Iloilo City to exhume 322 remains for Tanza cemetery rehab

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

ILOILO CITY – The Iloilo City Government will exhume and temporarily transfer 322 sets of remains at the Tanza Public Cemetery under the first phase of a rehabilitation project meant to expand burial capacity and improve public safety.

The city has allocated PHP 5 million for the initial phase.

That phase covers the demolition of old and deteriorating tombs at Lot 8 and the construction of 200 apartment-type burial niches.

City officials said the project addresses safety hazards posed by aging and unstable structures while providing more affordable and dignified burial space for Ilonggo families.

“We want to increase the number of niches at Tanza Cemetery because we know that many families are not financially prepared for the final resting place of their loved ones,” Mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu said.

General Services Office head Neil Ravena said the exhumed remains will be placed temporarily in bone boxes built by the city government inside the cemetery.

The remains will be reinterred in the new niches once construction is completed.

Of the 322 sets of remains scheduled for transfer, 55 came from damaged or collapsed burial niches.

“That is what we are exhuming right now and transferring to bone boxes constructed by the city government so we can rehabilitate the area. The existing eight-level structure is no longer strong enough to safely carry the load. During heavy rains, some of the tombs collapse, so rehabilitation is necessary,” Ravena said Monday, Aug. 3.

Nearly half of the affected remains have already been transferred, Ravena said.

He said he expects the exhumation to be completed within a month.

Each burial niche is photographed, tagged, and assigned a corresponding code before exhumation to ensure proper identification, Ravena said.

He said the information is also entered in a logbook to keep documentation accurate and to guide the eventual reinterment of the remains.

Construction of the new apartment-type niches will begin immediately after all affected remains have been transferred, Ravena added.

Tanza Public Cemetery holds more than 10,000 tombs and is the largest public cemetery in Iloilo City.

It is one of the city’s three public cemeteries, along with Jaro Public Cemetery in Barangay Quintin Salas and La Paz Public Cemetery in Barangay Jereos.

City officials said the Tanza project is the first phase of a broader cemetery modernization program, with similar rehabilitation work planned for the Jaro and La Paz public cemeteries.

Ravena said the city government continues to look for a site for a new public cemetery after an earlier plan to acquire land in Barangay San Isidro, Jaro, was abandoned.

The proposed location could not secure an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC).

He said the site is surrounded by residential communities and its land-use classification is not suited to cemetery development.

“That is the challenge for Iloilo City, finding an appropriate location for the application of an ECC for that matter because residential areas would also oppose that it will be built near them,” he said.

Cemetery projects are among the undertakings that require an ECC from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) under Presidential Decree 1586, which established the Philippine Environmental Impact Statement System.

The certificate certifies that a project complies with environmental standards and carries measures to limit its impact on surrounding communities.