Mayor limits time for cemetery visit

MindanaoToday.com | Mayor limits time for cemetery visit 

By: Uriel Quilinguing

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The visiting period in all public and private cemeteries here will only be from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. starting on Thursday, October 31, until Saturday, November 2, in time for All Saints Day and All Souls Day, the Office of the City Mayor’s Office announced on Friday, October 25.

This, after Mayor Rolando Uy issued Executive Order No. 439-2024 which provides the general guidelines in the observance of twin crowd-drawing events, including on prohibited items and acts inside the cemeteries, way traffic flow, and observance of cleanliness.

Though signed earlier, E.O. No. 439-2024 was officially released on Thursday, October 24, according to the City Information Office.

The Order reactivated the Incident Command Center which is manned 24/7 by personnel from the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Department (CRRMD), the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (COCPO), the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (CLENRO), the City Health Office (CHO), Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA), and the Regulatory Compliance Board (RCB).

Firearms, bladed weapons, liquor and alcoholic drinks, sound system, playing cards and lighters are prohibited while smoking and vaping are banned inside the cemeteries. Cemeteries are also off-limits to ambulant vendors within the vicinity and inside the City Memorial Park (CMP), formerly the Bolonsiri Public Cemetery at Barangay Camaman-an.

At the CMP, candles and flowers for the departed loved ones are to be lighted and placed in a common designated area, where a giant cross has been erected, to ensure proper handling, disposal, and maintain cleanliness. Burning of trash and litters outside and inside the cemeteries is also prohibited.

E.O. No. 439-2024 includes the prohibition of bringing in of water and juices in plastic containers at the CMP, prompted by CLENRO’s campaign against the use of plastic materials.

Engineer Armen Cuenca, the CLENRO head, said they are enjoining all to use tumblers for water and other thirst-quenching drinks instead.

The CMP is the city’s biggest burial ground with over 50,000 human remains. Cuenca said that as of October 25, this year, they had exhumed 37,918 remains, placed ashes in columbaria belonging to 14,899 individuals, while 7,687 corpses were buried in the last five years. He said they had cremated 223 human bodies, including those who died during the Coronavirus disease (COVID19) pandemic.

TRAFFIC SCHEME

Aside from E.O. No. 439-2024, the City Mayor has also issued E.O. No. 434-2024 which provides for one-way traffic scheme along Macapagal Drive starting from Bulua National Highway to avoid traffic jams at Bulua Public Cemetery, Eternal Gardens Cagayan de Oro (formerly Greenhills Memorial Park), and Golden Haven Memorial Park, all in Barangay Bulua on Nov. 1 and 2.

E.O. No. 434-2024 directed the RTA which Engineer Nonito Oclarit heads to enforce one-way traffic flow for all motor vehicles along Macapagal Drive with Canitoan Road or Iponan Road as exits. Right turn to any other access road is not allowed.

It states that this portion of Macapagal Drive, declared as one-way traffic, would be no-entry for public utility jeepney (PUJs), motorela, trisikad, and tricab, except for PUJs with approved franchises plying Scions Subdivision, Mindanao Homes, Soldiers Hill, and Canitoan-Pagatpat area.

One-side parking on the left side for vehicles from Macapagal Drive is allowed, facing south from the national highway until the entrance of Golden Haven. All vehicles entering the Eternal Garden may exit at the back of the cemetery towards a vacant lot near the former ABS-CBN TV station towards Macapagal Drive.

To ensure the flow of traffic, 50 meters on both sides of the highway from the entrance roads of Forest Lake Memorial Parks (formerly Divine Shepherd) at Barangay Bulua, Chinese Cemetery at Masterson Road, Barangay Carmen, and Oro Gardens Memorial Parks at Barangay Lumbia have been declared no-parking zones on November 1 and 2.

At Bulua highway, all vehicles from the city proper are not allowed to turn left to the entrance road to Forest Lake Memorial Parks, instead they are to proceed until the access road of the Land Transportation Office 10 (LTO-10) for a U-turn and eventually turn right to the private cemetery’s entrance road.

All vehicles from Chinese Cemetery and Oro Gardens Memorial Parks must turn right passing the Masterson Road and Airport Road of Lumbia, respectively.

At the CMP in Camaman-an, all vehicles are not allowed to enter the Bolonsiri Road, except those by residents in the area, by religious persons, law-enforcers, and other government officials. Vehicles used for news coverage must have been authorized by the RTA.  (Uriel Quilinguing/MT)

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