Resurrecting a dirty job

It wasn’t exactly a fate worse than death, but Pablo Dayao had always felt that he was meant to do a job most people avoid, even abhor.

Call it destiny, he said, of his job as licensed embalmer at the family-owned Dayao Funeral Homes in Galas, Quezon City.

Dayao’s childhood dream was to become a soldier, but at 12, he started assisting his father at the family business established in 1946. “At 15, I was doing actual embalming,” he said.  “I learned from experience. My father taught me practical embalming,” added the 53-year-old embalmer.

These days, however, several Department of Health-accredited institutions offer an embalming course which has seen its enrollment rise in recent years.

“It’s now one of the most profitable and in-demand jobs, especially abroad,” said Lumen Tapia, administrator of the Philippine Embalmers and Undertakers Review and Training Center (PEURTC), one of six DOH-accredited embalming schools.

At PEURTC, Tapia said they have some 60 to 70 enrollees a year. “We have two batches of 30 to 35 students a year who take up the course that costs  P25,850,” she said.

Each student must complete the four-month course or 140 hours of instruction that covers anatomy and physiology, microbiology and parasitology, practice of embalming, hygiene and sanitation, and ethics and jurisprudence.

To qualify for a license, an applicant must pass the licensure examinations conducted twice a year—in March and September—by the DOH Committee of Examiners for Undertakers and Embalmers (CEUE). Examinees must pass the theoretical/written exam to qualify for the oral/practical examination, which involves actual exposure to embalming techniques and procedures.

Licensing policy

Once examinees pass the practical test, they will be issued a certificate of registration and ID as a licensed embalmer and can now practice their profession in the country.

Josephine Hipolito, head secretariat of the DOH-CEUE, said that embalmers have been required to get a license since the 1950s.  But the lack of interest in the field has led to laxity in implementing the policy.  “The funeral owner was licensed but his workers were not,” Hipolito said.

This prompted the DOH to strictly implement the licensing requirement, with funeral homes shut down if their embalmers are found to  be unlicensed.   “It’s our way of ensuring the safety of the public, and that the dead will  be given proper and lawful service,” Hipolito said.

The growing interest in the craft of embalming these days can be attributed to the profound changes in the business, she said.  Unlike the filthy, stinky and sometimes flooded facilities often shown in horror movies, most funeral parlors these days “are really nice, clean and well-ventilated,” she noted.

“Funeral workers now recognize that embalming is no longer just delaying decomposition, but also restoring the deceased’s appearance as loved ones say their final farewell,” Hipolito said, adding that the procedure is important as well to preserve evidence that could be used in medico-legal cases.

Retirees

The oversupply of nurses in the country, which began in 2007, likewise paved the way for the rise in the number of embalmers in the country, she said.  Nurses who couldn’t find work opted to become licensed embalmers, with “most of them using it as stepping-stone to work abroad where the profession is more in-demand,” Hipolito said.  In fact, more women are now considering the once male-dominated course, she added.

To date, there are 6,262 licensed embalmers in the country, she said, adding that from 100 examinees a year,  there are now an average of 300 people taking the licensure exam.  “On the average, around 70 to 75 percent pass,” she added.

While the minimum age for applicants to become an embalmer is 18, Tapia said many of their students at PEURTC are in their 50s and 60s, who are either funeral home owners or are considering investing their retirement money in the funeral business.

It’s a business that Dayao returns to every time he comes home from active duty as a US Navy serviceman. He even studied funeral services administration in Virginia, he said.

Now retired from service, Dayao continues to heed destiny not only as a full-time embalmer but as operations manager of the family business.