M/V Princess of the Stars tragedy: Exhumation, examination of bodies to take 6 months

CEBU, Philippines – The Independent Forensic Group will need at least six months to finish the whole process of re-examining the unidentified cadavers of M/V Princess of the Stars victims buried in Cebu.

This was the timeframe set by Dr. Erwin Erfe in the action plan that his group submitted before the Regional Trial Court for approval.

The group was required by RTC judge Soliver Peras to submit an action plan on how to go about the exhumation of the 36 unidentified cadavers that they wanted to examine.

Erfe, in his eight-page action plan, stressed that the exhumation and the examinations that his group will perform on the cadavers will not be “adversarial” to that of the National Bureau of Investigation and the members of the Interpol who were involved in the previous efforts of identifying the remains.

“Contrary to public perception and to what the media played up and continue to churn up, our task here is not adversarial to that of the NBI and their colleagues who figured in the earlier identification effort,” Erfe said.

According to Erfe, their effort will be complimentary to the earlier identification efforts of the NBI hoping that with the fresh look at the remains and emphasizing other approaches, they would be able to help identify the cadavers and allow them to be returned to their loved ones and be buried according to their culture, religion and beliefs.

Erfe said that they will start the process by reviewing and assessing the basis of the previous experts in the identification. He said the process will take them at least two weeks to accomplish.

After the evaluation, Erfe said they will proceed with the exhumation of the cadavers which will take up to two months. Erfe said they will do the exhumation one at a time and to be fully documented using photos and videos.

The remains will then be brought to a suitable and secured place for processing. The remains will be subjected to x-ray, somatoscopic (anthroposcopic) examination for possible individualizing trait and anthropometric measurements where and when it is necessary.

They will also conduct examinations on soft and skeletal tissues for pathologic medical and dental alterations. Erfe said the body will be cleaned before it will be returned to their tombs in Carreta Cemetery.

Erfe said that after the process the relatives of the missing passengers of the doomed ship will be contacted to produce the medical, dental and other records of their missing relatives for purposes of matching.

All the data that the Independent Forensic Group will gather will be stored in a computer. The individual experts that compose the team will submit their respective findings two weeks after for analysis.

Erfe said that the analysis and matching will take them another two months before they can come up with the final summary report of their findings and conclusion.

The court earlier granted the motion filed by the Public Attorney’s Office seeking for the exhumation of the 36 unidentified cadavers for purposes of identifying them.

The move however was described by the NBI as an exercise in futility and a waste of time because the process that the independent forensic group wanted to take has already been explored by them. 

The M/V Princess of the Stars sank off Mindoro more than a year ago at the height of Typhoon Frank, over 800 people perished in the accident. — Fred P. Languido/BRP (THE FREEMAN)