A funeral home in Barangay San Nicolas, Cebu City has reportedly transformed its viewing facility into a morgue.
This was discovered by City Councilor David Tumulak during an inspection on Tuesday morning, Aug. 17, 2021, when the local lawmaker found the remains of 16 people in the building owned by St. Bernard Funeral Homes—10 were placed inside an ordinary freezer, while six were placed on the floor.
Three of the dead were suspected to have succumbed to complications caused by Covid-19.
It was initially believed that the viewing facility where wakes were often held had been abandoned; however, St. Bernard manager SJ Palomar said otherwise, adding that they have been using the facility since 2008.
Palomar further said they have a permit to operate the building, which stands between a commercial establishment and a mosque on N. Bacalso Avenue.
Palomar said they use the building to store dead bodies especially due to the huge volume of corpses that needs to be managed.
“Those were not fresh bodies. Those corpses, one female and two males, have been deposited and unclaimed bodies since 2020,” he said.
Palomar assured the bodies were properly embalmed to give more time for the families to prepare a proper burial for their deceased loved ones since some family members are still being quarantined.
“We helped them since it is in our protocol as a licensed embalmer to conduct the right preservation of the bodies,” he said. “We haven’t violated anything since we are only preserving the bodies.”
Palomar said they helped other funeral parlors by preserving the remains because the other funeral parlors have exceeded their capacity. The families gave consent to using ordinary freezers just to preserve the bodies.
The cadavers did not emit foul smell and the St. Bernard employees follow protocols by using protective gear in tending to remains, said Palomar.