By Uriel Quilinguing
THE manner by which we do the final disposition of the dead manifests our cultural practice of venerating the dead. Remembering the departed on All Saints’ Day and on All Souls’ Day, based on Roman Catholic beliefs, cultivates the spiritual bond between those in heaven and the living.
And the most common setting for most Catholics for All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2) religious observances is the cemetery—the grounds dedicated to the burial and memorialization of human remains.
It’s not by sheer coincidence that in Wednesday’s press conference at Cagayan de Oro’s City Mayor’s Office, the City Memorial Park project out of the existing city public cemetery at Sitio Bolonsiri of Barangay Camaman-an was announced.
But the ambitious project, the scaling up of the 37-year-old city cemetery, would entail not only huge funding but massive information dissemination campaign to reach out to relatives of more than 44,000 who were buried in the 19-hectare public property for disinterment—the removal of human remains from the graves.
The Bolonsiri cemetery should have been closed years ago since it has long been congested. Unearthing bones of remains during excavations for new graves have been a possibility.
This City Memorial Park project therefore is laudable, much more if it would be under the management of the City Economic Enterprise Department, not with the City Local Environment and Natural Resources. Revenues can be generated from its day-to-day operations and should be treated as a long-term economic enterprise, not just an environmental activity.
For now, Clenro is the project proponent as if the operation of a memorial park is a primarily an environmental issue. It should even be more of a health and sanitation concerns.
Clenro’s hands have always been full. It could not even give a follow-through for the implementation of the plastic ordinance, unless it was intended as another ningas cogon ecological advocacy. Only the malls are compliant and many small establishments, including bakeries, have been reverting back to plastics for their day-to-day packaging. It could even ensure canals are unclogged or clearing Cagayan riversides from the highly-invasive water hyacinths.
Even the city government’s land-banking strategy to address the city’s housing backlog should also include possible sites that may be utilized for future public cemeteries in outlying three directional corners, aside from Bolonsiri.
But whoever will supervise the City Memorial Park operation, the existing site can be optimally utilized by the adoption of companion plots, double depth burials, and even provision of multi-level crypts. Clenro is seeking to institutionalize proper burial practices as well as prohibiting the burning of trash dry leaves, under City Ordinance 13378-2018.
While the CEED could generate revenues from burial permits, excavation rates and other ground maintenance service fees, Clenro’s collections would only be from violations which could be limited if all are law-abiding cemetery visitors.
It will not take long the envisioned City Memorial Park in Bolonsiri would be over-utilized once again. If there are two or three more sites for public cemeteries, then traffic congestions could be minimized once another “church militant” is in a funeral procession about to be reunited with “church triumphant” souls.
Other than indicating respect of the dead, burials prevent the bereaved to witness physical decay of corpses, provide closure to the family, and facilitate the entry of deceased to afterlife, depending on one’s belief.
Headstones on graveyards are enough for us to remember those who were once with us. Their souls have no need for mausoleum; they want to be free.
(Uriel C. Quilinguing is a former president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club who, for more than three decades, had been editor in chief of Cagayan de Oro-based newspapers, including this paper. For reactions, e-mail them to uriel.quilinguing@yahoo.com.)
