Exhumation at Lorega cemetery next week

CEBU, Philippines – This year's observance of All Saints Day and All Souls Day will be the last at the Lorega San Miguel Public Cemetery.

Next week, the city government will start the excavation and exhumation of some 362 cadavers to give way to the construction of a three-story building for socialized housing. The project is seen to benefit an initial 60 families that have been living with the dead for decades and who are members of United Cemetery Side Residence Association Inc.

Councilor Alvin Dizon, in his visit to the area yesterday, started relaying the information to the families of the affected cadavers, several of whom are still unaware of the cemetery's closure. The city government has put up notices in strategic areas in the cemeteries.

Those who learned about the project early on had taken the prerogative to transfer the remains of their loved ones to another cemetery.

There are 362 cadavers that are scheduled for exhumation next week, but the city health department has disallowed the exhumation of 22 cadavers, as they were buried just less than five years. 

The 22 cadavers will only be transferred to another tomb in the area that will not be affected by the construction.

The cadavers that have been buried for more than five years, but have not been claimed by relatives will be placed in a temporary bone chamber. Relatives who wish to claim the remains will be able to do so without payment, as recently approved by the City Council.

The exhumation was supposed to start this week but was delayed because relatives have requested that they be allowed to observe All Saints Day and All Souls Day at the cemetery.

The city is also awaiting the certification from the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation that no person with pending criminal case is buried there.

Dizon said all requirements will be completed next week so the clearing will finally start and will end in a month. After the construction of the three-story building, the cemetery will be cleared of tombs and cadavers.

"The clearing will be done phase by phase. There are all in all 3,012 cadavers in this cemetery that we will have to remove. After all, this cemetery was closed because it is no longer compliant with the sanitation code which requires the cemetery to be 25 meters away from a residential house and 50 meters away from a water source," Dizon said.

The Lorega cemetery has been a home not only to the dead but also to the living as early as 1970s. Currently, there are about 400 families and structures built on top or beside the tombs.

The 74-year-old cemetery was established in 1936 before the Second World War. Before that, it was already the graveyard of the oldest cadaver buried in 1912.

The Lorega San Miguel Public Cemetery was also where Don Vicente Sotto and General Arcadio Maxilom were first buried before there remains were transferred.

The proposed socialized housing project is being funded by the Priority Development Assistance Fund of former Congressman Raul del Mar amounting to P10 million plus additional funds from non-government organizations amounting to P3 million. (FREEMAN)