SAN JOSE, Antique – The local government has been giving free coffins for the dear departed of poor residents for two years now.
Its “mortuary project” that started in 2017 has so far helped around 141 indigent locals.
To avail themselves of the free coffins, a resident must secure an Indigency Certificate from the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office and present it to the caretaker of the local government’s mortuary in Barangay Marina.
Recipient families always appreciate the “big help,” according to mortuary caretaker Luther Vicedo.
In one case, he said, “the body of a stabbing victim got bloated after several days in a private mortuary because the family did not have the money to have it embalmed.”
The family was relieved when they were able to avail themselves of the free coffin from the local government, said Vicedo.
Poor families buying a coffin for a departed loved one are forced to get one from private funeral parlors for P25,000 to P30,000.
But with the free coffin, they will have to shoulder only the cost of embalming, which is around P10,000 in private funeral homes, Vicedo said.
San Jose provides an adult standard-sized coffin (21 by 72 inches), made of wood and painted white, with a half-crystal cover for viewing. This costs around P3,000 to P3,500.
Vicedo and helper Vicente Viscaya also make the free coffins, which require “intricate” work. He said they could finish an adult coffin in three days but coffins for babies and children are made available upon request.
Requests at the mortuary get as few as two and as much as seven free coffins per week, according to Vicera.
The local government has allocated P500,000 for the mortuary project this year, Mayor Elmer Untaran said.
Providing the free coffins “somehow alleviates the financial burden” of burying the dead among locals, said Untaran.
Moreover, poor families who could not afford a cemetery lot are provided a space in the local government’s “apartelle-type” niches in the municipal public cemetery that may be occupied for seven years.
A cemetery lot costs P10,000 so the additional 500 niches built last year in addition to the 3,000 existing niches provided much relief to the bereaved families, said Municipal Economic Enterprise and Development Officer Darcy Bungay. (PNA)
