By Froilan Gallardo
Special Correspondent
“DYING from Covid-19 is not cheap.”
This is what the Management of the Dead Cluster of the Cagayan de Oro Emergency Operations Center, who is in charge of disposing of the bodies of Covid-19 cases, said in their latest report.
Engr. Armen Cuenca, cluster head, said the city government spends P30,000 for every Covid-19 case that was cremated.
Cuenca said the city government spent some P30 million to cremate those who died of Covid-19 as of August 10.
He said some 1,175 bodies have been cremated since the Covid-19 pandemic started in 2020.
“This includes even those who are suspected only of having died of Covid-19. We are not taking chances,” Cuenca said.
He said the P30 million is used as payment to the Divine Shepherd Crematorium and Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes, the only two death-care companies that offer these services in the city.
Cuenca said the two funeral firms charge P30,000 for each body they would cremate.
He said they also spent some P3.5 million for transportation ferrying the dead from the hospitals to the crematoriums.
Cuenca said not all of the dead Covid-19 patients are cremated.
“We have to make consideration for those whose religion forbids cremating their dead,” Cuenca said referring to Muslims and other Christian groups.
Cuenca said the city government allotted a plot for those who died of Covid-19 at the city government-owned Bolonsiri Public Cemetery in Barangay Camaman-an, this city.
He said the city government spends P10,000 for each of the bodies that was buried in Bolonsiri cemetery.
Cuenca said the city government spent P1.5 million to pay at least three funeral parlors to do the burial.
