Senator Erwin Tulfo on Wednesday, 1 October, questioned the display of body bags in front of hospitals in Bogo City, Cebu, following the 6.9-magnitude quake that rocked the province Tuesday night.
During the Department of Health (DOH) budget hearing, Tulfo asked Health Secretary Ted Herbosa to instruct hospitals not to display the body bags.
"These are circulating on social media. The bodies of those who died in Bogo are there in front of the hospital. It doesn't look good," Tulfo said.
"Why do we need to put the body bags in front of the hospital? I know they are being retrieved, but maybe it's not okay for the public to have a full view of the body. Maybe we can tell them to hide them somehow," he added.
For his part, Herbosa said that usually, bodies are put in a morgue. However, he explained that it was necessary to place the bodies together because many people are still searching for their relatives.
"For example, if there's a basketball game or gym, if the victim is unidentified, many relatives are looking for them. So they are all put together in a morgue-like place," he said.
"I saw the picture you mentioned in front of all the body bags. They are all covered. The cadavers are covered, but they are also put there for the purpose of looking for missing persons. You look for them in the evacuation center, then you look for them in the morgue," he added.
Herbosa, however, vowed to allocate a special place to store the body bags that is hidden from the public.
The death toll from the 6.9-magnitude quake has risen to 69, a disaster official said. As of writing, 848 aftershocks have been logged following the tremor.