By Ali Macabalang

COTABATO CITY – Another Filipino pilgrim died Monday in Saudi Arabia, bringing to five the number of deaths among over 7,000 Philippine hajj goers this year.

The National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) identified the latest fatality as Kiram Macapalao Rasuman, 62, male, from Lumba Bayabao, Lanao del Sur, who died inside his tent in Mina, one of venues for final hajj rituals that ended on Sunday in global celebration rites called Eid’l Adha (Feast of Sacrifice).

NCMF spokesperson Jun Alonto-Datu Ramos said Rasuman belonged to the hajj team of Shiekh Abdul Radid Said, who reportedly informed authorities about his member’s fatal fainting inside his tent in Mina. Mina’s desert has more than 100,000 air-conditioned tents that house more than three million pilgrims yearly.

Dr. Abdulnasser Masorong Jr, head of the NCMF medical supervisory team, traced Rasuman’s death to hypertension with coronary artery ailment.

Datu Ramos posted online the photo of the latest fatality, and a certification from the Philippine Consular Office attesting that accompanying relatives had agreed that Rasuman be buried in Makkah.

Rasuman was the fifth fatality among the 7,325 Filipino delegates, 6,973 of them pilgrims, in this year’s hajj season.

The NCMF had earlier reported the deaths of pilgrims Abdulnasser Hosain Banto, 62, from Taraka, Lanao del Sur; Bailani Sakandal Dalandas, 70, female, and Enting Tungao Kamensa, 66, male, both of Datu Piang, Maguindanao; and Sarapia Abalimbona Taha, 57, female, from Lumbayanague, Lanao del Sur.

Taha, Kamensa, Dalandas and Banto died of heart attacks in different hajj ritual venues in Madinah and Makkah on July 19, 20, 23 and 26, respectively, according to earlier NCMF reports.

In last year’s hajj season, a religious occasion for the fulfillment of one five pillars in Islam, six Filipino pilgrims passed away, two of them expired while aboard aircrafts bound from the Philippines to Saudi Arabia.

This year’s pilgrims are expected to start returning to the Philippines next week aboard 34 flights booked by the NCMF on Saudia Airline and Oman Air, it was learned.

Meanwhile, NCMF Secretary Saidamen Pangarungan has described the current hajj season as “general smoother and more improved” in terms of pilgrims’ transport services and accommodation in four to five-star hotels.

“We are grateful for the success of the Filipino pilgrimage. We thank the pilgrims for the cooperation, the Philippine consular officials and Saudi government for their warm reception, and more importantly, President (Rodrigo) Duterte for his utmost support to the NCMF operations,” Pangarungan told The Manila Bulletin. (Ali G. Macabalang)