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Bacolod City, Philippines Monday, October 22, 2012
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TIGHT ROPE
WITH MODESTO P. SA-ONOY

Burial grounds

TIGHT ROPE
WITH MODESTO P. SA-ONOY

I am not certain whether it was in Avignon in France or in Pisa in Italy where a cemetery is right at the middle of the road, just like our own Luzuriaga burial grounds at Burgos and Lopez-Jaena. This only shows that it is not true we have this unique situation, except that the European cemetery has become part of the city park with benches and open spaces for people to sit right on the burial ground of their ancestors.

Bacolod Councilor Bobby Rojas has requested Mayor Evelio Leonardia and the Bacolod City Engineer’s Office to secure the Burgos cemetery. The western side is owned by the city while the other side is owned by the Catholic Church, specifically the Diocese of Bacolod.

Indeed, as Rojas has noted, both are crowded, the niches are already stacked up so high there is a possibility of collapse. The burial detail had to climb up the ladder to bring the coffin up into the niches and that in itself is a dangerous job.

Anyway, I think it is improbable that the niches would collapse because they are not heavy. Still it is a fact that the two burial grounds are already overcrowded.

The two cemeteries were opened in 1920 after the cholera epidemic of 1919 that killed thousands and the old cemetery in front of the Provincial Hospital in Lacson Street could no longer accommodate the dead. That cemetery was limited in area.

When the Parish of San Sebastian opened the Burgos cemetery, there was already the public cemetery. The reason for the separate cemeteries is that non-Catholics, particularly Aglipayans, Protestants and Masons were not permitted to be buried in Campo Santo or Holy Ground.

Prior to the emergence of Aglipayanism in 1903, Protestantism in 1901 and emergence into public view of Masonry at the same time as Aglipayanism, there was only one cemetery. All were Catholics, although there were Masons who were buried in Campo Santo because their affiliation in the banned society was not known.

Masonry at the time was a secret society.

An observer in our cemetery at Burgos will notice that there are mausoleums there, some on the other side of the cemetery. These are private burial grounds. There is also a De la Rama and Gonzaga mausoleums in Luzuriaga Street. The two families are related.

Barangays Sum-ag and Granada have their own cemeteries established when they were independent towns (they were reduced to barrios in 1901) and the most recent is the public cemetery in Handumanan.

There are now privately-owned memorial parks but the cost of the burial plots there are so horrendous that one friend once quipped it is not only expensive to live but also to die and be buried. The cost of funeral services is also high.

Perhaps, as an election gimmick Monico Puentevella and Vladimir Gonzales Gonzales can reduce the price of their burial plots. Isn’t it funny that both are engaged in this kind of business? Of course, Memorial parks and funeral services are not funny – they are big business.

It is time to evaluate the Burgos cemetery and for the city and the Diocese of Bacolod to sit down and find out what can be done of the present congestion.

The city cannot leave this matter alone to private cemeteries as they are expensive. Burial plot can cost P65,000, a year’s wage.

Is the opening of new cemeteries necessary? I think so, but where and by whom?

Only the government can answer that because I doubt whether at this time the Diocese is inclined to put up one. The businessmen are into the memorial parks but, again, these are expensive, more expensive than the price of prime land in downtown Bacolod. And at the rate things are going, they are getting even more pricey.

Cremation is becoming popular primarily due to the high cost of burial. Cremation, however, is not also cheap but generally is cheaper if one considers not having to buy a coffin but only an urn and getting buried in an alternative way. Some just scatter the ashes on the mountains, into rivers or the sea.

The issue of burial grounds has not been given any attention by our authorities who had, in fact, left the whole thing to businessmen. But a cemetery is a primary duty of government. In the past the Camp Santo is a duty of the Church but today that responsibility rests with the government.

Maybe Councilor Rojas who opened up this matter can use his committee to address this problem. The Burgos cemetery has, in fact, become a deterrent to development there because businessmen do not find opening their enterprise near a cemetery desirable.

Some get goose pimples even just by the thought of it; others think it is malas (bad luck).*

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