CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama is proposing that the city should have clustered columbaria for barangays to address the lack of burial space due the rising deaths brought by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
This developed amid the controversies surrounding the establishment of a new public cemetery for the city in Barangay Guba, where more than 300 trees have already been cut for the development of a 3 to 5-hectare city-owned lot in a protected area.
Read: VM Rama says cutting of 300 trees for new cemetery should have gone through proper process
“This is a long-overdue project. We should have columbariums in the city that can serve the public,” said the vice mayor.
Columbarium is defined as a structure of vaults lined with recesses for cinerary urns.
Rama is eyeing at least five columbaria in the city, two in the south district, two in the north district, and one in the mountain barangays.
Read: Cebu City finds lot in Barangay Guba for public cemetery
This can be built faster because the city has available spaces and structures. He said it only needs a few days to build a columbarium without much cost.
“If we can have volunteers to do them, we can finish them faster,” he said.
Raa explained that, same as the new cemetery eyed in Barangay Guba, this project is not only for the COVID-19-deceased patients but also for future use of the residents.
Read: Tumulak: Cebu City needs new cemetery, crematorium to address shortage of burial spaces
The vice mayor said that that the project is forward-looking as he believes cremation will be a part of the new normal and will be more common compared to traditional burial.
Rama is confident that Mayor Edgardo Labella will support the project as this would greatly help the city’s problem on burial sites.
The proposed ordinance on the controversial Cebu City botanical memorial garden will be tackled in a special session on Friday afternoon, July 10, 2020.
As of July 9, 2020, Cebu City has lost 336 to COVID-19, according to a report from the Department of Health in Cetntral Visayas. / bmjo