MV Princess of the Stars sinking: PAO exhumes bodies of unidentified victims

CEBU, Philippines - Geraldine Payawal until now has no idea what happened to his husband Rafael, who is one of the 500 missing victims after the sinking of MV Princess of the Stars in June 2008.

Though still in denial, she nevertheless joined other hopeful relatives of missing victims as the Public Attorney’s Office started yesterday the disinterment for anthropological and dental identification of some 38 unidentified cadavers buried at the Carreta Cemetery in Cebu City last June 21, 2009.

PAO chief public attorney Persida Rueda-Acosta told The FREEMAN that they received the order last July 14 for the exhumation of the 38 unidentified bodies buried in Carreta Cemetery from the Regional Trial Court, Branch 10 in Cebu City.

The order was made in favor of the Ex-Parte Motion for Exhumation filed by plaintiffs Gloria Basnillo, Luisa Peralta and Reynaldo Labang who filed the petition on June 25 last year claiming their rights to know the fate of their loved ones through all possible means of identifying the cadavers other than the Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing.

Acosta said that they were supposed to conduct the exhumation last year but the National Bureau of Investigation headed by Dr. Renato Bautista, medico-legal chief of NBI, failed to comply with the order of the court to submit and transfer all their records under their custody including findings for those identified and unidentified cadavers.

Acosta said, “The NBI was required by the court to submit the records to us including documents of birth, pictures, and dental records so we could analyze the bodies well. E hindi sila sumusunod, inumpisahan na lang namin. Kasi kailan pa?”

She however said that among the considerations why it took them almost one year to conduct the identification is the need to wait until the bodies are in the advance stage of decomposition.

PAO forensic volunteers were here last month to test and look at the decomposition of bodies before they officially started the exhumation 6 a.m. yesterday.

Dr. Erwin P. Erfe, director of the PAO forensic laboratory said that cadavers will undergo anthropological and dental examination at the recently inaugurated forensic laboratory of PAO in Quezon City.

They hope to finish by Sunday next week.

“What we did first is we lifted the remains, most of them are already in the advanced stage of decomposition, then we segregated the heads and the spinal columns, the pelvis, the right arm, left arm, right leg and left leg. Pagkatapos linisin, it will be ready for packing then for transport sa forensic lab,” Erfe said.

Erfe said that the method this time is a detailed examination and analysis of bones and dental makeup of the cadavers through equipments that are already available at the PAO laboratory.

Through anthropological identification, commonly used by international identification experts during mass disasters, the approximate age, gender or sex, height or statue and weight of the person when he or she was still alive could be determined, Erfe said.

“Makikita rin sa bone structure kung ang person is kaliwete ba o right-handed, sa ngipin makikita kung ano ang hilig nyang kainin and yung mga paroxysms nila. Tapos kung ano ang paninigarilyo or kung may nawawala bang ngipin. Sa skull and pelvis, malalaman kung babae na or lalaki,” he said.

Findings using forensic anthropology will then be matched to ante-mortem data provide by the relatives.

It will be published at the PAO website after, more or less, four months from now.

“Kung ikaw relative, at sa tingin mo e nag-match yung description nung examined cadaver sa kamag-anak mo, then you can go to us. Tapos i-interview-hin ulit sila, this time, detailed na,” Erfe said.

   He said that forensic anthropology has been a tried and tested method even in other developed countries during identification of victims in mass disasters.

   “I’m not saying DNA is not effective but ang DNA kasi is for presumptive identification, meaning may presumption ka na na siya yung taong hinahanap mo. sa Anthropological and dental examination naman, you are creating the profile of the dead person,” Erfe explained.

 Priest and activist Robert Reyes, one of PAO forensic volunteers, said that they expect to finish as soon as possible in Cebu so they could transfer immediately to Romblon where 80 unidentified cadavers believed to come from the same ship disaster are also due for identification.

   “We also have to finish immediately because it’s not very hygienic. From the moment we start the exhumation, we are actually exposing ourselves to anaerobic bacteria,” Reyes said.

   On June 21, 2008, MV Princess of the Stars owned by Sulpicio lines capsized off Sibuyan Island in Romblon during the height of typhoon Frank.

There were more than 800 passengers onboard including crew.

Through the search and rescue operation efforts of the government, 300 bodies were identified while some 500 remained missing. (FREEMAN NEWS)