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THE PUBLIC Attorney’s Office (PAO) will shoulder all expenses for the exhumation of 38 unidentified victims of the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars.
Also, an independent forensic group from the University of the Philippines would take it upon itself to identify the exhumed bodies based on their skeletal remains, free of charge, said May G-ree Calinawan, regional director of PAO in Central Visayas (PAO-7).
PAO’s attempt to identify the 38 bodies has nothing to do with the cases that the families of Princess of the Stars victims filed against the vessel’s owner, Sulpicio Lines Inc., said Calinawan.
She said PAO just wants to help the families reclaim the bodies of their lost loved ones, since it is “Filipino tradition” for a family to be unable to move on with their lives unless they find closure.
Recently, the court granted the petition filed by 18 families who want the 38 bodies exhumed and reexamined in case their lost loved ones are among the unidentified remains.
Calinawan said the forensic team would be composed of four anthropologists, whose transportation, accommodations and other necessities would be covered by PAO. They are scheduled to arrive in Cebu sometime in the third week of July.
Calinawan said the forensic team would not be needing the “mobile morgue” that the International Police Organization earlier used to examine remains from the Princess of the Stars and other fatalities related to Typhoon Frank, which passed through the country in June last year. Earlier this year, Interpol donated the morgue facilities to the Department of Justice. DOJ placed the morgue under the responsibility of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which assisted Interpol in identifying Typhoon Frank victims.
The UP forensic team, Calinawan said, would just take skeletal samples from each of the 38 unidentified bodies buried at the Carreta Cemetery in Cebu City, then return the rest of the remains into their tombs.
Dr. Rene Cam, NBI Central Visayas (NBI-7) medico-legal officer, said the examination that the UP anthropologists plan to do had already been conducted by the NBI.
He said anthropological examination has its limits. While it can identify the bones as being of human origin, it cannot identify specific people.
“By looking at skeletons, you can’t say that these bones belong to Juan de la Cruz unless,” he said.
These limitations led NBI and Interpol to conduct DNA examinations instead, Cam said.
While NBI believes that the UP anthropologists may only be wasting their efforts, Cam said he would respect PAO’s actions as well as the court order that granted the exhumation.
Cam added that if more bodies are found inside the Princess of the Stars once the vessel is refloated, NBI may still render its services in identifying the bodies if Sulpicio Lines asks for it.
The Cebu City government has nothing against PAO’s plans to exhume the bodies. On the other hand, it cannot provide PAO or the victims’ relatives any more assistance than what the city already extended last year.
Councilor Gerardo Carillo said the DNA matching conducted between unidentified bodies and family members were the most accurate test authorities could conduct to identify the victims.
Carillo, action officer of the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council, said City Hall would not oppose the exhumation for the sake of the families still looking for their loved ones.
City Hall, however, would ask PAO to submit exhumation plans to make sure that the health of the living would not be compromised by the exhumation.
