Home 
FORENSIC experts will send bone samples of shipwreck victims and the first batch of antemortem data gathered from families of the MV Princess of the Stars’ passengers for analysis abroad next week.
The clues to identities of victims of the June 21 sea tragedy will be sent to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
The material will be placed in a diplomatic pouch, as approved by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
This will make the courier service go more quickly, said Neil Sanchez of the Office of Civil Defense-Central Visayas (OCD-7).
Sanchez said the ICMP database in Bosnia will compare postmortem analysis conducted by local and forensic experts in Cebu City.
He said they are still considering how many samples to send abroad mindful of the weight limit on the package. The postmortem bone samples from the victims will go along with the antemortem data from living family members.
At the Cebu City Action Center, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) forensic experts led by Dr. Renato Bautista conducted DNA sampling and antemortem interviews with seven people yesterday morning, despite a declared rest day for police and medical personnel.
Four were from Surigao City while three are from Cebu City. Other relatives are using whatever is at their disposal to help identify their loved ones including an amputated finger.
Archie Jarantilla of Dipolog City said he is pinning his hopes of identifying his elder brother Vyner through the latter's amputated little finger.
Vyner cut his finger in a motorcycle accident last year and kept it as a souvenir as a request from attending doctors, Jarantilla said.
Jarantilla said he has the papers to claim the compensation from Sulpicio Lines Inc. and the P10,000 aid promised by the Palace. He showed Vyner's amputated finger placed in a canister to Dr. Bautista.
He said he hopes the finger would help identify Vyner's remains from among the corpses displayed during a viewing of remains at the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes recently.
However Bautista ruled out any DNA sampling on Vyner's amputated finger saying it had already been damaged by formaldehyde. Still, Dr. Bautista said the finger can help identify his brother.
What also raised Jarantilla's hopes was that he wasn't able to find his brother's remains among the corpses displayed at the funeral homes. He believes this may mean that Vyner could still be alive.
On June 20, 2008, the 29-year old Vyner and a crew member of the ill-fated vessel, decided to leave port in Cebu to spend time with Archie who was to celebrate his birthday last June 22.
Jarantilla said he was supposed to be with his brother in the MV Princess of the Stars tragedy but went ahead of him. Vyner called his wife Jeriel, who was pregnant with their third child, a day before tragedy struck.
Jarantilla plans to go to the wreckage site in Sibuyan Island next week to offer his prayers and also coordinate with police in the area to search for his brother.
