Unsanctioned memorial park operation stopped

TAYABAS, Quezon, Philippines – The municipal government of Ta­yabas in Quezon stopped the operation of a private cemetery in the area for a number of violations affecting more than a hundred mausoleums which were also built without the necessary permits.

Mayor Faustino Silang said that the 19,533 square-meter Lovely Paradise Garden in Barangay Baguio, owned by Councilor Ernida Reynoso, failed to comply with her commitment to reclassify her property from agricultural land to a private memorial park.

Silang said that Reynoso also failed to apply for land use conversion before the Department of Agrarian Reform Region 4-A to convert her property from agriculture to commercial use.

Reynoso, the mayor said, also failed to pay her real property taxes since the memorial park was built in 1997. 

The mayor also said that the private memorial park has been operating without proper clearances from the local health department and the 110 mausoleums constructed within it were built without building permits.

Silang said that Reynoso had earlier promised to comply with all the requirements for the memorial park to operate but six months had gone and nothing was fulfilled.

Reynoso denied the mayor’s allegations claiming that she is willing to comply with the requirements and to settle her tax obligations but the P365,000 charged by the municipal assessor’s office to her memorial park was “excessive.”