House oks bill capping casket price at P20K for poor folk
A burial need not cost low-income families an arm and a leg.
The House of Representatives has approved a bill that would keep funeral services affordable to poor families by ensuring they don’t have to spend upwards of P20,000 for a casket.
During Tuesday’s plenary session, 198 lawmakers voted to pass on third and final reading House Bill No. 102, or the proposed Affordable Casket Act, which proposes a cap on the price of caskets for families certified indigent by social welfare offices.
The bill comes with tough penalties, including fines of up to P400,000 and possible license revocation for funeral service providers that fail to make decent and reasonably priced caskets available to indigents.
Required documents
HB 102 asserts it is part of the state’s responsibility to regulate the sale of caskets by funeral establishments to “ensure availability of affordable decent caskets to grief-stricken families, especially those classified as indigent and extremely poor.”
The draft measure defines an indigent family as that “whose monthly income is equivalent to the minimum wage set in the region where they reside.”
To avail themselves of the privilege, bereaved families need to submit to the funeral establishment a certificate of indigency and a case study verified by either the medical social service of a hospital, the local social welfare office, or the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
“All funeral establishments shall at all times maintain available decent caskets with a price of not more than P20,000,” according to the bill.
“In the event that there is no such casket available when needed and the family of the dead is an indigent family or extremely poor family … the funeral establishment shall be obliged to offer a casket of any higher value, but the price to be paid by such indigent family or extremely poor family shall still be at an amount not more than P20,000,” it adds.
Penalties
Failure or refusal by a funeral establishment to make available affordable services to indigent families could merit a fine of at most P200,000 and a six-month suspension of its license to operate.
“Repetitive violations after the lifting of the suspension of its license to operate shall be penalized with a fine not exceeding P400,000 and a revocation of such license to operate,” HB 102 states.
The bill would task the DSWD to implement the measure and craft guidelines while the Department of Trade and Industry is mandated to monitor the current market prices for caskets.
Funding is to be sourced from the DSWD budget in the annual General Appropriations Act, according to the bill. INQ
