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Free, discounted funerals on the anvil for poor Filipinos

Millions in the Philippines are unable to afford a proper funeral due to rising costs
Relatives visit a columbarium in Venezuela city of the Philippines to pay respect to their loved lost ones

Relatives visit a columbarium in Venezuela city of the Philippines to pay respect to their loved lost ones. (Photo supplied) 

Published: November 01, 2022 10:48 AM GMT
Updated: November 02, 2022 07:18 AM GMT

A bloc of opposition political parties has endorsed a bill in the Philippine parliament that seeks to offer free and state-subsidized funeral services to poor citizens.

The Makabayan bloc, composed of twelve parties in the Philippine Congress, filed House Bill No. 5753, known as the Free and Discounted Funeral Services Act, on Oct. 31. The bill aims to make it mandatory for the state to give “immediate relief to the poor, especially during the loss of their loved ones.”

Lawmaker France Castro said he hopes fellow lawmakers would expedite the passage of the bill because of the rising cost of funeral expenses in the Philippines.

“I hope my fellow congressmen and the president would easily pass the bill into law. There should be no further debates because of the cost of funeral expenses. It’s already costly to keep on living, and even more costly if one dies,” Castro told reporters on Oct. 31.

Funeral expenses in the Philippines range between 15,000 to 20,000 pesos (US$258-344) at the cheapest with only leased graveyard renewable every five years, according to the Philippine Information Agency.

Mid-range funeral services may cost up to 250,000 pesos ($4,310) with a plot. While a high-end funeral package ranges from 300,000 to 500,000 pesos ($5,172-8,620). 

Many choose cremation due to the lack of burial plots in congested cities like Manila.

Cremation prices vary from 70,000 pesos to 140,000 pesos, ($1,206-2,413). Urns are sold from 2,500 to 17,000 (US$43-293) depending on the materials used, the state agency reports.

About 23.7 percent of the country’s 110 million population were living below the poverty line in 2021, reports Asian Development Bank.

Many families hold wakes at home that sometimes last for weeks or even months because they do not have enough donations to cover funeral and burial expenses, according to lawmaker Castro.

“Poor families cannot afford the funeral costs. If their deceased relative died due to disease, most of the time, they do not have the money to cover the hospitalization and medicinal expenses. How much more are the funeral expenses?” Castro said

Once the bill is passed into law, mortuaries would receive discounts to be paid by the local government depending on the social class of the family of the deceased.

Extremely poor families would receive free funeral and burial costs while others would be given a 50 percent discount by mortuaries and funeral parlors.

The law also allows poor families to reimburse their expenses from the regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Local government units would waive all fees and charges including burial and interment permit, cremation permit, and the cost of the death certificate to qualified candidates.

“We also proposed the regulation of the sale of caskets by establishments to ensure the availability of affordable yet decent caskets for the poor,” Cebu representative Vincent Frasco told UCA News.

“The grant of free funeral services under the proposed Act is without prejudice to the right of the beneficiary to avail of upgraded funeral services given by the mortuary and the difference in cost shall be borne by the family of the deceased, the bill provides,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said the Catholic Church had already removed the arancel system – the practice of giving a fixed stipend to priests for church services.

“Financial obligations from the perspective of the Church are not of prime importance and must not be a burden," Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos told UCA News.

Bishop Santos said that the Church should be for the poor and therefore should not oblige them to pay certain amounts.

"We should not oblige [the faithful] either for the arancel [tariff], but we can be open to their free will to give or donate to the Church," he added.

In 2015, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan stopped charging fixed rates for sacraments and sacramentals in the archdiocese, including burial services.

The Archdiocese of Manila followed the suit in 2021.

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