All those dead bodies? They’re costing funeral parlors money

Photo for illustration purpose only.
Photo for illustration purpose only.

You’d think that it’s boom time for funeral parlors right now in the Philippines, but that’s not really the case when bodies are not claimed by relatives of the deceased.

Each unclaimed body sets back morgue owners by PHP40,000, which is the cost of chemicals used to preserve the corpse. They usually wait for one to two months before burying the unclaimed body at the nearest public cemetery.

Marami ngang body eh malaking gastos para sa amin ‘pag wala silang pang gastos,” says Don Morado, owner of Pacheco Memorial Chapels, a Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) accredited funeral home.

Hindi talaga okay dahil ‘yung puhunan mo, nailalabas mo nang walang bumabalik sa’yo,” he tells ABS-CBN News.

With daily reports about deaths, you would think that funeral parlor business is a huge hit right now. You might want to think again.

Other funeral home owners prefer the referral system instead of being accredited by Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO).

Ang worry namin ay baka matambakan kami ng patay tapos wala namang immediate claim para mag process ng autopsy,” says Joseph Ingal, owner of Norsam Memorial Chapels.

Most of the bodies brought at SOCO-accredited funeral parlors are suspected drug users who turned into drug dealing due to poverty.

‘Yung galit nila sa gobyerno o sa mga police na naka shootout nang kamag-anak nila, sa amin minsan nagagalit kapag sinisingil na,” says Morado.
From May 10 to Jul 11, 224 people were killed during police operations, and 87 more by unidentified assailants.




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