MANILA, Philippines—Villagers carrying flowers and candles paddled canoes into a cemetery that resembled a lake in Angono, Rizal.

Joel Librilla thrust his hands into the waist-high waters to feel the letters on submerged tombstones in a search for his mother’s grave, where he later lit a candle atop a tree branch.

“We don’t know where to light our candles,” Librilla said. “But my mother should know that this is for her.”

The flooding caused by Typhoon “Santi” (international codename: Mirinae) has lowered the number of visitors to some cemeteries, according to reports reaching the Inquirer.

In the submerged capital town of Sta. Cruz in Laguna, attendance at the public cemetery was gravely affected.

On All Saints’ Day, relatives of the dead were still cleaning the dirt, mud and debris dumped by the floods spawned by Santi.

Others were staying in evacuations centers, reeling from the destruction of Santi and attending to their lives instead of coming to visit their dead, according to the Laguna Provincial Investigation Office (LPIO).

Down 30 percent

Police Officer 2 Lolet Patingan of the LPIO said the number of relatives visiting the cemeteries was down 30 percent on Sunday.

In previous years, police assigned to the Sta. Cruz Public Cemetery and Garden of Peace Memorial in Barangay Callius had difficulty managing the crowds on and before All Saints’ Day, according to Patingan.

She noted a few vendors along the road near the public cemetery.

The cemetery area, which is annually crowded with rides like ferris wheel and other entertainment facilities, noticeably did not have all these due to the disaster wrought by Santi, Patingan said.

She said the typhoon did not only cause massive flooding to the town and villages but also destroyed the steel-wooden bridge connecting the public market and a nearby village.

The mud it brought down to the lower areas of the town was about knee-deep.

Low turnout

The morning turnout at Quezon City cemeteries was also down despite the good weather, the city’s top police official said.

“The number of visitors this year was cut by half. But we expect that more would be arriving this afternoon (Sunday),” said Chief Supt. Elmo San Diego, Quezon City Police District director.

He made the assessment after checking on all the cemeteries in the city.

Flower vendors’ complaint

The crowds were also noticeably smaller than in the previous years in cemeteries in the cities of Cebu, Tacloban and Iloilo, according to police.

Flower vendors complained that the hard economic conditions had dampened sales.

“The flowers are more expensive and our sales are smaller than those in the previous years,” said Eva Abangan, a flower vendor at Arevelo District in Iloilo City.

Prices of flowers slightly increased, probably due to a shortage caused by typhoons, according to vendors in cemeteries in Cebu and Tacloban.

In Tacloban, the price of a dozen flowers rose to P150 from about P100-P120 in last year’s observance.

Many people, mostly private and government workers, still trooped to bus stations to take a trip to their hometowns in Samar and Leyte.

Focus on prayers

Amid high prices of commodities and flowers, Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, reminded the faithful to focus on offering prayers to saints and the dead on All Souls’ Day and All Saints’ Day.

“The bringing of food for the dead is of pagan origin. In the Philippines, the custom includes the putting of lights and ornamentals to decorate the graves of relatives. More important, of course, are the prayers and Masses offered for the deceased,” Lagdameo said in a statement.

He said prayers for the deceased kin were important not just for remembering but also for helping those in the “state of purification” or those souls still in Purgatory.

Generally peaceful

There was no major crime reported by the police assistance centers set up at cemeteries in the cities of Cebu, Tacloban and Iloilo.

For the first time, crime was not reported at cemeteries in Quezon City, according to the city police chief.

During this period, car theft, burglary, snatching and other crimes usually happened outside the cemeteries, he said.

The police said the observance of All Saints’ Day in eastern Metro Manila, particularly its biggest cemetery, Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City, was generally peaceful and orderly.

Chief Supt. Benjardi Mantele, Eastern Police District director, visited the major cemeteries as part of a police campaign to be more visible during the long weekend.

Some 1,000 policemen and women, not including barangay and civilian watchmen, roved around the streets of Marikina, Pasig, Mandaluyong and San Juan cities to keep the peace, Mantele said.

Kitchen knives

Mantele said security checks at the entrance points of the cemeteries yielded several kitchen knives, bolos, fan-knives and even Swiss knives and screwdrivers, which the police confiscated to prevent bloodshed.

The Marikina police chief, Senior Supt. Romeo Magsalos, said some 9,000 people had trooped to Loyola Memorial Park, a figure he expected to balloon to 15,000 by mid-to late afternoon.

“There were no cemetery-related incidents, not even involving snatchers or pickpockets,” he said.

In the absence of major troubles and incidents, except for the perennial traffic glitches around cemeteries that kept policemen busy, the Philippine National Police Sunday declared the observance of All Saints’ Day across the country “generally peaceful.”

PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa said that field reports that were forwarded to his office indicated that the day was peaceful and orderly.

“This is the result of the vigilance of police units and the cooperation of the public,” he pointed out.

Before the three-day holiday, when thousands traveled to provinces and troop to cemeteries, the PNP established 4,825 police assistance centers in vulnerable areas, including public cemeteries, memorial parks, churches, major highways, seaports, bus terminals and resorts.

As of noon Sunday, the police had confiscated 63 bladed weapons, a jungle bolo, a brass knuckle, a toy gun, a tear gas and an electronic toy, 20 sets of playing cards and other gambling paraphernalia from people entering cemeteries in the capital. With reports from Romulo O. Ponte, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Nestor Burgos Jr., Carla P. Gomez, Jhunnex Napallacan, Joey Gabieta, Vicente Labro and Jani Arnaiz, Inquirer Visayas; Nancy Carvajal, DJ Yap and Jocelyn R. Uy in Manila; and Associated Press