Funeral home fast-tracks service to ‘presumed dead’ victim

MANILA, Philippines — When a person meets an accident on the road, a standard operating procedure would be to take him or her to the hospital, right?

Wrong. At least in this case. The victim, identified as Dalmacio Capuyan, was instead taken straight to a funeral home even before he could be declared dead, allegedly a casualty of a runaway taxi, according to Senior Police Officer 1 Laurente Teaño, case investigator.

It wasn’t clear who or to what funeral parlor Capuyan was taken but what was certain was that he was hit by a cab on the northbound lane of Mindanao Avenue in Barangay (village) Bahay Toro in Quezon City while on board his motorcycle and ironically, looking at another accident on the opposite lane around 3:45 a.m.

Teaño said Capuyan was headed towards Congressional Avenue when he suddenly stopped to look at a diesel tanker that rammed a concrete barrier.

Little did he know that there was a taxi behind him, which hit him, said Teano.

While there were other onlookers in the area during the incident, no one was able to get the plate number of the taxi, he said.

And instead of an ambulance, or a rescue team, Capuyan was taken to a funeral home, the officer said.