Unclaimed bodies moved from garbage dump to hangar

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines—Unclaimed bodies earlier moved to a garbage dump are now in a better place—in a hangar at the Lumbia Airport here.

Dr. Wifredo Tierra, leader of the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) of the National Bureau of Investigation, on Wednesday said they had transferred the bodies to a hangar owned by the National Power Corp.

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

Tierra earlier said it was the first time for his group of forensic experts to examine the remains of victims in a garbage dump.

The forensic team, which arrived Monday afternoon, had to work in the middle of a garbage pile with nothing to protect them from the heat of the sun except for several tarpaulin tents. Aside from the odor of the decomposing bodies, they also had to deal with the stench of rotting garbage.

The bodies had piled up in the city’s funeral homes. Mayor Vicente Emano ordered the transfer of the bodies to the landfill, a decision that was met with outrage by the survivors who accused the mayor of disrespecting the dead.

Emano said he did not have a choice but to transfer the bodies to the landfill as people were already complaining of the stench and that relatives of the victims were requesting for a mass burial.

At least 70 bodies were brought to the landfill.

The forensic experts were hoping to finish with the examination of the bodies by Friday. That is, if the bodies stopped piling up.

Tierra said that as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, 13 bodies had been buried in shallow grave at the Bolonsiri Public Cemetery.

The 13 bodies were properly tagged and placed in a body bag after undergoing post-mortem profiling, which involved fingerprinting, collection of DNA samples and dental identification. The victim’s clothing and body tattoos were also studied and documented.

Tierra said his team was having difficulty with the fingerprinting of the bodies because the skin had started to peel off.

Tierra and his team of experts are the same team that examined and identified the victims in the sinking of the interisland ferry, Princess of the Stars, which went down off the coast of Romblon in 2008.

Out of the 820 passengers, Tierra said, the team was able to identify 400 bodies retrieved from the wreckage of the ship.