45 unidentified cadavers: Apartment-type burial on Sept 30

CEBU, Philippines - The apartment-type burial of the remaining 45 unidentified cadavers of the ill-fated M/V Saint Thomas Aquinas is set on September according to the 2GO management and Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes.

Yet they have still to determine today where the burial will be either at Calamba Cemetery or at the Carreta Cemetery, both in Cebu City.

Unidentified fatalities of the M/V Princess of the Stars were buried at Carreta Cemetery in 2008.

The apartment-type burial stemmed from the proposal of 2GO management and Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes.

Funeral homes manager, Engr. Bong Ebo, earlier said that the apartment-type burial was estimated to occupy two meters by ten meters in five rows.

Cebu City councilor Dave Tumulak is urging the families to attend the burial as a sign of respect and to finally send off the souls in peace.

Tumulak has invited the relatives of the victims of the tragic incident including the families of the remaining unidentified victims, the government agencies, 2GO, Sulpicio Shipping, and private individuals to attend the mass burial.

Ebo during yesterday’s command conference reiterated that the bodies laid to their temporary resting place while proper identifying marks and secondary evidences would still be put together.

“Despite being unidentified, we have secured death certificates for them specifying the case number which is assigned by PNP Crime Laboratory to each casualty. Once identified following series of principal and secondary identifying tests, necessary corrections will be done as to the names of the fatality,” Ebo said.

Acting Mayor Edgardo Labella said that the City will give all support and assistance in terms of the logistics and facilities.

2GO and Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes will have a discussion today with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

Ebo said that three cadavers will be shipped soon out of the five remain under their custody. Out of 115 bodies retrieved, 45 remain unidentified as of yesterday while 70 have been identified and were already released to their respective families in Mindanao areas.

One survivor confined at Chong Hua Hospital will be released today but still recovering from a dislocated right shoulder and broken clavicle.

Meanwhile, 2GO’s representative Boy Mundo announced yesterday that the insurance will be released after two months instead of one year as the usual process of London Offshore Insurance.

An additional insurance from 2GO will be added to the mandatory insurance if the passengers of the ill-fated M/V St. Thomas Aquinas were able to acquire a P20 “supersure insurance” before departure will be subjected to an additional insurance.

Mandatory Insurance includes accidental death of P300,000 plus P40,000 (2GO); medical expenses of P20,000 plus P40,000 (2GO); and burial assistance of P20,000 plus P40,000 (2GO).

Ebo said that the 842 victims received financial assistance amounting to P4.2 million. The 590 received P6,000 each as replacement luggage amounting to P3.5 million, 50 received funeral assistance amounting to P3 million, 72 received medical assistance amounting to P2.3 million, repatriated cost amounting to P2.2 million and the shipping of cadavers amounting to P190,00.

Meanwhile, the Incident Management Team (IMT) is awaiting for the recommendation from the Philippine Coast Guard and Philippine Navy on whether or not to stop the retrieval operations of the sunken ship, M/V Saint Thomas Aquinas.

IMT head, Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, yesterday said he is getting updates from PCG and PN on the status of the ongoing retrieval operations at the Lauis Ledge.

Davide was informed that passable areas of the sunken vessel were already penetrated but there are portions said to be very risky for the technical divers because of the debris.

“We don’t want also to compromise the safety of the rescuers,” Davide said.

Davide understands that some families are still waiting for the bodies of their love ones believed to be trapped inside be recovered.

Davide said he was told by some divers that as much as they want to recover the remaining bodies, they are also at risks.

He said that the divers are in the better position to make assessment.

“I will make my announcement on the basis of what they will recommend to me,” Davide said. (FREEMAN)