The Philippines has been a witness to effects of recent major disasters which have claimed thousands of lives. Mostly, the concentration of the government lies on the response, recovery and management of the survivors. Less attention has been given to the administration and supervision of the human remains and missing persons. However, the management of the dead and missing persons is actually one of the most difficult challenges in disaster management. The study found that there had been several policies and directives issued for instance by the DOH, DILG, and even the PNP in terms or responding and managing the dead and the missing. These several guidelines/protocols/directives most often than not create confusion and miscoordination of which agency should do what, when, and how. Hence, with the National Disaster Response Plan approved in 2019, the creation of the Management of the Dead and the Missing was developed with the PNP tasked to lead the management of the missing persons during human-induced disasters.

There are also identified gaps and challenges encountered which include (1) poor coordination and communication between and among concerned agencies and stakeholders; (2) lack of dedicated Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Team for the Regional, Provincial, and District level of PNP Crime Laboratory; and (3) absence of national registry of missing persons. The researcher provided recommendations such as reviewing of existing laws/policies/directives/protocols/manuals and plans relating to the management of the missing persons to come up with a comprehensive policy that will fill-in the gaps and adopt good practices encountered during the past disasters, creation of a comprehensive policy that specifies delineation of jurisdictional concern on the search and retrieval f bodies of victims or the presumed missing persons of disasters, addendum to the comprehensive policy is the institutionalization on the establishment of Missing Person Data Collection Center (MPDCC) for every mass casualty disaster, strict enforcement of the existing laws and policies at all levels, and creation of a national registry of missing persons, among others.