To ease the burden of Caloocan City residents afflicted with Hansen’s disease or leprosy, Mayor Enrico Echiverri recently approved an ordinance offering them free burial at the city’s public cemetery.
He said Ordinance 0446 “exempts any deceased leper from payment of burial permit fee and rental of cemetery lot or niche” provided the individual would be buried at the Tala Public Cemetery.
Echiverri said that any immediate relative of a deceased patient who would like to avail of the exemption could secure a certification from the Dr. Jose Rodriguez Memorial Medical Hospital and Sanitarium (DJRMMHS) to show proof that the deceased suffered from leprosy.
The certification should then be presented to the city treasurer’s office, which will issue a “certificate of exemption from payment of burial permit fee,” he said.
Echiverri noted that the approved applicants are also exempted from paying rent on a cemetery lot or niche for a period of five years from interment.
Around 3,000 leprosy patients housed at the DJRMMHS, formerly known as the Tala Leprosarium, welcomed the ordinance. – Pete Laude, Jerry Botial