While our loved ones who already passed away are buried six feet under in evergreen lawns; cremated and its ashed remains encased in beautiful urns; or even entombed in white-washed nitsos stacked together with other close relatives who also passed into the afterlife, there are families who, because of lack of burial funds, entombs their deceased loved ones in tight-packed, multi-story burial vaults called Apartments.
Constructed just a few meters away from the sea, my aunt told me that the Apartment Complex is one of the social projects provided by the Navotas local government to its extremely poor residents. Being familiar with the demographics of my aunt's neighborhood alone, I have an idea how poor, the poorest people are in Navotas. If some of us don't give a damn for a twenty pesos, for these people, such money is already a matter of life or death in this fish port town.
Those who cannot afford a standard burial can avail of the apartment-style lot for P500 pesos. The apartment space can be rented for five years, after which the sepultureros or grave diggers will take out the remains of the deceased and put them in a sako to be placed (thrown) elsewhere.
Such act, which I find quite barbaric and dehumanizing is a fact of reality for these people. My aunt even revealed that some of the sepultureros won't wait for five years before throwing out the remains. They do this in order to sell the apartment space to new occupiers.
As I secretly took photos of the apartments, I noticed that some of the markers were crudely hand-painted by their loved ones. The people who lit candles or put flowers in the tombs were ruggedly, if not shabbily dressed. If those were the best clothes they could afford, I would have a very hard time matching their get-up. The income differences simply reveals itself no matter how I try to suppress my economic standing.
Every year, while my family spends the entire afternoon at the posh Immaculate Gardens, I sneak out in order to have a poverty exposure at the Municipal Cemetery where the Apartment Complex is located. At the cemetery, I find all kinds of people passing in front of me. The uber-jologs are the easiest to spot, while the trying-hard-to-pass-as-nouveau riche reveals themselves through their platinum blonde hair, hip-hop get-up and bling-blings that rivals those Pinoy rappers I know. In fairness, they are quite amusing to look at, especially when you observe how they speak to one another and brag about their most impressive life achievements. It seems like for these people, their success can be measured by the cheap material wealth they have accumulated in life.
However, most of the people I find there are the average kind, those who simply go to the cemetery to spend some nostalgic times with their loved ones.
The truth behind my annual poverty exposure is to keep my feet on the ground. I would complain about money issues from time to time or envy those who have been blessed with better fortunes. Yet, when I look at these graves and see the pious people quietly lighting a single wax candle to offer their remembrance and love to those who have passed away, the scenes which I witness triggers the humility inside me.
It makes me thankful that despite the hardships we face everyday, we have not yet sunk into such state, those people in the Apartment Complex have bitterly accepted as their fate.
Constructed just a few meters away from the sea, my aunt told me that the Apartment Complex is one of the social projects provided by the Navotas local government to its extremely poor residents. Being familiar with the demographics of my aunt's neighborhood alone, I have an idea how poor, the poorest people are in Navotas. If some of us don't give a damn for a twenty pesos, for these people, such money is already a matter of life or death in this fish port town.
Those who cannot afford a standard burial can avail of the apartment-style lot for P500 pesos. The apartment space can be rented for five years, after which the sepultureros or grave diggers will take out the remains of the deceased and put them in a sako to be placed (thrown) elsewhere.
Such act, which I find quite barbaric and dehumanizing is a fact of reality for these people. My aunt even revealed that some of the sepultureros won't wait for five years before throwing out the remains. They do this in order to sell the apartment space to new occupiers.
As I secretly took photos of the apartments, I noticed that some of the markers were crudely hand-painted by their loved ones. The people who lit candles or put flowers in the tombs were ruggedly, if not shabbily dressed. If those were the best clothes they could afford, I would have a very hard time matching their get-up. The income differences simply reveals itself no matter how I try to suppress my economic standing.
Every year, while my family spends the entire afternoon at the posh Immaculate Gardens, I sneak out in order to have a poverty exposure at the Municipal Cemetery where the Apartment Complex is located. At the cemetery, I find all kinds of people passing in front of me. The uber-jologs are the easiest to spot, while the trying-hard-to-pass-as-nouveau riche reveals themselves through their platinum blonde hair, hip-hop get-up and bling-blings that rivals those Pinoy rappers I know. In fairness, they are quite amusing to look at, especially when you observe how they speak to one another and brag about their most impressive life achievements. It seems like for these people, their success can be measured by the cheap material wealth they have accumulated in life.
However, most of the people I find there are the average kind, those who simply go to the cemetery to spend some nostalgic times with their loved ones.
The truth behind my annual poverty exposure is to keep my feet on the ground. I would complain about money issues from time to time or envy those who have been blessed with better fortunes. Yet, when I look at these graves and see the pious people quietly lighting a single wax candle to offer their remembrance and love to those who have passed away, the scenes which I witness triggers the humility inside me.It makes me thankful that despite the hardships we face everyday, we have not yet sunk into such state, those people in the Apartment Complex have bitterly accepted as their fate.
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