Interfaith burial site at Doña Pepang

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and his family visited Doña Pepang Cemetery yesterday. (CDN PHOTO/ JUNJIE MENDOZA)

INSTEAD of demolishing the graves in the Doña Pepang Cemetery, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña plans to convert the area into an interfaith cemetery.

The cemetery that is located in the boundary of Barangays Tejero and Carreta will replace Osmeña’s earlier plan to open an interfaith cemetery at the Osmeña Shrine in Barangay Kalunasan, which nearby residents opposed.

But the dead and the living will continue to share occupancy of the Doña Pepang Cemetery.

Osmeña said he also plans of building a “high density” and “multi-story” housing project in the area to accommodate its original occupants.

He will put up a minipark that would later accommodate the monuments of his grandfather, Sergio Osmeña Jr., and Don Vicente Rama, great-grandfather of former mayor Michael Rama.

Mayor Osmeña, wife Margot, son Miguel, daughter-in-law Bea and granddaughter Anita visited the Doña Pepang Cemetery before noontime yesterday.

They visited the Osmeña Mausoleum that houses the graves of the late president Sergio Osmeña Sr. and his wife, Doña Pepang.

The mayor said he will also ask former city councilor Alvin Dizon to oversee the projects and whatever will be done within the Doña Pepang Cemetery property.

Former mayor Michael Rama earlier planned to develop the nearly one-hectare property into a heritage park.

He insisted that the city owned the property through a Deed of Exchange it entered into with the Cebu Archdiocese in 2011.

Several structures in front of the cemetery were demolished by the city government last year, displacing at least 40 families, to pave way for the project.