Tuesday, November 04, 2008 Alabado: Planning cities (of the Dead) By Roberto P. Alabado III Planning Perspectives
DURING the weekend, millions of Filipinos flocked to cemeteries to visit and honor their departed ones. Many of us went from one cemetery to another to visit the final resting places of our friends and relatives.
I hope that you noticed the disparity between the public and the private cemeteries.
We have the spacious, beautifully landscaped, and well-planned layout of private cemeteries. These private cemeteries have clean surroundings, orderly placed burial sites and very good access roads. You could mistake some as well-manicured gardens. Some are so beautiful that they are even used as dating places!
In contrast, we have public cemeteries that are very crowded, with disorderly placement of burial sites, and with very narrow and sometimes no pathways.
You could not help but notice the many dilapidated tombs. Whenever I visit a public cemetery, I always feel awkward stepping over tombs or tombstones just to get around.
Why the discrepancy? Is this reflective of how the government plans and manages its enterprises or resources? Surely, we all know that there is very limited land available for public cemeteries but are we maximizing the available resources that we have? If the government is seeking the welfare of the public then why must the public endure the crowded and ill-planned public cemeteries that we have right now?
I think the managers of the public cemeteries must sit down and think of strategies on how to provide the public with better services while working with the limited resources available.
To start with, we must acknowledge that we have limited land allocated as public cemeteries. If we allow uncontrolled development in our public burial grounds where the final resting places of individuals are just piled one over the other without any sense of order, then overcrowding will always be the standard.
We may also have to review the land requirements of our present and future population so we can procure more land for public cemeteries for our city.
I see that many private memorial parks are being constructed but how about those who cannot afford their services? We must look after the welfare of the poor even after death. It is depressing to note that the problems of overcrowding and limited space are not only experienced by the living poor, but continue to haunt them even after death.
If we do not have the funds to buy more land then let us redevelop our existing public cemeteries. Just as condominium units are fast becoming acceptable residential units here in Davao City, why can't we introduce the same concept in our cemeteries?
I heard that Tagum City has reorganized its public cemetery and is now considered a model public cemetery. I heard that it even arranged cemetery residents in alphabetical order.
The other cities can rearrange their public cemetery through the concept of land readjustment and then build condo units for the dead. I once saw in TV that South American cemeteries have about 10 levels for their dead. If we can start burying our deceased this way, perhaps this will free up spaces in the cemeteries for the needed wider roads and open spaces where families can rest rather than sit on the tombs themselves.
As in every living city, there is no way but to build vertical structures to really maximize the limited land area of our public cemetery.
On the question of affordability, I know that our people are willing to pay more if they are given better services. With more burial spaces available, the cities can earn more by volume rather than by charging higher rates.
Perhaps another solution to the space problem is the crematorium that some councilors are proposing. This will definitely save space in the cemeteries since the urns occupy very little space and can be placed in a columbarium similarly designed as the condo units for the coffins.
I suppose that the cost of being cremated and placed in an urn is much cheaper than buying a coffin and lot in a private cemetery.
If our cities can start redesigning their public cemeteries now, possibly by next year, we will have beautiful public cemeteries and avoid the chaos that usually accompanies our annual visitation.
I would like to see our public cemeteries as deserving to be the eternal resting places of our dearly departed. Let us plan them well so that we can truly say we honor them not by just visiting them but by giving them a beautiful place to rest. (rpalabado@gmail.com)
