40 more cadavers of Marawi strife fatalities buried

LANAO DEL SUR --- Emergency teams on Thursday buried 40 more cadavers of unidentified people killed in gunfights in Marawi City in recent weeks.Forensic experts have collected DNA samples from the cadavers that were buried in case needed for cross-matching with specimens from relatives.The burial of the 40 cadavers was facilitated jointly by personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection, the Lanao del Sur provincial government, the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the military and the Department of Interior and Local Government.Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr. of the Western Mindanao Command told The STAR via mobile phone Thursday that the cadavers were tagged and recorded for easy sorting in case relatives would surface to claim them. These human remains were processed by forensic experts in the Philippine National Police, Galvez said.Members of the Lanao del Sur provincial crisis management committee reporters a day before that a team of forensic experts from the US government examined the cadavers that were to be buried at the Maqbarah Cemetery in Marawi City Thursday.The sources, among them senior staff of Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr., said the foreigners also took DNA samples from the unidentified cadavers while still at a private mortuary in Iligan City.Galvez said he is grateful to the Muslim clerics who helped bury the 40 cadavers, the third since July.He said the National Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Interior and Local Government-ARMM also helped in the documentation of each of the cadavers buried at the Maqbarah Cemetery.Authorities had twice buried 27 cadavers each in two separate operations early on.Assemblyman Zia Alonto Adiong of the 24-member Regional Assembly-ARMM, said Thursday that they are not sure if the cadavers were those of civilians or members of the Maute terror group. In Islam, which espouses love and respect for all people regardless of religion, giving the dead proper burial is an obligation and an act of piety. That must be extended to all, no discrimination at all, said Adiong, spokesman of the provincial crisis management committee.