INQUIRER Global Nation

The disappointment voiced by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and the Cebu City government over the testimony of Erwin Erfe, a doctor-lawyer who is consultant of the Public Attorney's Office (PAO), over the limited reliability of DNA tests was understandable.

So much effort and millions of pesos were poured into the recovery and identification of remains of the MV Princess of the Stars victims.

To be fair though, there was never any question or accusation raised about the competence or the integrity of the commission and the national government through the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), merely the methodology used to identify the victims.

In making his case in court, Dr. Erfe said 98 percent of the victims of the tsunami disaster in Phuket, Thailand and the Sept. 11 bombings in the World Trade Center were identified through conventional means – dental examination, fingerprints, and anthropological examination, not just DNA testing, which he claimed was the least reliable method in mass disasters, based on expert sources he cited.

And Judge Soliver Peras listened, was convinced, and granted a motion to dig up the bodies for a second look.

Who knows what other findings the Independent Forensics Group (IFG), a UP-based team, would discover once they proceed to exhume the 38 unclaimed remains in the Carreta cemetery later this month.

For sure, the team can’t expect a centavo or a single plastic bag of ice water from City Hall after Vice Mayor Michael Rama, head of the action center during the Princess disaster, who fumed about the criticism of the efforts of the NBI and Interpol.

After securing a court ruling to proceed, the ICMP pointed out that

1) remains of the other victims have yet to be recovered from the sunken wreckage and

2) families of the unidentified victims still have to come forward despite repeated invitations to do so and the guarantee that DNA tests were free of charge.

If this whole activity is about exposing and then castigating the government and even the ICMP's failure to recover and identify the victims and/or their remains despite international cooperation as Rama suggested, then the burden of proof would lie on this IFG and their backers.

To date, the wreckage of the MV Princess of the Stars had yet to be hauled off from where it sank off the waters of Sibuyan island, San Fernando town in Romblon province.

Whatever limitations there may have been in the recovery and identification of the remains of the victims, the paramount concern as correctly pointed out by the court is the welfare and peace of mind of the families of the victims.

For their sake, let's hope this exhumation and the resulting re-examination of the remains help them identify their loved ones.