Close to two months after monster typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban City, people find it hard to move on, as thousands of bodies have yet to be identified and buried.
A lot at Suhi Village serves as a temporary mass grave of more than one thousand unidentified fatalities.
As the days go by, the chances that the remains will be identified become slimmer, and they may forever be written off as "missing."
The bodies are in an advanced state of decomposition, and some are beyond recognition.
It is a very grim sight, reminding one of the horror during the night of the tragedy.
Residents here complain of the stench, which they say clings to one's clothes.
It bothers them, especially when they are eating or when they are about to sleep.
In fact, the residents have put up signboards asking authorities to bury the bodies immediately.
Authorities, however, ask their constituents to be patient, as they need more time to work on the remains.
City Administrator Tecson Lim says forensic operatives are still doing their best to document each body.
That includes taking fingerprints and jotting down detailed descriptions of each one.
The clothes on the bodies have been taken off and set aside for safekeeping.
These will be used to help relatives confirm the identity of the bodies.
Work on the bodies slowed down when personnel from the National Bureau of Investigation went on Christmas break.
But they have now returned to Tacloban to carry out the mass burial of a first batch of remains on Saturday.
Friday 27 December 2013
http://www.solarnews.ph/news/regional/2013/12/27/1000-copses-remain-unburied-in-tacloban-city
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