10 bills pending in 17th Congress on respect for the dead and rights of family members
Ten bills were filed during the current 17th Congress seeking to reform the country’s laws mandating protection and show of respect for the dead and their bereaved families. The ten surpassed the number of similar measures filed in the four past Congresses.
Among the 10 bills filed is the clarification of laws on the right of a spouse or relative of the deceased for the “custody and possession of” the body of a deceased.
Bacolod City Rep. Greg G. Gasataya said House Bill 5246 is expected to put an end to the “unharmonious tug-of-war claim over the corpses of a departed family member, usually by feuding members of the family.”
Six similar measures were filed during the 16th Congress and five in the 15th. No related legislative proposals were filed during the 13th and the 14th Congresses.
Reps. Alfred Vargas (PDP-Laban, Quezon City) and Luis Jose Angel Campos Jr. (UNA, Makati City) are among the congressmen who authored bills proposing to make funeral parlor owners criminally responsible if they refuse to release the body of dead persons to their respective families.
Rep. Winston Castelo (PDP-Laban, Quezon City) filed House Bill 3080 banning the entry of a funeral agent in any hospital with the intent of selling burial services to any member of a family with a dying or terminally ill patient.
Castelo, chairman of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development, is also the author of HB 4900 that prohibits the unauthorized disposition of human corpses.
In House Bill 3028, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate proposed the grant of 50 percent discount in funeral services fees for a deceased whose family is indigent. Zarate wants dead persons belonging to “extremely poor families” to be given free funeral services.
Kabataan partylist Rep. Sarah Jane I. Elago filed House Resolution 0488 urging the House Committees on Health and on Social Services to review existing laws and regulations on funeral and burial services with the goal of ensuring accessible and quality funeral and burial services, especially for the indigent section of society.
Campos was joined by Reps. Rosenda Ann Ocampo (NPC, Manila) and Yul Servo (UNA, Manila) in pushing for the passage of HB 5036 proposing to penalize acts of harassment or exploitation of families who are unable to pay for funeral services extended a deceased loved one.
In filing HB 5246, Gasataya said he re-filed the measure to amend Article 305 of the Civil Code of the Philippines to harmonize it with Article 195 of the Family Code that will determine the priorities in which relatives of the dead can have custody and possession of a cadaver.
Together with Reps. Gus Tambunting (PDP-Laban, Parañaque City) and Carmelo Lazatin (NPC, Pampanga), Vargas and Campos filed separate bills making funeral parlor owners liable to fine and prison terms for refusing to release cadavers to their rightful family.
In HB 1581, Vargas proposed that a promissory note executed by the bereaved family and a co-maker will be enough to secure the release of the cadaver. The promissory note should provide that the executors will be held jointly and severally liable in paying the unpaid obligation for the funeral services. “Poverty should not be a reason for them not to be given the proper wake and burial due them,” Vargas said.
Campos filed House Bill 1001 imposing one to six months imprisonment and fines ranging from 120,000 to 150,000 as punishment for the non-release of cadavers for reasons of non-payment of embalming or any other funeral services for a deceased.
HB 4900 authored by Castelo prohibits the disposition of a human corpse without the express approval of the dead person’s kin. Summary cremation and dropping of a corpse into the ocean to conceal a wrongdoing or obstruct justice are also punishable offenses under the bill. Castelo’s bill wants a fine of not less than 12,000 and imprisonment of up to one year imposed for the offenses.
HB 5036, the proposed “Griever’s Protection Act,” said charging exorbitant fees for funeral service, imposing hidden fees, and soliciting funeral services through deceit and intimidation are acts of exploitation and harassment punishable under the measure. The authors of the bill proposed a fine ranging from 150,000 to 1150,000 and three to six months imprisonment as penalties.