TACLOBAN CITY: Nearly two months after Super Typhoon Yolanda struck, authorities finally began burying yesterday some of the 1,400 bodies left rotting in an open field here, but the mass grave is only temporary.
Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez witnessed the mass burial in Barangay Suhi of at least 100 corpses. The burial was done by personnel of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Department of Health (DOH), Philippine Red Cross and the city government. Military and police officers were also present.
Sioban Ruddel, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), oversaw the re-bagging of the corpses before the burial. NBI personnel took DNA samples and put tags on each of the body bags for future identification.
A backhoe was used in digging a three-foot-wide, 40-foot-long and four-foot-deep hole where the bagged corpses were buried.
“The burial site here is temporary and thus only shallow excavation to enable easy access later when authorities will have to take out a cadaver for identification by relatives,” Ruddel told The Freeman.
The WHO provided technical assistance to concerned government agencies upon the request of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.
Ruddel said the burial could be completed by weekend.
NBI medico-legal officer Arnel Bacod said DNA samples have so far been taken from 418 cadavers. DNA samples were being taken from 400 other corpses as of press time. The NBI said a total of 146 cadavers that have been identified by relatives were also transported for burial at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Barangay Basper.
The Philippine star
