Great potential seen for RP's mortuary industry

CEBU, Philippines - The growing number of those interested in the business and the profession is an indication that there is great potential for the country’s mortuary industry.

During the 5th Annual Convention of the Philippine Mortuary Association (PMA) held in Cebu, Renato Dychangco Jr., PMA President, said that there are over 500 members of PMA at present which have grown tremendously since it started and still shows a budding possibility to grow more.  

Dychangco said that they are now targeting to double the number of members they have to 1,000 or more which he said they are very optimistic of achieving.

In their aim to further boost the mortuary industry in the country, Dychangco said that they will bid to host the Asian Mortuary conference which will be held this May in Hong Kong.

Dychangco said that Malaysia and Indonesia will also be bidding but they are hopeful to get the final nod in order to show to other countries that the mortuary industry in the Philippines is doing well.

He said that if they would be given the chance to host the next conference, they would be preparing for a big event which would have more than 2,000 participants.

Further, as PMA aims to “professionalize funeral service and upgrade the standard of death care in the Philippines,” Dychangco said that with the help of the annual conventions where they have various discussions on the concerns of the sector, they would be able strengthen the high standard mortuary services that they would want for all the industry players to offer.

This starting off with the discussion of procedures and policies that was discussed during the convention by the Department of Health represented by Dr. Josephine Hipolito, secretariat of the Committee of Examiners for Undertakers and Embalmers.

Dychangco said that part of the discussion was aimed to intensify their goal to professionalize the industry and provide licenses for the embalmers.

“We are making sure that the standards of the industry would be higher and greater,” said Dychangco who added that Cebu member-mortuaries in particular have been complying with the standards that they wish to sustain and is continually uplifting the standards that they are practicing.

Aside from the updates from DOH during the convention, health care waste management in mortuary setting was also discussed as well as managing the perspective to success for mortuary businesses and the role of mortuary professionals in Philippine disaster protocols.