Throngs visit South Cemetery in Makati

MANILA, Philippines – Throngs of people visiting the graves of their departed are massing up at Manila South Cemetery in Makati City and the crowd is expected to increase past lunch time, a police official said.

Superintendent Remigio Sedanto, Sta. Ana precinct commander, tapped by the Manila Police District to secure the South Cemetery, said he was anticipating the crowd to reach around 10,000 between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m., considered peak hours for visitors.

The police have yet to record any untoward incident since their deployment on Friday, except for a startling discovery by a tomb caretaker cleaning up a grave on Sunday, according to Sedanto.

“He found a fetus inside a bottle while sprucing up a grave,” the official said. The caretaker immediately reported the discovery to the authorities, and the fetus was buried immediately, Sedanto added.

Cemetery administrator Henry Dy also gave a similar observation on the peace and order situation.

In a separate interview, Dy said the security personnel of the cemetery confiscated a softdrink bottle containing an alcoholic beverage, which was banned inside the cemetery.

“We also found a fan knife hidden on the cap of a teenager [on Sunday] night,” he added. “When we interviewed the teenager, he said he was only preparing for his enemy whom might encounter inside the cemetery.”

The contraband were confiscated and disposed immediately, he said.

He observed that the number of people visiting the graves of their dead began increasing past 7:30 a.m. with some 100 persons filing into the cemetery’s main entrance per minute, he explained.

Two side entrances of the cemetery, meanwhile, had a foot traffic average of 50 persons per minute, Dy said.