Poe seeks free burial for unclaimed bodies

MANILA, Philippines - Unclaimed corpses should no longer be left rotting in morgues or funeral homes if a bill filed by Sen. Grace Poe is passed into law.

Senate Bill 1229 or the proposed burial assistance act of 2016 would pave the way for the grant of a maximum of P10,000 to cover most of the expenses for burial.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) would administer the burial assistance program that would be made available to indigents only.

More importantly, Poe explained that the bill intends to address the numerous unclaimed or unidentified bodies at the morgues and funeral homes, regardless of their cause of death.

Just recently, a funeral home in Quezon City was found to have kept around 300 corpses in highly unsanitary conditions.

With the intensified campaign of the administration against illegal drugs, the body count of suspected drug pushers and addicts continues to increase.

As a result, the bodies being brought to the funeral homes continue to pile up and since many of the fatalities are poor, they could be left unclaimed for an extended period of time.

Under Poe’s bill, burial assistance shall include sums that cover the costs of the casket or urn, embalming, cremation and other related services such as viewing or wake cost, pick-up from the hospital morgue and transport of the body to the intended burial site.

In no case shall the total burial assistance exceed P10,000 or its value adjusted every six years.

The bill also mandates the DSWD to expedite the processing of burial assistance by refusing to treat the lack of documentation as a ground to deny or withhold assistance.

Meanwhile, Poe has also filed Senate Bill 1228 that would provide for the mandatory autopsy of a minor who may have died as a result of foul play or apparent neglect.

The bill also calls for the mandatory autopsy of any other person who died due to apparent irregular or suspicious causes.

Senate Bill 1228 seeks to amend Presidential Decree 856 or the Code on Sanitation of the Philippines.

The bill also prohibits the parent, guardian or next of kin of a deceased minor to sign a waiver against conducting an autopsy except for religious grounds, provided that this is substantiated by a document evidencing the religion of the deceased.

“Justice should be afforded to the dead, whether unidentified or unclaimed, or whether he or she is a minor, especially when such death is due to suspicious circumstances,” Poe said in her bill.