BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance amending certain provisions of Ordinance No. 82, series of 2009, or the measure that prescribed the rules and regulations for the operation of the city’s public cemetery to facilitate the increase in the rentals of burial lots in the cemetery.
The ordinance authored by Vice Mayor Faustino A. Olowan states that there shall be collected fees for the use of the cemetery lots within the Baguio public cemetery wherein burial permit fees in non-condominium tombs shall be P300 for digging, P500 for pantheon, P1,000 lot rental for pantheons 5 square meters and below for 5 years, P2,000 for 6 to 10 square meters for 5 years, and P3,000 for 11 to 15 square meters for 5 years, P100 for plain grave without roofs but with walls or fence, P50 for plain grave without walls or fence, P450 for exhumation in grounds and condominiums; P300 for exhumation and transfer to another grave in the cemetery in condominium and grounds, P150 for fencing or enclosure permit fee per lot, P500 for retention fee for family lots of 15 square meters or less, P500 for exhumation and transfer outside the Baguio public cemetery, P200 per hour rental or user’s fee for the use of the multipurpose center and rentals for condominium tombs shall be free but after 20 years or more the same can be opened and bones transferred to special condominium tombs, provided that, exhumation or transfer cost including labor shall be at the expense of the concerned parties.
On the other hand, the proposed amendatory ordinance also prescribed the fees in condominium tombs, particularly for adults, flat or slightly sloping, P15,000 for the lower and top levels of the tomb and same amount for the middle levels.
For sloped areas wherever they are located, the lowest and top levels of the tomb will be charged P8,000 and P10,000 for middle levels 2 and 3.
For special condominium tombs either for bones or for children, the lowest and top levels will be charged P5,000 while the middle levels will be charged P6,000, provided that, in case of paupers or totally indigent persons of no known homes, they may be buried for free on the condominium tombs located at the slopes.
However, the paupers or indigents who will be buried shall be duly identified as such by the City Social Welfare and Development Office and, if possible, only residents of the city may be given the privilege, except in meritorious cases or circumstances.
The ordinance points out the financial management of the city’s public cemetery shall be ran as a self-sustaining economic activity so that its funds shall be deposited in an operating trust fund from where its operation and development cost shall be withdrawn and that funds given by the city government or from any other source shall also be deposited and the appropriate internal control system shall be installed to protect and provide integrity in the financial management of the cemetery whereby the officers approving the expenditures shall be accountable officers like the cemetery manager or the one in charge and the department head under whom the management of the cemetery is entrusted subject to audit by the City Auditor.
The ordinance emphasizes there shall be maintained a master location plan of the cemetery so that the location of the condominium tombs and the names of the dead who are buried with the corresponding numbers and dates can easily be located.
By Dexter A. See
Photo by Armando M. Bolislis
