100 caskets scheduled for delivery to northern areas

STO. TOMAS, Pampanga – President Arroyo has asked casket manufacturers here to prepare at least 100 coffins for delivery to Baguio City and other northern areas where hundreds were killed mostly in landslides at the height of typhoon “Pepeng.”

Sofronio Galang, information officer of fourth district Rep. Anna York Bondoc-Sagum, said the President placed the order for the coffins during her visit here last Monday to attend the 48th founding anniversary of this town, the smallest in Pampanga, after she distributed relief goods to flood victims in Macabebe and Masantol towns.

This town has been dubbed as “casket capital of the Philippines.”

“She asked Congresswoman Bondoc-Sagum to prepare at least 100 coffins to help the families of the victims of the typhoon,” Galang said.

The President, who had lunch at the municipal hall last Monday, took time out to walk to the nearby St. Peter’s Casket Factory to talk about her plan to deliver caskets to the north.

“Congresswoman Bondoc, in turn, instructed us to get in touch with three to four casket makers to supply us with the coffins,” Galang said, adding that a casket costs from P4,000 to P4,500.

Close to 400 people were reported killed in the Cordillera, with retrieval operations for those still buried in landslides ongoing as of Oct. 13.

Casket making has become a backyard industry in this town where the pioneers, such as St. Peter’s, have made it big in the national and international markets.

Galang said his town has about 300 family-owned enterprises that produce 24,000 caskets a month and supply about 70 percent of the country’s needs.

Mrs. Arroyo was again in her hometown in Lubao yesterday to inspect projects and meet with barangay chiefs and tanods to tackle disaster management. It was her 31st visit to the second district this year.

The Philippine Information Agency regional office said the President would inspect a road improvement project in Barangay Sto. Cristo, the site for a proposed four-classroom building of a public school in Barangay San Antonio, the site for a proposed barangay hall and day care center in Barangay San Nicolas, and a meeting with barangay chiefs and tanods from all over the second district to tackle disaster management.

The PIA said the President was slated to sleep overnight in her home in Barangay San Nicolas before going back to Malacañang today. – With DC