Relatives of Yolanda missing seek closure

TACLOBAN CITY – Survivors of super typhoon Yolanda are asking the help of a nongovernment organization in seeking a declaration of presumptive death (DPD) for relatives who are still missing four years after the tragedy.

Edgardo Ligon, executive director of the Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS), Inc., said in a press conference on Saturday that four relatives of missing victims are petitioning the courts for such declaration.

Yolanda left more than 2,000 missing when it barreled through the Visayas on November 8, 2013.

Ligon said the NGO has teamed up with the Christian Aid and Humanitarian Leadership Academy in helping secure the necessary court order for such a declaration.

He said the petitions of the Yolanda survivors were coursed through the Public Attorney's Office (PAO) regional office here, who will further assist the relatives of the missing in filing for the declaration.

“It’s been four years after Typhoon Yolanda, but the families of the missing victims are still in pain and in a state of limbo. We hope that this petition for the Declaration of Presumptive Death can help them attain the closure that is long overdue” Ligon said.

Anne Bernadette A. Mendiola, legal officer of IDEALS, said a petition for DPD “is a judicial procedure instituted for purposes of declaring a missing person presumably dead after a certain period of time.”

Mendiola said filing the petitions is the way for the relatives or families of the missing to move on from the tragedy.

Ronilo Docos, one of the petitioners, said his family wants a DPD for his missing 70-year-old mother for the settlement of his mother’s properties.

Joel Aradana needed a DPD for his missing wife so he could marry the woman he is living with now with whom he has two children.