DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu and retired Major General Mel Feliciano of the Inter-Agency Task Force inspect several potential locations in Cebu City that can be utilized as public cemeteries in a bid to have more burial sites as the city’s COVID-19 mortalities reaches over 300 as of July 13, 2020. | Courtesy of PIA7 via Morexette Erram
(UPDATED as of 6:45 p.m.) CEBU CITY, Philippines – Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu led the search for properties in Cebu City that could be used as the final resting place for some of its residents on Monday, July 13, 2020.
The state-run Philippine Information Agency in Central Visayas (PIA-7), in an advisory, said Cimatu made the move in “a bid to address the backlog in crematories throughout the city due to deaths related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).”
“We have to immediately identify burial sites that are outside protected areas, and will pose no harm to the immediate community,” Cimatu was quoted on saying.
Based on the photos from PIA-7, Cimatu, a retired Army general who currently sits as the overseer of Cebu City’s COVID-19 response, was also accompanied by retired Major General Mel Feliciano of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-MEID).
“Forward planning and swift implementation will give Cebu City the edge it needs to defeat COVID-19. There is an urgent public health risk posed by the lack of crematories, so we have to do what we can and do it quickly,” the advisory read, quoting Feliciano.
Both government officials were looking for possible cemeteries in the hinterland village of Sapangdaku last Monday.
On the other hand, the Cebu City Government is eyeing to use a city-owned lot in Barangay Guba, also a mountain barangay, as a future public cemetery.
The city has defended its decision to cut down at least 300 mahogany trees in Barangay Guba in preparation for its conversion into a burial site.
Recent data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) showed that Cebu City, tagged as the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the region, has documented over 12,300 cases.
Of this number, at least 364 are considered mortalities or patients who tested positive for COVID-19 and have already passed away. /bmjo