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Saturday, November 26, 2005
Funeral home hit for operating 'illegally'
By Lory Ann B. Bilbao
THE City Government has closed the Gegato Abecia Funeral Homes, Inc. (Gafh) in Alta Tierra Village, Jaro, but the latter has been operating secretly.
Florencio A. Yap, a resident of the village, made this claim in a complaint addressed to Mayor Jerry P. Trenas.
Yap stated that Gafh offers funeral services at the house of the deceased until the burial place while using their building as base.
The complainant said the Gafh even encourages public viewing.
"Either way there is a violation of our laws," said Yap.
Yap cited that the Supreme Court decided to close Gafh on December 8, 2003.
Trenas ordered the closure of Gafh on March 9, 2004 and City Legal Office Chief Edgardo Gil served the said order.
Yap reported that the Notice of Closure posted by Gil's team at the door of the Gafh building was removed sometime later.
He added that the said removal is punishable by law as stated in the notice.
Yap attached a copy of a published obituary, which announced that a certain wake is at the Gafh Inc., MacArthur Hi-way, Barangay Quintin Salas, Jaro, Iloilo City.
Sun.Star Iloilo was able to publish the same obituary Thursday.
"Clearly, this is not allowed under our laws and shows contempt of court," he said.
Yap asked Trenas that the latter's Executive Order on the closure of Gafh be served with finality and that a permanent sign at the building concerned be posted.
Gafh was closed down a year after its operations for lack of Environmental Compliance Certificate and business permit.
Gafh was only able to operate in that one year because of the mandamus issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 29 compelling the City Government to issue its owners a permit to operate.
The SC, however, reversed the lower court's order December 2003.
RTC Branch 34 also dismissed Gafh's petition for writ of preliminary injunction against the DENR's Environment Management Bureau and the City Government, which issued a cease and desist order and notice of revocation of permit, respectively, to the funeral parlor also last December.
Gafh attorney-in-fact Daniel Fajardo said there were nine city officials who received "lobby money" from the owners of Gafh.
Gil was not reached as of press time while Trenas is presently out of the country for a resource-financing program hosted by World Bank and will be back December 10.
(November 26, 2005 issue)
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