Working in a garbage dump a first for forensics team sent to Cagayan de Oro

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines—In his 15 years with the Disaster Victim Identification of the National Bureau of Investigation, Dr. Wifredo Tierra and his team of forensic experts have never examined remains of victims in a garbage dump—until now.

Working amid garbage is not only unsafe and unsanitary but slows down the forensics team’s sensitive task of identifying human bodies.

At least 30 cadavers—victims of Tropical Storm “Sendong,” which struck northern Mindanao over the weekend—had already been brought to the dumpsite in Barangay Upper Carmen here when Tierra and his team arrived last Monday afternoon.

Since then, the forensics team has been toiling on the rising number of bodies at the dump with nothing to protect them from the elements, save for several open tents.

Aside from the smell of the decomposing bodies, the team also has to deal with the overpowering stench of garbage.

“There is always an ideal site that is pleasant, secluded, secure and safe for us to work,” Tierra said Wednesday.

He said the NBI had initially requested for the hangar in Lumbia Airport as the site for body identification. However, the agency was still waiting for the National Power Corporation, which owns the place, to give a thumbs up.

The hangar was also where the remains of the victims of the Cebu Pacific air crash in 1998 were identified.

Tierra said another possible venue was the Cagayan de Oro City Convention Center in Sitio Taguanao, Barangay Indahag.

As early as Sunday night, the bodies of victims killed in the flashflood started to pile up in the city’s funeral homes and residents in the area were already complaining about the stench.

Mayor Vicente Emano then ordered the transfer of the bodies to the landfill area where their relatives can view them.

But his decision drew harsh criticism not only from his constituents.

Citizens expressed outrage through social networks such as Facebook, saying “the dead deserved dignity and respect” and that Emano did not have any respect for the people who trusted him with their votes.

But Emano said he had no choice but to transfer the bodies to the landfill as people were already complaining about the stench and relatives of the victims were requesting for a mass burial.

Meanwhile, Tierra and his team advised the mayor not to push through with his plans for the mass burial, saying there was no need to rush because the remains posed no threat of disease.

“Except for the foul smell, there is no danger or health hazard,” Tierra said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the DVI team has processed 10 of the 77 bodies brought to the dumpsite. The remains were marked with a case number and placed inside a cadaver bag.

They were expecting to examine around 20-30 bodies on Thursday but had conditions been better, Tierra said, the forensics team could work on more bodies.

Authorities said the examined remains will be scheduled for a temporary burial in the Bolonsiri Public Cemetery.

The forensics team hopes to finish the examination of the bodies by Friday—that is, if the bodies stop piling up.

Around 500 flood victims remain unaccounted for.

The post-mortem identification involves the actual examination of the bodies using three major parameters: fingerprinting; collection of DNA samples; and dental identification.

Clothing and body tattoos are also examined.

Tierra said his team is having difficulty with the fingerprinting of the bodies because skin tissue has started to peel off.

He also advised relatives not to view the bodies in their current state. “The best thing to do is be patient and wait,” he said.

Tierra’s team had also conducted the examination and identification of the victims of the MV Princess of the Stars, which sank off the coast of Romblon in 2008.

He said that of 820 fatalities, 400 bodies had been identified by the DVI.