BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan ordered the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) and its attached offices to work out the opening of the road network from the old Baguio public cemetery to the adjacent 4-hectare Brillantes property that will serve as the expansion of the already congested burial ground so that the local government could already use the purchased property nearly two decades ago.
The local chief executive directed the CEPMO to already conduct an inventory of the tombs that will be affected by the construction of the road so that the same will be relocated so that the city will be able to maximize the use of the purchased Brillantes property for the expansion of the public cemetery considering its current congested situation.
“We have to consider using the Brillantes property as the immediate expansion of our public cemetery through the putting in place of the road network so that the area will be properly zoned to accommodate the increasing number of individuals being buried in the said area,” Domogan stressed.
Aside from the expansion of the city’s public cemetery, the area will also host code-type tombs and a state-of-the-art crematorium capable of cremating the dead in approximately 45 minutes instead of the traditional 3 to 4 hours of cremation.
According to him, the local government should provide people with alternative modes of burying their dead love ones so that they can select what will be the most practical way of disposing their dead love ones.
He explained that it will be impossible to access the cemetery expansion through the San Luis Village area because of the peculiar condition of the terrain leading to the property that is why the best route leading to the 4-hectare property is through the existing public cemetery but there is a need for the local government to relocate some of the tombs that will be affected during the construction of the road network.
It can be recalled that the local government purchased the property adjacent to the city public cemetery from the Brillantes family to use as the proposed expansion area of the burial ground, but to date it never materialized because of problems on where to construct the road network and what the alternative modes will be of burying the dead in the area.
Domogan claimed the CEPMO must submit to the concerned offices of the city the request for the budget that will be used in building the road network leading to the cemetery expansion area so that funds for the purpose could already be earmarked for the utilization of the property as the expansion site while the local government is trying to locate other possible areas that could be used as additional sites for the cemetery purposes.
One of the possible expansion areas being eyed by the local government is the portion of the city-owned 139-hectare Sto. Tomas school property. It will still be subject to the necessary zoning to accommodate other possible uses of the property like for housing, integrated solid waste disposal facility, and expansion of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), among others. /By Dexter A. See
