American graves face ouster in Baguio

THIS IS ONE of the neater sections of Baguio City Public Cemetery that has become overpopulated. The city government plans to remove unattended tombs, including those belonging to old American families, if no one takes care of them in five years. RICHARD BALONGLONG/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

BAGUIO CITY—Graves of Americans and city residents may lose their place in cemeteries here if no one visits them in five years, according to a new local government policy.

Baguio’s overpopulation has caught up with its dead, and making space for the new dead is the solution drawn up by the city environment and parks management office (Cepmo).

Victor Padua, public services assistant of the Cepmo, said his office was asking families to execute an agreement that stipulates that their dead are no more than tenants with rights to stay in the cemetery for five years but renewable only when they pay the five-year tenancy fee of P100.

The agreement is also a waiver that grants the city government the authority to remove their dead. It stipulates that the city cemetery managers “can transfer and/or rebury/reinter the remains at other locations after the tenancy period if the relative fails to pay the corresponding fees for extension.”

In case of force majeure or public health concerns and “if there are improvements/developments that will be introduced to the city cemetery even within the tenancy period,” the managers can transfer the dead “without notifying the [relative].”

American soldiers

The new policy, which was imposed in January this year, obliges the Cepmo to exhume the graves of American soldiers killed during World War II because these tombs have not been visited by  families and relatives for decades, Padua said.

“What is preventing us from strictly implementing this [policy] is not having any bone crypt or boxes where the remains can be placed just in case they  have to be removed,” he said.

The city cemetery has kept a record of unmarked tombs of American soldiers, including those of James Chambers (1868-1938) and Bert Davis (1880-1934).

The section where the dead soldiers are buried has become a dumping ground, said Rogelio Cortez, former head caretaker of the city cemetery.

The cemetery’s first recorded tenant was Joseph Douglas, who died on Dec. 11, 1934, at 22. His relatives continue to visit his grave, according to cemetery caretakers.

The Cepmo cleans the tombs of Eusebius Julius Halsema, Baguio’s last American mayor, who died on March 15, 1945, and his wife, Marie Boesel. Halsema served as mayor from 1920 to 1937.

Monument

Cortez said the Halsemas’ original bronze tombstones were stolen in 2008 and had since been replaced with a marble marker that reads: “The mayor who engineered Baguio City.” On the original bronze marker, the epitaph read: “Baguio is his monument.”

Padua said at least 800 remains were buried in the cemetery, 10 of them were those of American war veterans.

The overpopulated cemetery has become a continuing problem for its caretakers, he said. “There were [families] who would complain about the missing tombs of their relatives, only to realize later that they are still there but are surrounded or covered by other tombs,” he said.

The cemetery also has problems with the living. “The cemetery is so full now, and we have only 9 hectares of land area of which 4.2 hectares are occupied [by the dead] and 4.8 hectares are slope areas being inhabited by [informal settlers],” he said.