by: Dean M. Bernardo

Metro Manila, the regional capital of the Philippines has a total land area of 636 square kilometers and has a population of roughly 12 million by day and 10 million by night.

The additional 2 million during the day live in nearby provinces who commute daily into the capital where work or means of generating income can be found. Much of the region’s residents are living below standards of living. Almost half of the residents earn less than US$400.00 a month. In a supposedly highly urbanized regional capital, living and surviving is a day-to-day struggle. Most face the harsh reality of making both ends meet.

Largely crowded and overpopulated, Metro Manila serves as a beacon of hope & a promise for a better life for countless wandering hopefuls from near and distant provinces. They would travel by land or sea from among the Philippines’ countless islands into the capital, with only their hopes of getting a decent paying job as their driving force.

A genuine urban planning and development failed to take place ever since the Philippines’ capital region survived the destruction from Second World War. Houses and commercial establishments bloomed in every remaining open space with no clear over-all development plan.

Families who can not afford decent housing built their make shift shanties in private and government owned lands. The lack of space, a realistic housing program and a strictly enforced urban planning has led to the rise of informal settlers around the capital, including in areas deemed exclusive for the dead – the cemeteries.

For a handful of families, there are those who do not thread in fear nor fear the “wrath” of the dead after they found a place to call home among and along the crypts within the cemeteries.

Cementerio del Norte de Manila

The oldest cemetery in the Philippines is located in the capital city of Manila. The 54 hectare Manila North Cemetery was built as far away as possible from then old and original enclave of Manila called Intramuros. Then called “Cementerio del Norte,” the former Spanish colonial rulers of the Philippines set aside the land for the elite of the capital who are mostly pure Spanish or mestizos (or half Spanish), for the indios or natives of the Philippines and even set aside an exclusive corner space for ethnic Chinese.

When plagues struck the Philippines’ capital, the Spanish colonial authorities would use the cemetery as a mass grave to ensure that the disease would not spread. Certain influential families of the time were awarded larger plots to allow the building of family mausoleums that continue to exist today.

A number of prominent figures in Philippine history, from literary masters, artists, politicians, war heroes and even former Presidents are buried in the Manila North Cemetery.

With a rapid population growth starting immediately after the Second World War, residents started to build their homes farther and farther away from the original settlement located at the banks of the Manila Bay. The Manila North Cemetery is bounded by some of the most busy roadways leading into Manila. Middle class housing started to bloom in the area since the 1950s and now, the cemetery has no more space to expand, yet the number of people being buried there continues to grow by the day.

Living People Live in Cemeteries

            Residents of Metro Manila have little option where to live near their places of work and instead opted to be creative, resourceful and daring as a result of limited or no resources at all to find a suitable and decent living quarters.

For some 3,000 people, they found themselves a home within and among what was the exclusive realm of the dead. Under the Manila city regulations, the Manila North Cemetery is restricted to the living, and was never classified as a place of residence for the living. Various administrations who ran the city of Manila have done countless efforts to remove the residents living within the cemetery, but the living just keep coming back. The Manila North Cemetery’s residents are largely tolerated but can be removed anytime.

The problem of Manila is shared among the other 16 cities and one municipality that are all located within the Metro Manila region. Countless public cemeteries have similar problems where residents continue to encroach in supposedly exclusive zones. Save for the wealthy and able, privately run cemeteries are the only ones without the problems of battling exclusive space for the dead against the demand for a suitable living space for the living.

There were countless efforts done by the government to provide suitable housing with sufficient amenities for these informal settlers. However, families already resettled opt to return to where they were evicted. They claim that their resettlement areas are too far from their sources of work or income, or from any schools or markets. Others complain that the resettlement areas do not have ample provisions for water and electricity.

For a number of residents living in the Manila North Cemetery, they found the mausoleums sturdier against all types of weather elements, far better than the low-cost housing in resettlement areas. Cemetery residents can tap illegally (after a bribing fee) into the electrical lines that the city government operates and pays for. Some entrepreneurial residents will get a push cart and sell water pumped out of fire hydrants by the can to the numerous residents within the cemetery. If one needs to go to some work in the city, makeshift ladders leading up to the cemetery walls will lead to a major road where public jeepney rides will take them anywhere they want to.

For some of the residents living within the Manila North Cemetery, they live there sentimental reasons. One elderly resident lost her husband years ago and with no children and no relatives to speak of, the lady found her peace living out her final days beside the niche where her husband lies in peace. When her time comes, she too would be lying beside her husband and perhaps someone else will move into their mausoleum to find a home in the couple’s grave.

Meanwhile, there are those who started out earning a living from work that can be found within the cemetery but are now living inside to live closer to where they generate their income.

Mario Pormales, age 52 started as a gravestone mason in his early 30s. At first, he only did marble markers, but he also found additional income if he served as a caretaker for the graves.  For hand crafting marble grave markers, he earns at least US$ 10.00 each. In a week’s time, he averages 15 marble grave markers or at least US$ 142.00. His weekly income pays for the food and other necessities for his family of seven – for him, his wife and five children. The amount is augmented each time a living relative comes to visit their dead in the cemetery and pays for cleaning or re-painting services.

At first, a number of residents within the Manila North Cemetery did only menial jobs related to funerals and the care for the graves. In a given day, there could be at least a dozen funerals happening at the same time within the cemetery.

For other residents, they found ways to earn a living by providing services to each other. One resident converted the grilled partitions of the mausoleum as a show window for retailed stuff like selling candies, canned sardines, noodle packs, candles and even pre-paid load for mobile phones.

Another resident cooks food and even operates a small informal restaurant where she sells meals and drinks. By day, when there are funerals, she profits from the mourners and by night, the cemetery’s residents seek her out for her cooking.

In the case of 74 year old Dominga Santos, she has worked at the cemetery as a caretaker-cleaner for 48 years. Despite her late age, she still works in the cemetery because some of the families with relatives buried there only trust her. Mrs. Santos was widowed since 1995 and continues to look after her two children and their families. Unlike the others who found their homes in the cemetery, Santos goes home somewhere else, away from the graves she looks after.

The Village of the Living, Among the Dead

            For families living within the Manila North Cemetery, a better option would be much welcomed instead of making do with what they have right now. Given little latitude, their lives are on a stand still and the danger of generations of their respective families being born and living their lives in their given condition is a fear for some.

Countless children living in the cemetery were made and born knowing only the surroundings of the cemetery. Some would be fortunate enough to go to school and attain only basic elementary education, only to stop early and forced by circumstances to help in making a living to feed the rest of the family.

It is not entirely safe to live in the dark alleys of the cemetery. Fearing the sight of ghostly activities is less of a concern against the deadly activities of the living. The informal village in the Manila North Cemetery is also a hub for illegal activities particularly for drug dealing or even serves a safe haven for criminals.

For the residents, not only they live a miserable outlook, they also have to brave it out against lawless activities. Everyday they also live in fear that authorities would evict them anytime or any moment and later finding no place to go.

Every last week of October and peaking towards November 1 and 2, Filipinos take a Roman Catholic inspired holiday to remember the dead. Cemeteries all over the country come alive during these days, where care takers, and relatives of the dead clean and spruce up the graves of their ancestors.

The residents of the Manila North Cemetery become part of these traditions by providing services or simply become observers for visiting relatives who own the mausoleums they call home. Some discreetly move out temporarily while others have become an accepted presence by the owners of the mausoleums.

For most, the Manila North Cemetery is their temporary refuge in their struggle to survive, with hopes for a sudden break for the better. For the rest, it’s an accepted way of life – resigned to their fate that they could only escape their situation, if help, according to their definitions is provided by the government.

Meanwhile, others make no difference of where they live. The cemetery for them is the same if one even lives in a high-class gated village, for they fear not the dead but instead, fear more of what the living would do to them.