decided to come here to have my DNA collected,” she said.
Interpol
Meanwhile, Rama said Interpol people are asking when the ship will be refloated so hundreds of bodies trapped in the bowels of Princess of the Stars could be retrieved.
“They want to know the date because there are people coming in(to the country),” Rama said, noting that additional Interpol personnel will only be sent here once the bodies still in the ship are retrieved. (RHM/EPB)
