Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Councilor eyes putting up city-owned crematorium
By Grace L. Plata
DAVAO City Councilor Nilo Abellera is set to propose a resolution on Tuesday requesting the City Mayor's Office through the City Economic Enterprise and the City Planning and Development Office to look into the feasibility of establishing a government-owned crematorium.
"It is an appropriate, practical and cheaper alternative in solving the shortage of burial sites in the city given the burgeoning population," Abellera said in his proposal.
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"Congested na man gud kaayo atong public cemeteries, so maayo ni siya ng (this is a good) project," said Francisco Vales Jr., chief of the City Economic Enterprises.
The CEE is managing the public cemeteries within the city.
Vales said they had planned to rehabilitate all public cemeteries just as Tagum City has done but with the numerous public cemeteries, the project just isn't feasible.
"The city will have to spend a lot. In our benchmarking trips to Tagum, we learned that it costs P10 million to rehabilitate one hectare of the cemetery. This includes the digging of existing niches, making new ones and allocating a common graveyard for unclaimed bodies," Vales said.
The city's cemeteries in Wireless, Panacan, Bunawan, Calinan, Ma-a, Toril and other areas are about 10 hectares.
Vales said a regular burial lot in private cemeteries cost an average of P30,000.
In public cemeteries, the niches are up for a maximum of 10-year lease at rates of P2,000 for adult, and P1,000 for children.
The lease is renewable for another ten years after which the family has to transfer the bones somewhere else, or the city will transfer it to the common graveyard.
"Other than the lot, they will pay for the burial series plus the coffin, which is expensive. But if there is a crematorium, they will spend less because they will only be renting a coffin" Vales said in the vernacular.
According to Vales, private crematoriums charge at least P12,000 for cremation services, but with a city-owned one, fees are expected to be lessened considerably so that it would be affordable for the poorer people.
The Wireless Public Cemetery, Vales said, is eyed as the place for the new crematorium.
"The wireless cemetery is at the center of the city and so it is accessible. We will just have to rehabilitate this so we can build the crematorium there," Vales concluded.
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cebu. For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (March 4, 2008 issue)
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