Tacloban debris continues to yield human bodies

A typhoon survivor stands on rubbish in Tacloban, central Philippines on Dec. 8, 2013. AP FILE PHOTO

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — More bodies continue to be retrieved by the authorities from heaps of debris that liter the streets of Tacloban, two months after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” and  accompanying storm surges demolished the city and other parts of Eastern Visayas.

Senior Superintendent Pablo Cordeta, head of the Task Force Cadaver, said workers sifting through the typhoon’s detritus are finding five to seven bodies a day.

“We still expect more recoveries,” Cordeta said, noting that a susbstantial amount of debris still has to be removed from many areas in Tacloban, the hardest hit by Yolanda, described as the most powerful storm to hit land ever.

Cordeta’s task force has recovered 17 bodies since it resumed operations after the Christmas break through January 4, mostly in the coastal San Jose district, he said.

All bodies collected by the task force are taken to Barangay (village) Suhi, 13 kilometers north of the Tacloban city center.

Meanwhile, city administrator Tecson John Lim said that 1,305 bodies deposited in Suhi have been buried in a 1.4-meter-deep mass grave located within the compound of the local health center. The mass burial was completed on January 5.

About 1,200 other bodies have been buried at the public cemetery at the nearby town of Basper, Lim said.

However, Lim added, at least 66 bodies had yet to be buried as they were still being processed by experts from the National Bureau of Investigation for identification purposes.

NBI forensic experts were getting specimens from the bodies such as small bone and dental fragments to be kept for future reference and identification.

Lim said that these bodies were kept in a refrigerated trailer van donated by the Philippine Red Cross.

He said that Tacloban City has a recorded death toll of 2,505 persons.

The cleaning of debris is being carried out by local residents who enlisted with the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation’s cash-for-work program. They receive P500 for a day of work.

The United Nations Development Program has initiated its own cash-for-work program to clear the city of the remaining storm debris.

RELATED STORIES:

Palace: Identification of corpses ‘might take some time’

1,400 corpses remain unburied 7 weeks after ‘Yolanda’