Wait, maybe I should post something related about Halloween.

So last Sunday, me and my 3 brothers, together with father went to North for clean up and painting. I failed to take pictures, because inside is so garish, the absence of logic and sense of space astound me still. (As a side note, since the cemetery can no longer expand horizontally, it is expanding vertically.) Sometimes it is impossible to get to your destination without stepping on tombstones. Some tombs are flooded. Some mausoleums also house the living.

Since it was a Sunday, it was “delivery” day. In fact, the cemetery was so busy that MMDA should send traffic enforcers inside. The traffic was horrible that day, and I presume it is the same scene every Sunday. Too bad we don’t have the numbers; I doubt if the cemetery management even keeps tab with average interment per day. Or maybe they do.

Two years ago, on my way home after the yearly painting, I was passing by the apartment block along the A. Bonifacio Ave. side of the cemetery when I saw several kids playing with something. Looking closely, I found that they were holding skulls. Like elected officials, some plots in the cemetery have term limits, and when that time comes and the family isn’t able to get re-elected err.. renew, the remains are exhumed and placed in sacks. The caretakers just place them anywhere, and woe to those who do not take note of renewal dates.

Last Sunday, after visiting a school mate’s niche at North Green Park, I passed by the second level of the apartment block on the way to my paternal grandparent’s tomb. The walkway is rather narrow, and made more so by microtombs at the open side of the walkway (the other side is where the apartment niches are). These are tombs, two feet by two feet by 3 feet, where the bones of those who were not re-elected err… renewed are interred. I am not sure if this arrangement is permanent, but I think this adds more danger to the walkway.

To end this post, I restate what I had observed before. When you enter the cemetery, you will see the opulent tombs. When you get past the rotunda, you get the “squatters.” Yes, the cemetery is the Philippines in miniature.