Living with the dead in Manila

By Amanda Jaucian Balneg
Guest Commentary

Published: May 13, 2009

A resident of North Cemetery in Manila, Philippines does her cooking on top of cement tombs. The cemetery is home to some 10,000 Filipinos, who share the space with the city's dead. (Photo/Amanda J. Balneg)

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Manila, Philippines — On a hot summer day with temperatures hitting 36 degrees Celsius, Hermogenes Solivan was taking his afternoon nap lying on a cold marble tomb.

Hermogenes is one of 10,000 Filipinos who have taken up residence at the North Cemetery.

The Manila North Cemetery has evolved from a resting place for the dead to a place where the living and the dead co-exist. And it’s not Judgment Day.

In Manila, there is a stark contrast between the rich and the poor. The uber rich are accompanied by their bodyguards and live inside palatial homes while the dirt poor carry all their possessions in their pushcart homes – their babies, pans, dog and plastic containers or scraps of metal or paper which can be recycled by the sackful for a few centavos.

This big disparity could be seen among the living and deceased residents of North Cemetery. With increasing number of families finding themselves below the poverty line and with higher apartment rentals, more and more families have called the cemetery their home.

The Manila North Cemetery is considered the biggest and one of the oldest cemeteries in Metro Manila. It has been the final resting place of some of the Philippine’s rich and famous personalities including three Philippine presidents.

A predominantly Catholic country, Filipinos honor the dead in keeping with religious tradition. Some of the structures are lavishly adorned with kitchens and bathrooms inside air-conditioned mausoleums. They offer food to the dead on special days like All Souls’ Day. This practice is also observed by Chinese families following ancient Chinese traditions of honoring the dead. The mausoleums show the socio-economic status of the family. Those who can afford it hire caretakers to look after their mausoleums.

Seventy-eight-year-old Hermogenes Soliman was one of the earliest caretakers and residents. He said when electricity was first installed in the 1970s, people lost their fear and started moving in. Some built makeshift homes in the burial sites of their departed family members. In the case of Hermogenes, he has lived there since birth and continued his father’s work as a caretaker. The cemetery is the only home he has known, growing up with his siblings there and raising his children and grandchildren in that same resting place.

Soliman claims not all residents are that poor. Moody Diaz, a comedian in the 1970s, was a resident of North Cemetery. She did not move out even when she became an actress. There are also residents who have their own motorcycles. There’s even one who works in the administrative office and owns a car.

He claims he has never seen a ghost at the cemetery. In fact, many of the residents say that inside the cemetery, the creatures to be feared are not the ghosts. The growing number of new residents, some of which are criminals, has made the cemetery less peaceful and safe. Incidents of missing gold-plated crucifixes and nameplates have been reported.

Soliman is indifferent to the newcomers, however. He insists the cemetery is a resting place for the dead, and not the living. But the influx of people can’t be helped even with guards now manning the gates. Existing residents bring in newcomers. Some are working on construction within the North Cemetery.

While the local police have tried to evict squatters, they keep coming back. In an effort to eradicate them, the local government has cut off electricity. But even that did not discourage the resourceful residents from finding alternatives, such as stealing electricity through the use of jumpers.

Cemetery dwellers insist on staying, considering the other options they have – dirty, more dangerous areas along sidewalks, riverbanks, under bridges or on top of landfills. Inside the cemetery, it feels safer seeing families play board games, watch television, and sell goods at their small village stores. It’s also cleaner with city cleaners maintaining the place.

Cemeteries may have been built for the dead, but in these hard times, more and more people are living with the dead in order to live.

(Amanda J. Balneg is a news writer and newscaster of Home Radio 97.9, under the Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, in Manila, Philippines. She is a contributor to numerous websites, newspapers and magazines. ©Copyright Amanda J. Balneg.)