According
to report only 342 out of 2,483 bodies that were retrieved in Tacloban City
have been buried since November 8.
The
health department has sent 1,500 more body bags to Tacloban City for planned
mass burials, said former Senator Panfilo Lacson, Presidential Assistant for
Rehabilitation and Recovery for the typhoon-hit regions.
A
government official of the Task Force Cadaver told Gulf News, “The bodies have been
decomposing, but their bones and hair remain intact for identification
process.”
They
must be placed in cadaver bags — for burial and future identification, the same
source, who requested anonymity, said.
Earlier,
a report said that 1,400 unidentified bodies that were placed in cadaver bags
were not yet buried in San Isidro village of Tacloban City.
In
response to complaints, forensic experts cut short their holiday leave and
returned to work — to resume identifying the dead, the National Bureau of
Investigation (NBI) said.
“Some
agencies also advised the NBI to modify the thorough procedure of the
International Police Organisation (Interpol) it has used to identify dead
bodies because this is time consuming,” said Presidential Communications
Operations Office head Herminio Coloma.
At
the same time, residents in affected places have raised with local authorities
their decision to kill stray dogs in their communities so that the animals
would not 
tear up the cadaver bags containing unidentified bodies, a radio
report said.
tear up the cadaver bags containing unidentified bodies, a radio
report said.
They
were also afraid that their pets might have eaten human cadavers, the same
report said, adding that residents were relieved when policemen were deployed
to guard cadaver bags from stray dogs.
Typhoon
Haiyan killed almost 8,000 residents, including 1,785 missing. The storm injured
28,626 and affected 11 million residents; five million of whom lost their
homes and jobs in 44 provinces in central Philippines.
Source:
The Agencies
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