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Thursday, November 03, 2005
Santander starts a public cemetery
For years, some residents of Santander town have had to bury their dead in other towns because they could not be accommodated in the Catholic cemetery.
Santander Mayor Wilson Wenceslao put up a P4-million public cemetery to help solve the problem.
Wenceslao said he was challenged by an incident that occurred during his first term as mayor, when town officials had to bring a dead man to Oslob town because the Catholic church denied the relatives’ request to bury him in Santander’s Catholic cemetery.
“The rejection of the church came in very late and it was already dawn when we buried the dead in Oslob because we still had to process some papers. I felt sorry for them. Taga-dinhi sila unya ang ilang paryente adto malubong sa laing lugar (They had to bury their loved one in another town),” he said.
Buried elsewhere
Oslob and Santander are adjacent towns, but their town centers are about 17 kilometers apart.
Santander’s planning and development officer Jonathan Buscato said there have been several other incidents when they had to bring their dead to either Oslob or Samboan.
If the deceased was not Catholic, the church will not allow his burial in a Catholic cemetery. Catholics with live-in partners or who were married only through civil rites are also refused burial there.
Members of the church-organized basic ecclesial communities are prioritized.
Unlike the typically crowded public cemetery, the one in Santander looks like a park, with well-arranged tombs. It’s also well-lit and has a rotunda and multi-purpose hall.
It is located near the shoreline of Barangay Looc and spans about 5,000 square meters.
Half of the area is reserved for paupers’ burials and bone chambers.
The other half is subdivided into six-square-meter parcels and will be developed as an economic enterprise for the town.
Ordinance
These lots are for sale, with the proceeds used to maintain the cemetery.
But the town has yet to come up with an ordinance that will set the price for each lot.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has given P2.7 million for the project, which was started in December last year. Some private donors also contributed.
With the help of the town’s funds, the project was realized and began operations in the middle of this year.
Wenceslao said the materials for the tombs that will be given for free to indigent constituents were donated by friends in the construction industry. He also spent personal funds.
Business is only a secondary aim of the project, he added. (MBG)
(November 3, 2005 issue)
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