ANGELES CITY – Legitimate owners and operators of mortuaries in various parts of Central Luzon met here yesterday to unite against the proliferation of unlicensed funeral operators who employ underaged embalmers as young as 14 years old amid practices dubbed as unhealthy to both environment and local folk.
“These illegitimate embalmers do their work even under trees and just dump the wastes into any digging or even creeks,” said Mario Cruz, one of the organizers of the Northern Mortuaries Association (NMA) which was founded yesterday with some 50 members.
“We are appealing to the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) against such unlicensed mortuaries which have mushroomed in many areas north of Metro Manila,” he said.
This, even as members of the newly organized NMA also agreed among themselves to refrain from marking their mortuary service vehicles with the word “ambulance.”
“It’s improper for a mortuary service vehicle to be marked that way because this gives the wrong the impression they are on a mission to transport accident victims to the hospital for treatment or resuscitation and not to the funeral parlor,” Cruz said.
Dr. Joven Esguerra, medico-legal consultant of the city government here, noted that some illegal mortuaries in Central Luzon employ unlicensed embalmers as young as 14 years old. “Embalmers are supposed to pass licensure examinations of the DOH,” he noted.
“I even once had feedback that one illegitimate funeral parlor dumped embalming wastes into a creek,” he said.
Noli Mensalvas, also one of the founders of the NMA, estimated illegal mortuaries in Central Luzon could number no less than 40.
“They comprise about 30 to 40 percent of all mortuaries in the region and they pose stiff competition to the legal operators because they don’t pay taxes and charge as much as 50 percent lower,” he said.
Meanwhile, Cruz said that the illegal mortuaries include manufacturers of coffins who, without applying for permits from the DOH, DTI, and the local governments, now also provide mortuary services to buyers of their coffins.
“They cleared some space in their factories, fitted them with chandeliers and hired underaged boys to do the embalming,” he said.
“Some of these unlicensed mortuaries embalm anywhere, even under trees. They also do it in the homes of the deceased which is not allowed by law,” he said.
Cruz warned that these illegal mortuaries can not issue official receipts which are required by life insurance companies and such government institutions as the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance Service for insurance claims.
“The other problem posed by illegal mortuaries is that the bodies of crime victims would be harder to be traced by the police since they are not listed,” he added.
Meanwhile, Esguerra also lamented the use of “runners” by mortuaries in hospitals, as well as their provision of monetary rewards to police who could bring to them bodies for funeral services.
