‘Cemetery war’ brewing in City of San Fernando

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — A proposed 8.7-hectare memorial park near a commercial district here has driven a wedge between city officials and local businessmen amid reports of bribery to push the controversial project.

The Save San Fernando Foundation Inc. (SSFFI), led by businessman Levi Laus, said the proposed Mt. Zion Memorial Park "adjoins the water ground pumping station of the San Fernando Water District," and thus, would pose health hazards to local folk.

Laus, in a letter to the city council, added that the proposed project in Barangay Dolores "will definitely set back the progress so far achieved in this booming metropolis."

The controversy erupted after local businessmen found out that the city council approved the memorial park project without consulting residents of Barangay Dolores.

SSFFI lawyer Atlee Viray said this violated the law, explaining that Presidential Decree 856 or the Sanitation Code of the Philippines mandates that cemeteries should be 50 meters away from rivers or any source of drinking water for local communities.

At a press briefing yesterday, Barangay Dolores councilwoman Purification Bamban claimed that people supposedly associated with the project’s proponent allegedly offered her P10,000 for the passage of a barangay ordinance endorsing the project.

Bamban said she refused the alleged offer, even as her colleagues barangay council passed the resolution last March 13.

Laus noted that the following day, the city council passed its own resolution favoring the Mt. Zion Memorial Park.

Laus and Viray said local businessmen are preparing a petition to ask the court to reverse the city council’s resolution authorizing the project.

In a statement yesterday, officials of Fil-Estate, the project’s proponent, said the memorial park project would be "more of a public park than a place for interment."

"To protect the water supply in the surrounding areas, every underground interment will be made within a waterproof and airtight concrete vault," it said.