Osmeña asks court to stop City Hall from evicting the dead in old city cemetery

‘KEEP OFF DOÑA PEPANG’

A WALK IN THE PARK. Schoolchildren pass by the sprawling Osmeña Mausoleum inside the Doña Pepang Cemetery in barangay Carreta which Mayor Michael Rama wants to develop into a public park. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

Respect the dead.

Tomas Osmeña,  former mayor and congressman of Cebu City, said this as he sought the court’s intervention to stop his arch-rival, Mayor Michael Rama, from shutting down the Doña Pepang Cemetery and converting  it into a park.

In a  petition filed with the Cebu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) last Thursday, Osmeña said Rama should  respect the rights of those whose relatives and loved ones are buried in the cemetery.

Osmeña  filed the case  as “citizen and taxpayer of Cebu City.”

City Councilors  were also named respondent because they authorized Rama to complete a land swap deal involving the Doña Pepang Cemetery with the Archdiocese of Cebu in 2011.

Judge Raphael Yrastorza of RTC Branch 14  has yet to set a hearing on the petition for prohibition and injunction.

The 9,282 square meter cemetery in barangay Carreta is the final resting place of prominent Cebuanos including President Sergio Osmeña Sr. and his wife, Estefania “Doña Pepang” Veloso Osmeña after whom the place got its name. The remains of the late senator Sergio Osmeña Jr., the father of Tomas,  and his mother, are also interred in the cemetery.

The Archdiocese of Cebu, the original owner of the property, had the cemetery swapped in 2011 with a city owned lot in barangay Pasil which was leased to the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. and sub-leased to the Sisters of Charity.

Following the swap, Rama ordered the removal of all gravesites – except for the Osmeña Mausoleum – inside the Doña Pepang Cemetery to pave the way for the construction of the Osmeña Memorial Park.

The proposed P10 million budget for the development of the Osmeña Memorial Park is included in his proposed P18.9 billion annual budget for 2015.

City Hall has ordered the exhumation of all remains interred in the cemetery by Nov. 30.

While the Osmeña Mausoleum is not covered by City Hall’s “eviction” order, Tomas said he doesn’t want any special treatment.

The former mayor said Rama should preserve the entire cemetery and uphold its historical importance.

“Even the Sangguniang Panglungsod, being the policy making body of the city, has no power to order the destruction of the cemetery,” he said.

Osmeña said the Charter of the City of Cebu only allows the regulation, not the destruction of cemeteries.

In his petition, Tomas argued that Mayor Rama has no right to alter the present condition of Doña Pepang Cemetery.

“The closure of the cemetery and the intended purpose of destroying all the niches within, with the exception of the Osmeña Mausoleum, is outside the authority of Mayor Rama,” Osmeña said in his petition.

The former mayor also asked the court to stop the demolition of shanties inside the cemetery.

“The purported intent of Mayor Rama to construct a park within the cemetery premises does not carry with it the unilateral authority to remove, demolish, and destroy the cemetery. It also does not carry the removal of informal settlers dwelling within the cemetery without a court order,” he added.

The 37 families who have settled inside the cemetery were given notices  to vacate the area before the end of November.

Collin Rosell, chief of the Cebu City Department for the Welfare of Urban Poor (DWUP), in an earlier interview, said the settlers would be relocated to the neighboring barangay Tejero.

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