MMDA to start cleaning Metro cemeteries for Nov. 1
ANOTHER busy week looms ahead of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) with the deployment of 2,000 of its personnel for All Saints’ Day.
In a radio interview Sunday, MMDA General Manager Cora Jimenez said that as early as Oct. 29, the agency would be implementing a “no absent and no day-off policy.”
The MMDA personnel to be deployed for clearing operations in various cemeteries in Metro Manila will come from the flood control, emergency response and cleaning units.
On top of their cemetery duties, they will also be assigned to assist passengers in bus terminals, particularly at the Cubao-Araneta Center and the areas of Edsa-Cubao, Edsa-Pasay-Taft, Balintawak, Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City and Dimasalang in Manila.
Emerson Carlos, MMDA officer in charge, said the agency would likewise conduct breathalyzer tests to ensure that no bus drivers would be driving while intoxicated.
He added that local government units had already submitted to the agency their traffic management plans for areas within the vicinity of cemeteries.
In a statement, the MMDA said that the clearing operations in both public and private cemeteries would be implemented in 14 cities and a municipality in Metro Manila.
Members of the Metro Parkway Clearing Group personnel will be deployed specifically to La Loma Cemetery in Caloocan City; Mandaluyong Cemetery and San Felipe Catholic Neri Cemetery in Mandaluyong City; North Cemetery and South Cemetery in Manila; Barangka Cemetery in Marikina City; Loyola Memorial Park, Manila Memorial Park and Palanyag Public Cemetery in Parañaque City; Sargento Mariano Public Cemetery in Pasay City; and Baraks and Roman Catholic Cemetery in Pasig.
Also to be visited by the MMDA personnel are Aglipay Cemetery, San Joaquin Cemetery, San Roque Cemetery in Pateros; Bagbag and Baesa cemeteries in Quezon City; San Juan Cemetery in San Juan City; Hagonoy Cemetery and Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City; Arkong Bato, Palasan and Karuhatan cemeteries in Valenzuela City; Soldiers Hill Cemetery in Muntinlupa City; St. Joseph Public Cemetery in Las Piñas City; and Tugatog Cemetery in Malabon City.
“(They will be deployed)….in various cemeteries in the metropolis (for them to) spruce up the tombs and immediate areas of the burial grounds…,” the MMDA said.
According to the agency, the clean-up drive which is part of the yearly “Oplan Kaluluwa” program will be implemented until Nov. 3.
The MMDA will also deploy “numerous personnel” to manage the flow of traffic in “critical areas,” including bus terminals on Nov. 1, in anticipation of the huge increase in the number of passengers going home to the provinces to visit their departed loved ones.
Meanwhile, around 700,000 to 800,000 people are expected to flock to the Manila South Cemetery in Makati City to visit their dead.
“But we expect the peak to be on Nov. 1 of course, or the day before, Oct. 31, which is a Saturday,” Ma. Agnes Mendez, officer in charge of the cemetery, said.
To ensure the safety of visitors, Mendez announced that some 200 to 300 policemen would be assigned to the area.
“They will be deployed starting Oct. 31, and stay possibly until Nov. 1 since Nov. 2 is not a holiday,” she said. Only Nov. 1 has been declared a holiday by Malacañang.
Two ambulances and several medical booths would be on standby to attend to visitors with medical emergencies, Mendez added.
As for people who insist on having access to the Internet even while at the cemetery, Mendez said that there would be free Wi-Fi from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1.
