Chac on Lorega cemetery: Marker and housing can co-exist

CEBU, Philippines - The Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission (CHAC) could not yet establish if the Lorega Public Cemetery is indeed 100 years old or whether it is worth declaring as a historical landmark.

An urban poor group, Kamansi Lawis San Roque Pahantom Association (Kalapasa) headed by their president Patricio Georgua, had asked the Cebu City Government to declare the Lorega-San Miguel cemetery as a historical landmark saying that it would be 100 years old next year.

The KALAPASA also continues to oppose the closure of the cemetery to pave way for the construction of a three-storey building with residential units.Georgua pointed out that the government should preserve the historical landmark in their barangay instead of converting it to socialized housing.

 But the CHAC, however, clarified that a historical landmark and a housing project can co-exist in the area as giving respect to the dead and giving dignity to the living do not have to be a conflict.

CHAC Commissioner Erlinda Alburo said that before the site will be declared as historical landmark, there should be proof of a historic event that happened in the cemetery.

Alburo, the director of the Cebuano Studies Center of the University of San Carlos, said there is no proof that a historical event took place in the area.

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

By the start of the 1970s, however, it has become home not only to the dead but also to the living.

Georgua said it is proper for the City to install a historical landmark there because its revolutionary leaders and prominent personalities were buried in the area.

According to the group, the Lorega San Miguel Public Cemetery was where Don Vicente Sotto and General Arcadio Maxilom were first buried before their remains were transferred.

But based on the investigation and verification of CHAC, nobody could pinpoint as to where exactly these historical figures were buried.

In a separate interview with The FREEMAN, City Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmena assured the KALAPASA that a marker reflecting the names of the historical figures who were buried in the cemetery can be installed once they could locate the exact site.

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