By Joyce Ann L. Rocamora
MANILA – A team from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is traveling to the earthquake-stricken parts of Myanmar to assist in the identification of fatalities and help locate the four still-missing Filipino nationals.
The Philippine Embassy in Yangon said experts of the NBI Disaster Victim Identification Division (NBI-DVID) would arrive in Mandalay, one of Myanmar’s worst disaster sites, on Saturday to secure tissue samples collected from unidentified remains recovered from the Sky Villa site.
Four Filipinos who remain unaccounted for are feared trapped under the rubble of the Sky Villa Condominium that was pancaked after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the Southeast Asia state last week.
The embassy said the NBI-DVID in Manila would also collect samples from the family members of the missing Filipinos “to ascertain indubitable identity.”
“We continue to exert all possible efforts to account for the four missing Filipinos and to provide support and necessary assistance to all affected members of the Filipino community during this challenging time,” it said.
Earlier, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said most of the bodies retrieved in Mandalay were already in the advanced stage of decomposition and were cremated due to the lack of facilities and cold storage units.
However, the embassy was able to request local rescuers to extract tissue samples from the deceased persons first and alert them if they were identified as Filipinos.
According to the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), the urban search and rescue teams from Myanmar, Vietnam, Russia, and China have been assigned to the Sky Villa site.
While the Philippine humanitarian contingent hopes to be the ones to locate the missing four, OCD administrator Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno explained that the deployment depends on Myanmar authorities.
Ready to deploy more
On April 3, members of the Philippine Inter-Agency Humanitarian Contingent recovered a deceased individual from the collapsed Jade City Hotel and Entertainment Complex in Nay Pyi Taw.
The victim, identified as the head waiter of Jade City and already in a state of decomposition, has been turned over to Myanmar authorities.
Nepomuceno said the Philippines stands ready to deploy an additional humanitarian team should Myanmar ask for more assistance.
The first team is scheduled to return to the Philippines on April 12 and Filipinos in Myanmar who wish to return to the country can join the same flight, he said.
The embassy is currently providing transportation and temporary accommodation to the first batch of Filipinos who availed of its voluntary relocation program for earthquake-hit nationals.
While under their custody, the Filipinos will be offered welfare assistance, including financial aid, and medical assistance, including trauma counseling.
The embassy will again mount another batch of relocation of Filipinos on Sunday morning.
It told Filipinos in need of any assistance to reach out to the embassy, accomplish its provided form (https://tinyurl.com/YPEForm), and submit it to yangon.pe@dfa.gov.ph. (PNA)
