To help them identify 75 bodies which have remained unclaimed at two funeral homes, the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) will launch next month a website containing all the information gathered about the dead.
“We want their families to see them and identify and claim their bodies,” QCPD head Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo said, adding that the victims deserve to be given a proper burial.
Since the government’s declaration of an all-out war on drugs, the number of unidentified dead individuals linked to drugs has gone up, some of them killed in legitimate police operations while others were victims of vigilante groups.
Based on the latest tally of the QCPD, there were 75 still unidentified bodies being kept at the St. Rafael Funeral Homes on Congressional Avenue and the Lights Funeral Service on Kamias Road.
Of this number, 50 were killed in drug-related incidents and police operations while the rest were killed by unidentified men due to alleged drug links.
When the website becomes fully operational in November, it will contain photographs of the dead, identifying marks like moles or tattoos and a description of the deceased.
Eleazar said that the same content would eventually become available on the Facebook page of the QCPD.
Chief Insp. Allan Corpus, head of the QCPD’s Information Technology Department, told the Inquirer that they initially wanted to place the information only on Facebook. However, they realized that everyone would be able to access the information on the social networking site.
“So we thought of putting up the data first on a public safety portal which requires a page visitor to input a valid e-mail address for verification,” Corpus explained.
QCPD Public Information Officer Chief Insp. Titoy Cuden said that they would also place a disclaimer on the website, warning visitors that some of the photos may be graphic or disturbing.
Aside from unidentified bodies, Corpus added that they would also post on the website the city’s most wanted suspects, missing persons and lost and found items. Visitors would also be able to post comments, complaints or report crime incidents.
The website is still undergoing testing but the QCPD hopes that it can be launched in November. Corpus said the district’s command group and Eleazar would still need to approve all the content to be placed on the website.
On Oct. 18, a surprise raid on a funeral home in Quezon City which had been operating for years without a permit led to the discovery of over 300 bodies in various stages of decomposition.
As a result, authorities ordered the permanent closure of Henry Memorial Services on A. Bonifacio Avenue in La Loma. The establishment’s owner and manager, however, have yet to submit themselves to authorities.
The bodies, on the other hand, were buried in a mass grave at a Novaliches public cemetery. Since there were no death certificates, they were not identified.