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Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Security measures pay off
By Rene H. Martel
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Complaints about missing graves and exorbitant fees for cleaning tombs are common fare for barangay and Cebu City officials during the observance of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
But one complaint had them shaking their heads in disbelief: that of strict security measures.
“They quarrel with us because we inspect their bags. We have to explain to them that the strict measures are for their safety,” lamented Carreta Barangay Captain Marciano Ando.
He could not believe why people would object to the arrangements, knowing that what the barangay and the City Government were doing was for their own good.
His barangay has at least four public and private cemeteries under its jurisdiction, the most congested of which is Carreta cemetery.
The cemetery put up a public assistance center to guide those who could not find the tombs of their departed loved ones, either because they forgot which row, or that the bones were removed and placed in the common crypts at the big cross.
Poblacion Pardo Barangay Captain Danilo Lim had a similar experience as Ando.
He said they were not quite strict with those they recognized as residents of Pardo or the neighboring barangays.
But the new faces, more often those who just came to visit their dead relatives in Pardo, they had to stop and question.
“They get angry because we single them out. The residents, on the other hand, complain because the line takes a long time to move, owing to the inspection,” Lim told Sun.Star Cebu.
Since Monday, people have been visiting in droves and barangay officials were kept busy looking out for new faces and those acting suspiciously, Lim said.
However, he said they were not surprised that some could not locate graves and that many enterprising people charged more for cleaning or repainting graves and polishing tombstones.
“That usually happens every year,” Lim shared.
Ando said the same is also true in Carreta, but the public assistance center City Hall put up had been taking care of the problem.
The Cebu City Government was extra careful in terms of security because of fears of possible terrorist attack.
In Calamba, security was given more emphasis because of fears of a confrontation between Alpha Kappa Rho and Tau Gamma Phi fraternities, each of which had members buried in Calamba public cemetery.
And although private cemeteries employ their own guards, City Hall posted policemen in the area and deployed enforcers to keep the flow of traffic as orderly as possible.
Helping the police were the police auxiliary groups and the different parish security councils. (RHM)
(November 2, 2005 issue)
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