‘Dying has become as costly as living itself’: Bayan Muna seeks passage of funeral service bill

Billy Begas

House Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate on Sunday called on the House of Representatives to pass the Free Funeral Services for Indigent Families bill.

Zarate said House Bill 5249 is still pending at the House Appropriations Committee more than a year after it was passed by the House Committee on Poverty Alleviation.

“In the Philippines, dying has become as costly as living itself especially now under the current crisis aggravated by the COVID pandemic. This is because most Filipinos already live lives of utter poverty and still die poor and indebted till the end. Funeral services generally are expensive, a stark and difficult reality confronting the large majority of impoverished Filipinos,” Zarate said.

Aside from Zarate, Bayan Muna Representatives Eufemia Cullamat and Ferdinand Gaite filed the measure in October 2019. It was passed by the Poverty Alleviation committee chaired by Caloocan City Rep. Dale Malapitan in September 2020.

“The committee passed a substitute bill seeking to grant a 50% discount on funeral services to indigent families and free funeral services to extremely poor families nationwide,” said Zarate.

The measure defines “poor” as those families whose income falls below the poverty threshold as defined by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and/or who cannot afford in a sustained manner to provide their minimum basic needs of food, health, education, housing or other essential amenities of life, as defined under “Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act” (Republic Act 8425).

Under the measure, free funeral services shall be given to only one family member per month per mortuary branch, provided that it does not exceed the cost of the mortuary’s minimum funeral service package.

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.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)