ILLEGAL settlers at the Cebu Chinese Cemetery in Barangay Carreta will have to move out to make way for the Cebu City Government's plan to convert the area into a heritage park.
Carreta Barangay Captain Marciano Ando said Dean Decal of the Asociacion Benevola de Cebu Inc. (ABCI), which owns the cemetery, informed him during a meeting of the plan to convert the cemetery into a P100-million heritage park.
The ABCI will give financial assistance to settlers who will be affected by the project, Decal reportedly said.
City and barangay personnel, along with employees of the ABCI, conducted a massive cleanup in the cemetery two weeks ago where close to 20 dump trucks were used to carry out garbage of all sorts.
Ando said the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) has listed more than 200 families living in the cemetery, but the barangay estimates the number to be higher.
Ando said it is important for the barangay and the DWUP's records to reconcile as only those included in the list will receive the ABCI cash aid.
He said many of the settlers were probably out when members of the DWUP conducted a socioeconomic survey in the area since most of them work during the day and come back only at night.
Many of the settlers used to live in the North Reclamation Area until their houses were demolished in 2018, Ando said.
He added that former Carreta barangay captain Eduardo Laudo had allowed them to stay in the cemetery temporarily.
Illegal drugs
There have been no burials at the cemetery in the last five years. The ABCI has a new cemetery in the northern town of Consolacion and in Talisay City.
Ando said there are still many graves inside the 4.4-hectare property. However, some families had removed the remains of their departed loved ones and buried them elsewhere after some graves were looted.
Once the cemetery is cleared of illegal settlers, the illegal drug trade in the area will stop, he said.
The barangay captain narrated that three kilos of shabu worth P20 million were seized during a buy-bust operation on June 17, 2022 in which one Mark Ronald Matig-a, alias Onad, was killed after he allegedly fought against operatives of the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit.
On Oct. 6, Elton John dela Torre, a former drug surrenderer who is a native of Barangay Poblacion in the northern town of Compostela, Cebu, was arrested inside the cemetery during a buy-bust in which he yielded P4.6 million worth of shabu, Ando added.
Mayor Michael Rama has ordered Carreta barangay officials to put up lights at the cemetery in preparation for the upcoming All Saints' and All Souls' Days on Nov. 1 and 2. (PJB)