Duterte asks crematoriums to keep pre-quarantine rates

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday asked crematoriums not to raise the rates of its services and keep it to the price before the strict quarantine measures were set in place.

“Ito namang may-ari ng crematorium, may I ask you to maintain yung presyo ng cremation before quarantine. Ibig sabihin, yung presyo na wala pa tayong problema, yun ang ibigay ninyo. Nakikiusap ako,” Duterte said in a televised address.

(The owners of crematoriums, may I ask you to maintain the price of cremation before quarantine. Meaning, offer the price when we didn’t have a problem. I’m asking you.)

“Ngayon, kung taasan ninyo yung presyo tapos, iiwan ko yung patay dyan sa inyo,” he warned.

(Now if you increase the rates, I will leave the corpse to you.)

Local government units (LGUs) are tasked to designate funeral service facilities to handle the remains of patients who passed away due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases earlier said.

The task force said funeral homes refusing to service the remains of COVID-19 patients will be penalized.

The Philippines has so far recorded 362 fatalities caused by the respiratory disease. The number is out of 5,660 cases of COVID-19.

Edited by JPV