By now, the dead at the Botolan, Zambales cemetery should be resting in peace. But how could this happen if they are buried in a flooded cemetery? Under these circumstances, Botolan folk will have to honor their dead under a very difficult situation.

BOTOLAN, Zambales – Despite plans to move the remains of the departed to another site, the townsfolk here are still having problems on how to observe All Saints’ Day.

According to the residents of Botolan, more than half of their cemetery was washed away by raging
waters from Bucao River when it swelled at the height of the typhoons that recently hit the country.

Most of the relatives who have their dead buried at the Botolan Cemetery are having a hard time cleaning up the mess as many tombs are either submerged in water or buried by thick mud.

“Even going to the cemetery is hard. You have to trek the raging waters since our residence is adjacent to the cemetery,” a Botolan resident lamented.

But the local government has assured that the coffins encased in the tombs that were wrecked by the flood would be transferred to another area away from the Bucao River.

Two apartment-type tombs were built by the local government as part of their program to help the residents cope with the demise of their dearly departed.

While the area where the coffins or remains of the dead were to be transferred is free of charge, the labor of pulling out the coffins out of their old tombs isn’t.

One of the workers said that the labor cost of transferring one coffin from its old tomb to the apartment-type tombs would cost around P6,000 to P10,000, depending on the financial state of the relative.

“If the relative of the dead is poor, we only charge them around P6,000 since the tomb where the coffin is encased can be easily extracted. If the relative of the dead is well-off, we charge them sometimes up to P10,000 since most of their tombs are in mausoleums,” the worker said.