Laoag City Muslim residents, through their officials, have asked city Mayor Michael V. Fariñas for them to be given their own cemetery in the city. With this request, engineer Ruben Domingo, city assessor, proposed that a lot located in Barangay Sta. Maria, Laoag City be the site of the cemetery. According to Domingo, the proposed lot has an area of at least 2,000 square meters and is owned by the city government. The Muslim residents’ request was because the Muslims do not want to bury their dead at the Catholic and Independiente cemeteries and the city government also has limited lots in these cemeteries. Included in the proposal, which had been submitted by Domingo to Laoag City Councilor Juan Conrado A. Respicio, chair of the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s laws committee, would be the usual procedure of paying the burial fees to the city government. Fariñas is hopeful the council would consider this request as it had been pointed out that the Muslims in the city usually bury their dead in Manila. In a related development, the standing proposal for Barangay La Paz to have its own cemetery is still being studied. The long-time proposal is still being studied because the 70-hectare lot located along the shoreline between Barangays La Paz and Caaoacan, which had been proposed by the city government to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for a portion of it to become a cemetery has not yet acted upon by the environment department. La Paz residents had requested for their own cemetery so they would no longer have to travel all the way to the city’s poblacion area to bury their dead. Reacting to this, Domingo said the city government may have a hard time getting the approval of the DENR for the cemetery site since the type of soil in the said location is “sandy.” Domingo said the DENR may turn down the request because of the type of soil. The city assessor however said that the proposal would be studied thoroughly along with whatever recommendation the DENR would have. Dominic B. dela Cruz
|
|