[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’Wanted: Decent spaces for Tanza’s dead ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MERIANNE GRACE EREÑETA
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
ILOILO City – The city government will rehabilitate 500 niches at the Barangay Mabolo-Delgado wing of the Tanza public cemetery – the biggest in this city.
Some P2 million was allotted for the repairs that will start in 2017, according to an issuance officer at the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO).
Juliet Fuertes said they were announcing this early to allay the uneasiness of families of the dead.
“Nagapanawagan kami sa mga himata nga kon may pamangkot sila sa amon, makig-angot lang sila,” Fuertes told Panay News.
At least 30 niches at the Mabolo-Delgado wing have been destroyed since 2012, she said.
The rehabilitation will be done “by span.” The remains will be temporarily placed in vacant tombs.
“After ang paghimo sang pantyon, ibalik man namon kon diin sila originally nabutang,” said Fuertes.
The city government aims to start the rehabilitation in April.
The dead at the other parts of the Tanza cemetery will not be affected, Fuertes stressed.
The CENRO official disclosed the largest public cemetery in the city is now “overcrowded.”
It was designed to accommodate a maximum of 9,000 tombs but there were now more or less 10,000 tombs there.
“We cannot refuse the families, especially those who are poor,” said Fuertes.
Some niches have five to seven sets of remains each.
Two other public cemeteries here were in Barangay Jereos, La Paz and Barangay Quintin Salas, Jaro.
The city government has long planned to decongest public cemeteries by introducing small bone boxes but nothing concrete has been done.
According to the CENRO, around a thousand bone boxes may be built at the Tanza cemetery.
In 2011, Councilor Ely Estante suggested cremation to ease the overcrowding in cemeteries, then the ashes of the dead would be placed in space-saving columbaria.
A columbarium is a storage facility of cinerary urns (urns holding a deceased’s cremated remains).
In 2013, the Sangguniang Panlungsod passed Regulation Ordinance 2013-238 “creating a city crematorium, columbarium and multipurpose halls inside city cemeteries.” However, nothing concrete came out of it./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
