Baguio wants to preserve tombs of old timers

CROWDED LAND OF THE DEAD The congestion plaguing the living is the same problem faced by the dead at Baguio City’s public cemetery. The problem was aggravated by the loss of records indicating who and where the dead are buried. —EV ESPIRITU

The congestion problems of Baguio City are also being felt at its public cemetery. In Isabela, residents have been fascinated by the pink tomb of a girl who had been fond of the Japanese mascot and fashion brand “Hello Kitty.” In Pampanga, graves in three public cemeteries have already been cleaned and painted for free by the local government.

Baguio cemetery administrators will initiate a “tomb-by-tomb” inventory to determine who are buried there, after losing old records dating back to the 1930s.

The inventory was triggered by complaints that occupied tombs had been replaced or were buried under new graves.

Nico Parado, who oversees cemeteries for the office of the city environment and parks management, said workers at the 9.5-hectare public cemetery were unaware those areas were occupied.

The incomplete files used to be kept by the old city health office.

Forgotten tomb

The missing records may reveal details about the city’s old timers, including the first residents who were buried there. Their tombs and their stories about Baguio’s early days should be preserved, Parado said.

One of the oldest and forgotten tombs belongs to former Mayor Eusebius James Halsema, who died in 1945 and was credited to have “engineered Baguio City.”

Halsema, an American who also served as city engineer, was responsible for building what is now the Halsema Highway, which connects Baguio to interior Cordillera towns.

Missing records

The cemetery also hosts the tomb of Ibaloy herdsman, Mateo Cariño, whose legal battle for his ancestral lands at the United States Supreme Court in 1909 became a legal doctrine that fortified the indigenous peoples’ rights provisions in the Constitution.

The only records available date back to 2012, but officials estimate that the cemetery has 11,000 tombs, including those of the recently departed.

Hello Kitty images

Parado said that number shows that the cemetery is too congested so the city government is working on a deal to expand toward a neighboring private lot.

TRIBUTE The Hello Kitty-inspired tomb at the public cemetery in Tumauini town, Isabela province —VILLAMOR VISAYA JR.

In Isabela, a room built around a girl’s tomb in Tumauini town has been adorned with “Hello Kitty” images. It was financed by her aunt, who works in Japan.

The girl’s identity, as well as details of how she died, has been kept confidential. But she had loved “Hello Kitty” items like shoes, bags, umbrellas, school supplies and accessories, according to Frank Dumaua, the family helper.

Life atop old tombs

In the City of Ilagan, a cemetery has become the dwelling place of 15 families who have settled on top of old tombs and inside mausoleums. They have helped guard the cemetery and have occasionally shooed away teenagers.

“We have been sending them away … we normally see condoms here,” said Roberto Ramos, the cemetery caretaker.

But the cemetery residents had been told they would soon be relocated. “We hope that we will be sent away here after All Saints’ Day so that we have more time to prepare,” said Nita Ramos, 60.

These families managed to make their stay comfortable. The rooftop of a mausoleum has been home to the Zabala family for the last 19 years, said Gemma Zabala, 46.

They use kerosene lamps, candles or flashlights at night, but other families managed to buy power and water from households near the cemetery.

The families take baths at public toilets or secure pails of water from a village water pump.

Free cleanup

In Pampanga, the local government of Mabalacat City has cleaned and painted public cemeteries for free in time for “Undas.”

Mayor Cris Garbo said they have been doing this in the last three years to allow residents to save money they usually spend on hiring people to clean the tombs.

Garbo said residents visiting the cemeteries would also be given free candles.

Some 2,300 inmates at the Pampanga provincial jail have been allowed to receive visitors from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3 after officials canceled a plan to suspend visits following the escape of two detainees there on Oct. 26.

Jail warden, Edwin Mangaliman, said additional security measures would be undertaken during Undas to prevent another jailbreak.

—Reports from Vincent Cabreza, Villamor Visaya Jr., Maria Adelaida Calayag and Tonette Orejas