CEBU, Philippines - Mayor Michael Rama wants the Cebu City Government to spend P1 million for the lease of 212 bone chambers inside the Carreta cemetery where the skeletal remains dug up from the Lorega Cemetery will be placed.
Councilor Alvin Dizon said if the proposed lease agreement would be approved, the 212 bone chambers inside the portion of Carreta cemetery that is being managed by the Sto. Rosario Church would be leased for a period of 50 years.
Although the City Legal Office issued a legal opinion endorsing the approval of the proposed contract between the City and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cebu, the City Council decided to have it reviewed first by the committee on laws.
Hundreds of skeletal remains were dug up from the old Lorega cemetery in Barangay Lorega-San Miguel when a three-storey condominium was constructed in that place two years ago for the use of homeless urban poor families.
The Division for the Welfare of Urban Poor (DWUP) earlier decided to build a bone chamber still inside the old cemetery, but the City Planning and Development Office opposed to the plan because it will still be within 25 meters from the nearest house, thus it would violate the provisions of the Sanitary Code.
DWUP officials then negotiated with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cebu that owns the Carreta cemetery in order to lease a portion of its bone chamber so that the bones dug up from the old Lorega cemetery can be transferred there.
Dizon proposed that the mayor will be authorized to sign and enter into a contract with the Church officials for the lease of the bone chambers.
In the draft copy of the contract, it was stated that once the proposed lease contract would be approved, there will be no political advertisement, gimmickry, signage or anything that would tend to enhance the standing of a political party that will be allowed in that bone chamber.
In the event that such provisions would be violated, the Church officials shall have the right to remove them. –JPM (FREEMAN)