Thousands of cadavers left rotting in open field

TACLOBAN CITY , Philippines   â€” About 1,000 cadavers of those who died during typhoon Yolanda’s fury are left rotting to this day in an open space at Suhi in Barangay 105 of San Isidro district in this city, endangering the health of residents around the area.

The pile site is a residential area near the city’s garbage recycling warehouse and the health center of the barangay, which is about 35-minute ride from the city’s downtown area going to the San Juanico Bridge or the junction road to Babatngon town.

Residents complained that their barangay is now blanketed with the eerie stench of death and a swarm of flies that could transmit bacteria from the rotting cadavers, all in body bags, to the people living in the area. Even their water supply, they said, may have been contaminated prompting them to fetch water from a very distant source.

Barangay Chairman Eutequio Balunan, 40, said he already appealed to the city government to act on the immediate disposal of the cadavers in the area because his constituents, especially the children, have been afflicted with various diseases already.

One resident, Maritess Pedrosa, 39, said her 54-year-old mother, Lilia Batica, a barangay councilwoman, was taken to the hospital after complaining of stomach disorder due to the daily exposure to the stench of the dead that engulfed the barangay. Their house is only about 15 meters from the stockpile site of the cadavers.

“We tried to sleep with our face covered with sanitary masks. We could hardly eat well because of the foul odor around us, which made us throw up always. We are experiencing stomach ache, headache and nausea. We are appealing for help from the city government,” Pedrosa told The Freeman.

Pedrosa said that the piling of the cadavers in body bags started in Nov. 10, and Mayor Alfred Romualdez told the barangay that it would be for three days only with 1,000 cadavers laid there side by side for identification of relatives. “The cadavers however are left to rot there until now, exposed above ground with the stench swarming upon us,” she lamented.

According to Dr. Gloria Fabris, head of the city health and nutrition cluster, the site was supposed to be a “temporary holding area” for “several unidentified cadavers” that are up to now left in the open, although she could not give the exact number.

A team of eight policemen, each in three duty shifts, has been detailed to guard the site round-the-clock because stray dogs have been lapping up the cadavers from time to time.

The NBI-Region 8 was reportedly the one handling the identification of the dead bodies with the relatives, taking pictures before taking the identified ones to the burial site in a public cemetery at the nearby Brgy Basper.

Last Friday, about 90 bodies from the pile were already identified by relatives, with the help of the NBI-8, and these were taken out of the site and buried at Basper cemetery. But yesterday, nine more cadavers were brought in after being recovered from Brgy  Bagacay of the city, said Balunan.

City Councilor Jerry Uy, when sought for comment on the matter, said, “We have passed a resolution requesting the City Health officer to expedite the identification and burial of the dead. In my opinion, the reason why there is slow action on the burial is that there is no definite point person of the city government who should be responsible on carrying out the task.” (FREEMAN)