A rescuer carries equipment as a team searches through the rubble of a destroyed building looking for survivors in Mandalay on March 29, 2025, a day after an earthquake struck central Myanmar. Sai Aung Main, AFP

MANILA — The Philippines is studying if it could bring DNA testing machines and operators to quake-hit Myanmar to help verify the identities of cadavers that are being pulled out of the rubble, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Wednesday.

Four Filipinos who were residents of the collapsed Sky Villa condominium in the city of Mandalay have yet to be found nearly a week since the 7.7-magnitude quake struck near Myanmar’s second-largest city.

“We might have to ask even the experts of NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) to play a role if Myanmar does not have DNA testing capabilities,” said DFA Assistant Secretary Roberto Ferrer.

“Maraming capabilities tayo na wala ang Myanmar,” he said, noting that the Southeast Asian country has been besieged by a civil war before the quake struck last week.

READ: Around 100 Filipinos near Myanmar quake epicenter to be relocated to Yangon: DFA

Most of the dead bodies being pulled out from collapsed structures are already “in the advanced stage of decomposition,” said DFA Director Catherine Alpay.

“Mayroon kasing mga lumalabas na cadavers and so far since yesterday, mga patay, walang buhay… Unfortunately, walang refrigeration unit, walang cold storage unit doon kaya they are in the advanced stage of decomposition,” she said.

“Sinabihan namin ang mga rescue team na kung may foreigner na Asian, baka puwedeng ma-extract yung sample tissue bago ma-cremate,“ she said.

“Measures are in place for proper identification when and where possible,” she said.

The DFA is “directly coordinating” with the relatives of the 4 missing Filipinos, and have asked them to provide identifying marks on their relatives’ bodies to help officials in identifying the victims, Ferrer said.

Meantime, 11 Filipino residents of the collapsed condomium who survived the quake are also cooperating with authorities to help find the missing Filipinos.

“We don’t want to say that they are presumed, that they are under the rubble but we include that in the possibility,” DFA Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega said.

“The areas most affected are where the military junta is still in control… We are not the ones in control of the situation,” he said.

All victims from the collapsed condominium complex in Mandalay are brought to the Mandalay Hospital, but so far, no Filipinos were identified from that facility, Alpay said.

“Ang pinakamahalaga talaga is the communication we have with the families,” she said.

“The situation in Myanmar is not without risks even now,” she said.

READ: Myanmar quake toll passes 2,700; nation halts to honor victims

PH RESCUE TEAM EXPECTED TO OPERATE IN MYANMAR CAPITAL

While the Philippines has deployed an 89-member disaster response team to help in post-quake efforts in Myanmar, the group is expected to be deployed to the capital city of Naypyidaw as it is reportedly more devastated than Mandalay, the DFA said.

“It is the host government that will decide where they will be working,” said Winston Almeda, senior special assistant at the DFA’s Office of the Undersecretary for Civilian Security and Consular Affairs.

“The planning only included travel to Naypyidaw and back,” he said.

Of the nearly 1,000 Filipinos in Myanmar, 764 in Yangon, 171 are in Mandalay, while 25 others are in the capital Naypyidaw, data from the DFA showed.

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