More families cremating their dead to save on costs, space

RORIE R. FAJARDO, GMANews.Tv More Filipino families are now opting to cremate their departed because of the rising costs of cemetery lots in privately-owned memorial parks. This developed as GMANews Research learned that major cities in the National Capital Region are running out of land to accommodate the departed their final resting place. "More families are now pragmatic," says Jessy Rabago, agency relation manager of the Loyola Group Sales and Marketing, one of the country’s top pre-need companies offering memorial services. Female executive Rabago tells GMANews.TV that in the last five years, the sale of columbarium (ash vaults) has been at close edge with that of traditional lawn lots. Cost a key factor At the 10-hectare Loyola Memorial Park in Parañaque, the company decided to add another 3,000 columbarium units this year after its first 500 units sold so easily late last year, Rabago says. At the 46-hectare Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina, the 3,000 columbarium units in that are also swiftly being purchased. This is in addition to the 2,000 units that were sold in 2005, Rabago says. According to her, the decisive factor that the vast difference in price has turned the tide in favor of columbarium. Actual cremation services cost only about P28,000, but the service could go as high as P130,000 if it includes funeral service and transportation, Rabago says. Still, the service is less expensive than that of the traditional burial system, which she says starts with the floor price of P160,000. In contrast, the cheapest popular lawn lot, which accommodates one body, goes for P100,000 these days, Rabago says. The garden estate, which could accommodate 18 bodies, now costs about P1.5 million, while the eight-lot memorial court, P680,000. The more posh family estate, where grandiose mausoleums rise, could go as high as P4 million, Rabago says. Tacit approval The increasing popular acceptance of cremation may have been sparked in part by the newfound openness to the process of the dominant Roman Catholic church. As early as 2004, the influential Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has said in media statements that while it permits cremation, it still prefers the traditional method of burying the dead. The CBCP’s caveat on cremation, however, is that Catholics should still hold steadfastly on to their faith in the resurrection of the body. In earlier statements, the CBCP has also acknowledged the more practical reasons for choosing cremation, including the rising costs of burial services and the need to save space. Loyola’s Rabago says that while private memorial parks continue to expand its areas, time would come that they would also run out of land to offer the public, including the typically swamped public cemeteries. When this time comes, cremation becomes the truly more viable option, says Rabago, who has been selling memorial lots since 1999. Monsignor Pepe Quitoriano, CBCP spokesperson, says cremation as a way to bury the dead has significant repercussion on Philippine culture. "Filipinos especially in rural communities still find this unacceptable," Quitoriano tells GMANews.TV in a phone interview. He says discussing this with Catholic devotees in other parts of the country outside Manila is deemed irrelevant because most people are still keen on old-fashioned interment. It was only in 1981 when the Vatican began considering cremation when it issued the new Canon Law, departing from its centuries-old stand against the process. The Vatican reportedly considered the advancement of technologies and cultures, as well as the preparedness of the Catholic devotees, when it changed its stand on cremation. Church vs pre-need firms The Catholic Church’s tacit approval of cremation has sparked as well an unexpected competition between church-owned columbarium and private firms like Loyola selling columbarium units. The two-year-old parish of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows in Marikina City, for instance, highlights its advantages over commercial firms for its planned church-cum-columbary in its website http://columbary.blogspot.com/. "Comparing our St. Gabriel Columbary against others, ours is parish-owned, not corporate-owned," says the parish in its blog. It boasts of being able to accommodate only about 8,000 individual interments compared with more than 200,000 interments that some private columbarium offer. The parish has an additional offer: donor-beneficiaries would not only get an "exclusive privilege-of-use of their own choice-of-crypt" but also a "free package" of services that others could not give. Donations could go as high as P 50,000 per interment. "Lastly," the parish blog stresses, "our columbary is open to all people of good Will." But Loyola Group’s Rabago is quick with her repartee on the edge of private columbarium. "Peoples’ payments are considered donations for as long as they stay. In our company, people get to own their own columbarium units," she says. Sticking to tradition While rising interment expenses have ushered in wider acceptance of cremation, those who embrace it are mostly middle to upper class families with some wherewithal to bury their dead the traditional, if more expensive, way. Too, Rabago says these are the people who most likely have more access to information on the advantages of cremation. But faith sometimes stands in the way. Marivic Malaluan, 34, says her deeply religious family still believes in the tradition way of burying their departed. "Our loved ones have already suffered enough when they were alive. Burning their flesh is like giving them more suffering," says Malaluan, a call center agent in Makati City. On All Saints Day, Marivic and her family would again trek to the crowded public cemetery in San Nicolas, Batangas, about 102 kilometers south of Manila, to pay respects to their dead. "We don’t mind the heat and discomfort. We only do this once a year," she says. GMANews.TV