It may be unusual for visitors at a memorial park in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, but not for residents, to see people offering prayers and food, aside from lighting candles, before a tree during All Saints Day.

They are not worshipping trees, as our Filipino ancestors did, but paying respect to their loved ones, whose remains are buried under them.

This project of the city government of San Carlos City, which aims to address congestion in cemeteries due to growing population, and dubbed “Punongkahoy sa Bawat Pumanaw”, won the Environmental Protection Management category award in the 2000 Galing Pook Awards.

The program is not aimed at providing affordable burial sites for residents of San Carlos City, but to solicit support from the community in the fight against environmental degradation.

The idea came up as the city government of San Carlos realized that constructing a new graveyard within the city proper was not a wise move because of prohibitive land costs and polluted surroundings.

A 5,000-square kilometer lot beside the old cemetery was bought by the city government, who equipped it with burial niches, a ceremonial court, praying area, restrooms, water system and sufficient lighting. It also installed a tree park, which is now planted with an initial 1,500 trees.

To avail of the new memorial park facilities, beneficiaries have to present a death certificate from the City Health Office. They are then allowed to bury their dead in the niches for a fee of only P100 for indigents and P1,000 for non-indigents.

They are also required to plant a tree at the Memorial Tree Park with seedlings provided by the City Agriculturist. After five years, the family should exhume the bones of their loved ones and transfer them to the foot of the tree they originally planted in the park.

The tree bears the nameplate of the deceased.

Given the five-year cycle of interment and transfer, the burial site has enough room for 3,000 more niches.

The project, which is now on its ninth year, has not only brought in additional income to the city government of San Carlos City, that spends P95,000 for maintaining the old cemetery, but also provided a mechanism for the reforestation program for its denuded mountain sides.

*GPB   

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