City Hall, Interpol finalize plan on remaining bodies

CEBU - The Cebu City government and the Disaster Victim Identification Team (DVI) are now finalizing plans on what to do with the remaining bodies that were recovered from the ill-fated Sulpicio vessel prior to the full turn over of tasks to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Cebu City Acting Mayor Michael Rama yesterday said that there will be a planned event that will formally turn over the remaining tasks on the identification of the recovered bodies from the M/V Princess of the Stars to the NBI by the International Police Organization (Interpol).

But prior to this, Rama said the DVI Team and the Sulpicio Lines Inc. will have to finalize plans in taking care of the remaining unidentified and the identified but unclaimed bodies.

DVI had identified the initial batch of 318 bodies and 25 more out of the second batch of 227 remains. The numbers consist 80.9 percent of the 545 victims of both Typhoon Frank and the MV Princess of the Stars. Of the identified bodies, eight are still left unclaimed by their families.

“That has to be decided whether it will be through a mass grave or what, and of course had to be shouldered by Sulpicio, there is no problem with what to do for as long as there are already funds,” Rama said.

The acting mayor said that the event is hoped to be attended by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo since the DVI Team is composed of 21 nationalities.

The team managed to obtain 343 post mortem profiles out of 545 post mortem samples following six months of operations in the Philippines last year. An incident response team will be left behind to assist the NBI, which is already competent in handling the job, according to the Interpol. — Ferliza C. Contratista/WAB   (THE FREEMAN)