Affordable casket bill pushed

CEBU, Philippines — Indigent families will soon have access to affordable caskets and funeral services amounting to not more than P20,000 for their departed loved ones.

This is expected to happen once House Bill (HB) No. 102 or the proposed "Affordable Casket Act" sponsored by Cebu Fifth District Representative and Deputy Speaker Duke Frasco is passed into law.   The proposed measure has recently passed deliberations in the Committee on Trade and Industry at the House of Representatives.

During the hearing, which was attended by representatives and stakeholders from the funeral services industry, they agreed that the proposed measure would be expanded in scope to include all funeral services, and not just the cost of caskets.

HB 102 states that all funeral establishments shall always maintain the availability of decent caskets that would cost not more than P20,000.

The scope of the said bill was expanded during the Committee deliberations with the P20,000 cap now to include not only caskets but also funeral expenses.  In his sponsorship speech, Frasco said that in the Philippines, the cost of dying has become a burden akin to the challenges of living.

Many Filipinos, he said, are born in poverty, and unfortunately, they often pass away in similar circumstances.

“With steep funeral and burial costs, one can only imagine the painful experience that grief-stricken Filipino families go through when facing not only the loss of their loved ones, but also the financial burden brought about by high-costs funeral expenses,” Frasco said.

The price of caskets ranges from P5,000 to P110,000, with the availability of lower priced caskets often limited and even unavailable in most funeral parlors. Funeral expenses further compound soaring costs of dying in the country.

With Frasco’s “Affordable Caskets Act”, it says that if there is no affordable casket available and the deceased is indigent or extremely poor as duly certified by a Barangay Chairman or a social worker, the funeral establishment shall be obliged to offer a casket of any higher value, but the price to be paid shall still not exceed P20,000 to include funeral services.

Under the proposed measure, funeral parlors found in violation will face fines ranging from P200,000 to P400,000, or the revocation of their business permits or related licenses.

As former mayor of Liloan town in the Province of Cebu, Frasco said he had seen firsthand the financial burden a poor and indigent family would face after losing a loved one with mounting funeral expenses often leading to families not only suffering grief but also indebtedness.

He added that regulating the sale of caskets and funeral expenses will greatly relieve grief-stricken families of the added financial burden, and preserve the human dignity of our fellow Filipinos, both in life and in death.

Once passed into law, the proposed measure is seen to provide social protections to the poorest of the poor and reduce the impact of poverty incidence amidst the current high costs of funerals and caskets. —/FPL (FREEMAN)