On November 20, near the Tacloban airport, the view is terrible: in an open space in front of the chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel, next to a building in half destroyed, bags containing more than 50 corpses lie on the ground. The victims died 12 days earlier, but given the initial urgency of cleaning the streets, they had to wait almost two weeks for treatment. We came here after joining a mission led by the fire service in collaboration with Scene Of the Crime Office (SOCO), the police forensic unit. Among us are also three French firefighters sent to support the government's efforts. From the icy Alps to collecting corpses: this is not a leisure trip, we fear. It's up to groups like this to recover typhoon victims, perhaps the most difficult task in Tacloban. It is a necessary task: for moral reasons and because disease poses a real danger in a city where people congregate in shelters and live with little clean water. According to Major Rodrigo A Almaden Junior, who heads the local fire department, they find around 25 bodies every day. Tecson John S. Lim, the city administrator, told the media that "every day, about 100 bodies are discovered, not counting those on the streets." At the airport, one of the firefighters points to a miserable building and indicates that during the typhoon the water reached the roof: there was no escape for those taking refuge inside. As in the case of an old man and a baby, probably a grandfather and a grandson, whose corpses were found still intertwined. “They had nowhere to go, the water caught them,” says the firefighter, his eyes fixed on the broken facade. A gloomy sky looms above us and after about an hour it starts to rain. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is not a... middle of paper .... Their first task is to clear the streets of debris, but since unpleasant surprises often lurk in the areas where they work, they also deal with the bodies they find. The MMDA is led by Ramon Santiago, who tells us that as of November 20 they have recovered more than 800 victims. Mr. Santiago is visibly grateful that this part of his work is now complete. His subordinates even more so: as we speak, two men dressed in what is clearly technical gear – one, for some reason, looks more like a professional diver – enter the room where we are sitting and shake hands. everyone's hand before leaving. Mr. Santiago says they are the ones responsible for recovery. “They return to Manila, they are really happy,” he quips. Happy How They Look: Their Shift at the Toughest Job in Town is Finally Over.