Sixty unclaimed remains of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) who died at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City from Jan. 10 to Oct. 17, 2022 were buried on Friday morning, Nov. 25.
Bureau of Corrections’ (BuCor) chief of the NBP hospital and acting director of the Directorate for Health and Welfare Services CTSSupt. Ma. Cecilia V. Villanueva, a physician, said those buried were among the 176 unclaimed cadavers that have been kept at the Eastern Funeral Services in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.
“Presently po, out of the 176, bale 70 na po ang nailibing namin, 106 na lang po ang nandoon sa Eastern (Presently, out of the 176 remains, we have buried 70 cadavers and only 106 are left at Eastern Funeral),” Villanueva said.
The names of those buried as released officially by BuCor:
“Sa susunod na linggo po ay maglilibing pa po kami (Next week we will be burying more),” she said during a press conference.
Sixty more remains will be buried on Friday, Dec. 2, she said.
Villanueva said: “Kung sakali pong may dumating na relatives hingi po kami ng consent na kung pwede po ipa-autopsy (Should relatives appear, we will ask permission from them for the conduct of autopsies).”
She said that under BuCor rules autopsies of dead inmates cannot be conducted without the consent of their relatives.
She also said that forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun has yet to conduct an autopsy on any of the 176 remains in line with the request made by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.
But, she noted, that among the 176 dead PDLs, 39 of them who were declared dead on arrival (DOA) at the NBP Hospital have been autopsied by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
“Ang pinapa-autopsy nga po namin ay those deaths that occurred less than 48 hours and below. Ino-autopsy po ng NBI and sila po ang nagbibigay ng results (We requested the autopsies of deaths that occurred within 48 hours. The autopsies were conducted by the NBI which provide the results),” she said.
At the same time, Villanueva expressed her support to the regionalization of the prison system which will address the problem of unclaimed cadavers, among other reasons.
“Kaya po maraming unclaimed, may dumarating po na mga relatives hindi na po talaga kini-claim yung body, kinukuha na lang po yung death certificate (The reason why there are many unclaimed remains is because relatives who come no longer claim the bodies and just get the death certificates),” she cited.
“Marami pong kasong ganoon na death certificate na lang po yung kinukuha kasi nga po mga tawid-dagat wala silang capacity na i-travel yung dead relatives nila and the bureau has no budget na ihatid yung body sa tawid-dagat (There are many such instances where relatives just get the death certificates because they have to travel thru ships and neither they nor the bureau have funds to transport the remains),” she explained.
TAGS: #BuCor #Dead PDLs