‘Necrophilia mere shop talk’

A dead end for the necrophilia bill?

Embalmers and funeral managers said yesterday that necrophilia — or the obsession of having sex with the dead — is just shop talk handed down from one generation to another but with no actual basis.

"Kathang kutsero lang yan (That’s just shop talk)," said Jun Luzona, funeral director of Nacional Funeral homes in Quezon City.

He was reacting to a bill filed by Senate President Manuel Villar, which seeks life imprisonment for any person who commits necrophilia.

Luzona said the story about an embalmer raping a dead woman has been circulating since he was a young boy, but for the last 16 years as funeral director, he has never heard an actual case in Metro Manila.

He said the practice was impossible in their funeral parlor since their embalmers are professionals who passed a licensure exam given by the Department of Health.

"Siguro sa mga malayong lugar pero sa Metro Manila impossible mangyari yan (Maybe in faraway places it might happen but in Metro Manila it’s impossible)," he said.

He said they have high respect for the dead and relatives are always on guard during the embalming process.

"Kwentong kutsero, kathang isip lang yan," agreed Leah de la Cruz of the Cinco Estrella Memorial Chapel on Quirino highway in Quezon City.

She said in her 20 years as funeral director, she has not heard of a single case of necrophilia in funeral parlors in Metro Manila.

De la Cruz said the story about embalmers raping a dead woman was circulated as a smear campaign by rival funeral parlors to get more clients.

"Paninira lang yan (That’s just part of a smear campaign)," she said.

She said if such a thing happens, relatives would be up in arms against anyone who desecrates their dead.

Other managers and embalmers who do not want to be named also said that a law penalizing necrophilia is not necessary because such case seldom, if ever, happens.

They claimed necrophilia is popular in books and movies but in real life it’s just an urban legend –at least, in the Philippines.

Laws need to address more urgent things than a mere figment of the imagination, a funeral manager lamented.