DID YOU KNOW: Rizal wanted to be buried in La Loma

La Loma Cemetery, now the oldest cemetery in Manila still in use, opened toward the end of the Spanish Colonial period.

The area was called “Paang Bundok” and this was where Jose Rizal had wished to be buried.

Unfortunately, the cemetery refused to bury non-Catholics and Filipino insurgents during Rizal’s time.

Used as one of the Japanese execution sites during World War II, a Japanese artillery gun remains within the premises of the cemetery. —Marielle Medina, Inquirer Research