‘My father shouldn’t be treated like the others’

Britta Borromeo-Navarro said she doesn’t want her father to be “one of the others.”

Her father Raul Borromeo is among those interred into the Doña Pepang cemetery.

They have their own family mausoleum and they want it retained, Navarro said during yesterday’s consultation with Cebu City officials.

“I’m okay with the idea of having a columbary, but we hope the city government will retain the structure for it’s historical value. My father was then assistant city fiscal and he was the right hand of Serging Osmeña,” she said.

Although they just live in barangay Talamban, Navarro said they rarely visit the remains of her father since the area hasn’t been maintained well anymore.

Aside from prominent families, there were also those who were recently buried there such as the brother of Marie Nillama, information officer of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

“We’re okay with the plan. But I hope they can retain my brother since he was just recently buried there,” said Nillama, whose brother was buried in the cemetery last August.

The usual lease agreements of families with the Cebu Archdiocese states that the remains will be buried in their niches for five years and then they will be transferred to a bone chamber.

Nillama said this should be respected by the city government.

Nillama has close to 20 relatives in the cemetery including her father, her uncles, siblings and even a grandson who died of dengue.

Most of the mausoleums and structures in the Doña Pepang cemetery have classical, neo-classic and modern architecture styles.

Most bodies are grouped together by families and placed in smaller family mausoleums.