One could say that, in the Philippines, cemeteries are sacred spaces. They are where people bury their loved ones whether below the ground in a grave or above the ground in a sepulcher. Every November 1 crowds descend upon cemeteries to commune with the dearly departed by having a loud, noisy barbecue or picnic next to or standing over their bones. Undas is usually a big money making event for flower, candle, and food vendors but not this year. For the second year in a row Undas has been cancelled leaving many vendors wondering how they will make ends meet.
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| https://www.panaynews.net/closure-worries-vendors-how-to-make-ends-meet/ |
The five-day closure of cemeteries would be a challenge, according to ambulant vendors.
The period from Oct. 29 to Nov. 2 would have been their “prime” days to earn, said Flordeleza Regalado of Barangay Oñate de Leon, Mandurriao district.
Regalado has been selling candles, candies and food for over 30 years outside the Mandurriao public cemetery.
People have started visiting their departed loved ones in cemeteries, but “tuman pa kalaka,” Regado noted.
“Pigado gid. Makabenta kami sang P500 sa isa ka adlaw pero laka lang. Kis-a wala gani da nagakalab-ot,” she said.
According to Regalado, the P300 to P500 income per day cannot meet the daily needs of her family.
The closure will put more hardships on the vendors already reeling from the pandemic, according to Regalado.
Before the pandemic, Regalado said their daily income reached as high as P3,000.
Regalado’s niece Christine has the same sentiment.
She has been selling candles, coffee, and food in the Madurriao public market for 10 years now. Christine earns an average of P500 daily, but “kis-a pa-timing-timing man.”
According to Christine, her meager income is not enough for their daily household expenses.
From P3000 to P300 per day. That is a 90% cut which will certainly make life difficult. But perhaps these kind of jobs should not be seen as careers. Maybe there is a better way to take care of your family than being an ambulant candle vendor. How does one end up with a career in selling trinkets to cemetery visitors? Perhaps it is a family thing. Regalado and his cousin Christine are both cemetery vendors. Perhaps they live in a cemetery?
In too many cases cemeteries are not only the resting place for the dead but also a resting place for the living.
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| https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/407230/informal-settlers-inside-cemetery-can-stay-probe |
Informal settlers living inside the cemeteries here will not be removed.
This was the pronouncement of the Prevention Restoration Order Beautification and Enhancement (PROBE) team that is preparing for the upcoming All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
PROBE Head Racquel Arce said that the city government does not wish to demolish or evacuate those living inside cemeteries since there is no relocation site for them anyway.
But to minimize health risks brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, those living inside cemeteries instead are asked to stay in their homes and avoid going out unless they have urgent business outside such as buying food or medicine.
Only adults should go out from their homes but they are not allowed to loiter in the cemetery as well.
Since it is anticipated that the public will flock cemeteries on November 1 and 2, even if only vaccinated individuals are allowed, the cemetery residents must not join in with the crowd.
Children living in the cemeteries must also be kept in their homes at all times as any child seen loitering without adult supervision will be rescued.
Arce urged families in cemeteries to lock-in their children, elderly, and people with comorbidities, so they will not be at risk of catching COVID-19 from cemetery visitors.
For informal settlers with stalls for trade inside the cemeteries, they have to clear their stalls and transfer to the designated selling areas outside the cemeteries by Monday, October 25, 2021.
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| https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/21/21/drug-war-victims-cremated-as-grave-leases-lapse |
Exhumed remains of seven individuals killed under President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs were cremated and blessed Wednesday after the leases on their graves expired, a priest leading the effort said.
Fr. Flavie Villanueva, founder and leader of Project Paghilom, which supports bereaved families of drug war victims, said the step is "part of [the program's] continuous campaign for holistic healing for the widows and orphans of victims of the war on drugs of the Duterte administration."
“Remember that these remains, these victims out of poverty and fear were hurriedly buried. Because of poverty, because of fear, they didn’t have enough to buy a more dignified grave site… They didn’t have the luxury to own a grave site, forcing them to simply rent grave apartments that expire after 5 years," Villanueva told ABS-CBN News.
“If they will not be exhumed, they will end up in sacks, graves or even lost forever.”
The seven individuals, whose urns were blessed at a church in Manila Wednesday, died in anti-drug operations in 2016, the first year of the Duterte administration.
Their urns were turned over to their families. Villanueva said this would "allow them to have more a intimate experience of grieving, which hopefully leads to healing.”
"By next year, we’re also talking with some cemeteries, where their loved ones will be inurned perhaps in more dignified grave sites," he said.
At hand at the rites was Vice President Leni Robredo, who vowed support for families of alleged victims of extrajudicial killings as they move forward with grief.
(We can't bring back the lives of those we have lost but if we improve our lives, that's how we honor them, that even if they are not here anymore, you ensure that those who were left behind are taken care of.)
(I'm here, my office is here [for you]. If you need anything— even just someone to talk to, we are open to everyone.)
The Office of the Vice President has partnered with civil society groups in providing various interventions for families who lost their loved ones to EJKs.
Villanueva said his group expects that the lease of many grave sites of drug war victims would also expire next month, and that more exhumations would happen.
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| https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2108198/manilas-apartment-tombs-where-poor-bury-their |
Caretakers also tend to the apartment tombs. Unlike more elaborate burial structures, which are bought and owned in perpetuity, apartment tombs can only be rented for five-year terms, after which the bones of the deceased will be evicted. Then there are two options: the bone box, a concrete ossuary not much bigger than a large shoe box; or the rice sack, labelled with the surname of the dead and tossed on to a tumbling pile in a tin and breeze-block shed at the rear of the cemetery.
For a fee, renewals on the lease of an apartment tomb were offered before 2008. Then the Pasay City Public Cemetery was taken over by new management and, due to overcrowding, it said, renewals would no longer be granted.
Those are unclaimed human remains spilling out of torn rice sacks. In the Philippines if you cannot afford to buy a grave you will eventually be placed in a rice sack and tossed into an ossuary. This is appalling and even the poorest man does not deserve this indignity. But dignity has always been in short supply in the Philippines.
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