Govt to shoulder hospital, burial expenses of bus blast victims

The government will shoulder all the medical and funeral expenses of the victims of Tuesday’s bombing of a passenger bus in Makati City, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said Wednesday. “All hospital bills will be taken cared of, the burial will also be all taken cared of, all the necessary costs are going to be shouldered by the government," said Soliman in a chance interview during the celebration of Department of Social Welfare and Development’s 60th anniversary in Quezon City. Scholarships will be provided to the children or siblings of fatalities who were breadwinners, Soliman said. Killed in the bombing were Johnlli Daquloag, who was dead on arrival at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig; Jhohanson Reyes, dead on the spot; Shirley Kristel Andres Orsena, 25, dead on the spot; Marino Salustino, 57, dead on arrival at Ospital ng Makati; and Irish Tiñola, a call center agent who succumbed to her injuries shortly after midnight Tuesday.

Soliman accompanied President Benigno Aquino III when he visited the victims confined at the St. Luke's Medical Center in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, and Ospital ng Makati Tuesday evening. She said Aquino instructed the victims to stay at the hospital until they have fully recovered. The victims will also undergo stress debriefing “so that their psychosocial and the physical well-being" will be taken cared of, Soliman said. Soliman said the family members of the deceased victims will be given scholarship until they finish their college education. Other needs of the families of the victims will be assessed and addressed on a case-to case-basis, she said. “Kailangang i-assess isa-isa at tingnan. Iba-iba din ang antas ng kabuhayan kasi ng mga nasawi at nasaktan (The assistance will be given based on the victim's economic status)," Soliman said. Five people were killed while 13 were injured in the explosion that the government said could be a handiwork of terrorists or part of a destabilization plot against the Aquino administration. - Amita O. Legaspi/KBK, GMANews.TV