memorial lots

NOW THIS is big news. And it could even get bigger if the concerned real property developer company isn’t able to handle the issues well.

We are actually referring to the report that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has slapped a P1 million fine on each director of Villar Landholdings, Inc. The penalty, according to the report, was levied after the Villar-controlled company submitted financial statements, not only after the deadline but also with a number of questionable entries.

Among those ordered to pay fines are former Senate President Manuel Villar and his children, senators Mark and Camille Villar. Also included is corporate officer Paolo Villar.

Well, it looks like the Villars are starting to get the rub as a consequence of their ambivalent posture during the last mid-term elections.

At one time they appeared to be strongly inclined to the administration. But toward the wind-up of the campaign, they seemed all out for the opposition led by former President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, Vice President Sara.

Whether or not the Villars can wriggle themselves back to the Marcos administration, only time can tell. But for now, they have to find ways to rebuild the broken bridges that once connected them to the Palace tenant.

Again, in the words of the late Davaoeño Senator Landring Almendras, “Let us to see.”

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This one is kind of a unique proposed ordinance up for consideration by the Davao City Council.

We mean the one Councilor Ragde Ibuyan wants lawmakers to approve once the proposed measure gets the endorsement of the committee on government enterprise and privatization, chaired by Ibuyan himself.

The measure that Ibuyan wants deliberated by the Council plenary aims to give a 30% discount on the leasing costs of memorial lots and compartment niches for senior citizens and persons with disabilities who will be buried in public cemeteries.

But are there still spaces left in public cemeteries that families of senior citizens and PWDs can lease for the purpose of burying their deceased?

Compartment niches, yes, there may still be many. But from what we learned through friends who have relatives who died and were buried in public cemeteries, almost all of the city’s entombing places are already overcrowded.

Two of such public cemeteries that are now in that particular situation are the Calinan and Mintal cemeteries. In fact, we have seen one niche, and some two niches are already added on top of the first niche on the ground.

In one burial of a close friend in the Mintal cemetery, where the niche of the dead we were burying was in the inner part, the men carrying the coffin had to walk on top of existing niches just to reach the location of our dead friend.

When we had the opportunity to talk with the man in charge of the cemetery, he told us that there is no more vacant space on the ground. Thus, the need to build new niches on top of existing ones that are close relatives or family members of the dead who will be entombed.

Given this condition on most, if not all, public cemeteries in Davao City, will the proposed Ibuyan measure benefit the maximum the immediate family members of dead senior citizens or PWDs?

Our personal take on this planned measure is that it should be temporarily set aside. In its stead, Ibuyan may introduce a proposed ordinance that will authorize the re-arrangement of existing over-crowded cemeteries, and construct multi-level compartment niches that will also serve as a perimeter fence of the entire cemetery compound.

Or better still, for the Council to authorize the city to designate vacant government-owned land to be converted into public cemeteries. And if there is none, the Council can authorize the city mayor to acquire private properties for conversion into a new and well-planned public burial place.

Once done, then perhaps that would be the most logical time to introduce the planned 30 percent discount on the cost of lease of burial lot and compartment niches for the city’s dead senior citizens and persons with disabilities.

But our congratulations are still in order to Councilor Ibuyan for such a relevant plan. Yes, one right plan at a not-so-appropriate time.