DINALUPIHAN, Bataan – An abandoned cemetery in a village here remains unattended and uncared for.
With most of the graves already opened and the bones transferred to other burial grounds, a few remaining ones in the closed cemetery of Barangay Kataasan are almost hidden in the middle of trees, shrubs, tall grasses.
Geny Magisa, 23, seemed to be in the wilderness and complained of large mosquitoes while cleaning the apartment-style tombs of his grandmother, mother and another relative.
“Hindi ko tiyak kung ilan pa ang naglilinis dahil sa ngayon ako lang ang naglilinis. Meron mangisa-ngisa diyan sa unahan,” he said when asked how many graves were still intact and being attended to.
The tombs of his relatives were in the middle of opened graves and vines. Asked why they have not transferred the bones of his kin, Magisa said “wala pang pera.”
Near the gate of the cemetery believed already 100 years old stands a century-old acacia tree near rows of residential houses.
Artel Aguilar, 38, said residents in the neighborhood tell stories of many “kababalaghan” about the acacia tree.
“Meron daw nagpapakita rito na parang tao rin, sinaunang tao tulad ng parang Hapon,” she said.
Aguilar has not experienced seeing any supernatural in her more than 17 years of stay in the village.
“Pero may kakaiba akong experience matapos magwalis sa tapat ng acacia. Parang namamatanda ako kaya nagpapatawas ako dahil parang naghihina ako,” she said.
“Sabi ng mga tao namamatanda ako sapagka’t natutuwa ang kung sinomang nakatira sa acacia dahil nililinis ko ang tapat nila,” Aguilar said.
Minerva Mercado, 62, recalled that only a few were buried in the cemetery and the acacia tree already big when she was still a child.
“Sa lupa lang nakalibing, wala pa noong nitso. At puro talahib, masukal kaya ang mga baka at kalabaw dito sinusuga,” she said.
“Sana mai-donate sa barangay para maayos ang sementeryo na hindi na naman pinaglilibingan para makagawa ng anonmang proyekto ng barangay,” appealed Kataasan barangay kagawad Lando Guevarra.
He said they were informed that the closed cemetery is owned by the Catholic Church but they do not know what its plans are.
“Hindi maayos, hindi nalilinis at nagiging tapunan ng basura. Lumalaki talahib, puno, nagmimistulang gubat buhat nang hindi na magpalibing,” Guevarra said.
He said that burial in the cemetery was stopped sometime in 2008 or 2010.
The priest was not available for interview.
Record at the planning section of the Dinalupihan municipal government showed that the abandoned cemetery has an area of more or less 6,000 square meters.
