Fortun: Bone up Noy, there are no coroners in RP
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| Dr. Raquel Fortun, Filipino Forensic Expert |
- FORENSIC EXPERT BARES NOY’S INCOMPETENCE, IGNORANCE
A respected and well-known forensic expert in the Philippines whose services were tapped by the Department of Health (DoH) to help identify the bodies in typhoon-ravaged Tacloban but had to pull out after being insulted by her counterparts from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), yesterday lashed out at President Aquino, saying his latest pronouncement on the slow body count had only exposed the extent of his incompetence and ignorance.
In her twitter account which had been going viral, forensic expert, Dr. Raquel Fortun, said Aquino’s statement defending the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) for its slow and low “Yolanda” casualty count, had only exposed the President’s gross incompetence and ignorance.
In his statement the other day, Aquino was quoted saying that the NDRRMC had been relatively slow in its body count as it had to make sure of its data before releasing any figure of the dead.
The belief is that Aquino had ordered the NDRRMC director to bring down the death count, as Aquino had publicly estimated the death toll at 2,000 only.
“It’s because you have to make sure that there is the certification or a coroner’s report before it is made official,” Aquino said in reference to the supposed body-count procedure.
However, Fortun rebutted him in her twitter account, saying Aquino obviously does not know what he is talking about.
“Certification of a coroner’s report is needed before a body is counted?” Fortun said.
“Do you know Mr. President that we don’t have coroners in the Philippines?” She pointed out.
When a follower in her account told her that it could have been what Aquino’s advisers told him, Fortun retorted: “Shhh! His advisers also don’t know that.”
Fortun also lamented at how Aquino is running his government saying it was much better during the time of former President, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. “Arroyo’s term may not have been spanking clean. But at least there was a sense that we were governed,” she said.
Fortun also noted a major difference between Aquino and Arroyo saying Arroyo was not afraid to face and confront any problem,but that Aquino is too allergic to hear any negative news.
“With former President GMA, you throw all the problems at her and she will deal with them. But the one who is sitting now is allergic to bad news,” Fortun said.
“So, if your boss does not like bad news, you are out of place with him. Thus you also end up delivering only good news to him,” she said.
Having stayed in Tacloban for five days, and witnessing for herself the miseries of the people there, Fortun could only sympathize with Yolanda’s victims.
“It’s only 27 days before Christmas and still we have no Christmas tree yet. But for some people, they still have no homes to stay and worse, some of them have lost their loved ones,” Fortun stated in her account.
The “official” death toll coming from the NDRRMC continues to go much too slowly.
Three weeks after super typhoon “Yolanda” smashed into the Visayas region, government authorities continued to recover corpses in the affected areas as the official death toll being reported by the NDRRMC is piling up.
The Task Force Cadaver, headed by Senior Supt. Pablito Cordeta of the Bureau of Fire Protection, on Wednesday retrieved 34 more bodies in Tacloban City.
So far, the task force has already retrieved a total of 2,038 corpses from the hardest hit city since its activation last Nov. 15 or a week after “Yolanda” struck.
The official death toll of the NDRRMC yesterday stood at only 5,560 with 60 additional confirmed deaths in Eastern Visayas. The number of injured people remained at 26,136 and those missing still 1,757.
The belief is that Aquino had ordered the NDRRMC director to bring down the death count, as Aquino had publicly estimated the death toll at 2,000 only.
“It’s because you have to make sure that there is the certification or a coroner’s report before it is made official,” Aquino said in reference to the supposed body-count procedure.
However, Fortun rebutted him in her twitter account, saying Aquino obviously does not know what he is talking about.
“Certification of a coroner’s report is needed before a body is counted?” Fortun said.
“Do you know Mr. President that we don’t have coroners in the Philippines?” She pointed out.
When a follower in her account told her that it could have been what Aquino’s advisers told him, Fortun retorted: “Shhh! His advisers also don’t know that.”
Fortun also lamented at how Aquino is running his government saying it was much better during the time of former President, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. “Arroyo’s term may not have been spanking clean. But at least there was a sense that we were governed,” she said.
Fortun also noted a major difference between Aquino and Arroyo saying Arroyo was not afraid to face and confront any problem,but that Aquino is too allergic to hear any negative news.
“With former President GMA, you throw all the problems at her and she will deal with them. But the one who is sitting now is allergic to bad news,” Fortun said.
“So, if your boss does not like bad news, you are out of place with him. Thus you also end up delivering only good news to him,” she said.
Having stayed in Tacloban for five days, and witnessing for herself the miseries of the people there, Fortun could only sympathize with Yolanda’s victims.
“It’s only 27 days before Christmas and still we have no Christmas tree yet. But for some people, they still have no homes to stay and worse, some of them have lost their loved ones,” Fortun stated in her account.
The “official” death toll coming from the NDRRMC continues to go much too slowly.
Three weeks after super typhoon “Yolanda” smashed into the Visayas region, government authorities continued to recover corpses in the affected areas as the official death toll being reported by the NDRRMC is piling up.
The Task Force Cadaver, headed by Senior Supt. Pablito Cordeta of the Bureau of Fire Protection, on Wednesday retrieved 34 more bodies in Tacloban City.
So far, the task force has already retrieved a total of 2,038 corpses from the hardest hit city since its activation last Nov. 15 or a week after “Yolanda” struck.
The official death toll of the NDRRMC yesterday stood at only 5,560 with 60 additional confirmed deaths in Eastern Visayas. The number of injured people remained at 26,136 and those missing still 1,757.
