The number of visitors at the Manila North Cemetery continues to swell on Friday, November 1, 2024. DIANNE SAMPANG / INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — The crowd estimate reached over one million on Friday evening at the Manila North Cemetery, the Manila Police District (MPD) reported.
As of 6 p.m. on Friday, a total of 1,095,000 visitors arrived at the cemetery. The MPD previously said that they were expecting a million crowd on All Saints’ Day.
Sub-task commander for Undas 2024 Atty. Jake Arcilla said that they are still expecting more visitors to arrive before the cemetery’s gates close.
“Now, we are still expecting [the number to rise] because people continuously arrive [at the cemetery]. We will reach an additional 100,000 [of visitors as the day ends],” Arcilla told INQUIRER.net in Filipino.
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Manila City Mayor Honey Lacuna said on Wednesday that authorities are expecting around 1.5 million visitors for this year’s Undas period.
Meanwhile, Arcilla said that the security status in the cemetery remains “generally peaceful.”
“We can say that everything is generally peaceful. Wala naman tayong nareport na untoward incident aside from kanina na naexplain ng district director natin na we can’t bintang sa Undas kasi separate naman siya,” Arcilla added.
(We can say that everything is generally peaceful. We did not report any untoward incident aside from what the district director explained that we can’t pinpoint on the Undas because they are separate matters.)
Arcilla was referring to the incident that happened at 2 a.m. on Friday where a 36-year-old queer got mauled inside the cemetery. The victim experienced hematoma and chest pain after being punched.
READ: 36-year-old ‘drunk’ queer mauled inside Manila North Cemetery
Further, Arcilla said that visitors have been “cooperative” in not bringing prohibited items inside the cemetery.
“Napakacooperative na ng mga tao ngayon unlike dati na nakikipagtalo sila. Alam nila ngayon na kapag bawal, kailangan nilang sundin,” Arcilla said.
(People are cooperative now unlike before where they would still argue. They know that when something is prohibited, they have to abide.)
As of 6 p.m. on Friday, a total of 1,050 prohibited items were confiscated. Of this figure, perfumes, cigarettes and vapes were confiscated the most.