CEBU, Philippines – Clearing operations inside the Doña Pepang Cemetery yesterday continued as part of plans to develop the burial site into a heritage site.
Personnel from the City Hall's Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification and Enhancement team started the manual clearing of more than 20 empty tombs in the area yesterday.
"Nagpadayon ta og clear… Hopefully makakuha ta og heavy equipment para madali ang atong clearing… Gisugdan nato karon ang mga bakante usa kay gihabwaan na man… atong ikumpleto gyud na nga proyekto," PROBE Chief Raquel Arce told reporters yesterday.
Last Monday, around 20 "illegal settlers" inside the cemetery also voluntarily removed their own houses or shanties.
"The cemetery is not a place for the living and the city remains that it is not their property and that it is set to be developed," said lawyer Collin Rosell, head of the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor, in a separate interview.
In their investigations, Rosell said they found out that these illegal settlers were displaced residents from a fire that hit Sitio Caimito in Barangay Carreta, which is adjacent to the cemetery.
"We advised them to go back to their respective places. Some of these families have their own houses in Sitio Caimito. Some were left homeless due to a fire. They are most probably sharers and renters so they built houses and shanties at the abandoned tombs," he said.
Meanwhile, the remaining structures fronting the cemetery's entrance are set to be cleared before All Saints' and All Souls' Days, on which families are expected to visit the tombs of their departed loved ones.
In November 2014, the city government closed the cemetery to pave way for the development plan, which seeks to convert the 9,282-square meter cemetery into a public park. The area houses the Osmeña Mausoleum.
In June this year, Mayor Michael Rama ordered the removal of almost 40 illegal structures outside the cemetery to proceed with the development plan.
The first phase of the clearing operations tore down at least nine structures, leaving the area with around 30 "illegal" structures.
The affected families were then transferred at the neighboring Barangay Lorega which will serve as their temporary staging area until the city can finish the ongoing construction of the medium-rise building located in the same barangay.