00:00 What if your child's grave was removed and left in the graveyard?
00:06 But it was left there as if it was left unattended.
00:15 Others would force the removal of the grave by those who complain about the lack of money to pay for the funeral.
00:25 [Music]
00:28 What is the government doing to give the funeral of the deceased?
00:49 [Music]
00:52 In Tala Cemetery in North Caloocan, some are preparing for the funeral.
01:01 They are painting the graves and cleaning the surroundings.
01:07 But the 20-year-old Ray Oriendo and his wife Melba Codera are different today.
01:16 [Speaking in Tagalog]
01:19 Because Ray's mother, Melinda Oriendo, has been buried for 5 years in her apartment in Micho,
01:36 Ray needs to remove the bones and transfer his mother to another grave.
01:43 It took her 5 years to pay for a grave like this, which cost her 3,000 pesos.
01:49 But she doesn't have money to pay for the renewal of Micho.
02:00 When Micho was still young, the burialers placed the tombstone,
02:05 placed a grave inside, and then buried Ray's mother's bones.
02:10 [Music]
02:13 After Ray's mother's bones were retrieved,
02:38 the burialers and Ray's family were placed inside a skeleton vault.
02:41 The sack was laid, a small cement and hollow blocks were poured, and then closed.
02:56 This is Ray's mother's new grave.
03:00 Where was she buried in the grave in 2018?
03:07 [Speaking in Tagalog]
03:11 [Speaking in Tagalog]
03:15 [Speaking in Tagalog]
03:42 Ray used to save 3,000 pesos for 5 years of burial in Micho.
03:49 [Speaking in Tagalog]
03:52 [Speaking in Tagalog]
03:55 In public cemeteries, these are called apartments.
04:20 You pay 3,000 pesos, but that 3,000 pesos is just to bury your loved ones in the grave for 5 years.
04:29 You need to remove the grave after 5 years, because if not, it will be put aside by the cemetery.
04:36 One option, like what Ray did, is after 5 years, he transferred the remains of his mother to a skeleton vault.
04:48 But this costs 100 pesos per year.
04:51 Ray hopes that one day, he will be able to give his mother a good burial.
04:57 Why did you put the sack?
05:03 Why is it important to you that the treatment is good, that it should not be in a sack, that the burial should be good?
05:16 I owe a lot to my mother, but she cannot leave.
05:21 I am not going to leave her, not for a day. I will give her a good burial when the day comes.
05:30 Ray is afraid that his mother might take the bones and put them somewhere.
05:40 The caretaker, Florita Asildo, has been seeing the gay community for weeks in the cemeteries where the bones were not paid for.
05:47 She has been a caretaker of some bones here in the cemetery for more than three decades.
05:52 She showed me where the bones were put that the relatives did not return after 5 years.
06:01 This is the mass vault. So, this is where the family members are buried?
06:10 After 5 years.
06:12 For example, now, Ondas, they are looking for their relatives. They are still claiming because they are still up there.
06:21 When it comes to 2 years, if they are still not claiming, they will fall inside.
06:29 They will be mixed.
06:31 So, there is a hole above?
06:33 Yes, there is a hole above. They will fall inside.
06:36 The mass vault cannot be climbed because its walls are slippery and high.
06:42 So, a team used a drone and this is what we saw.
06:50 Almost 100 skeletons or human bones are spread on the walls of the vault next to their graves.
06:58 Those are the remains of the abandoned in the apartment.
07:03 The ones that their relatives did not claim after 5 years in the apartment.
07:08 The bones are placed above this vault.
07:12 The families are given 3 years to claim the remains.
07:17 If they still do not claim, within 3 years, the bones will fall inside the mass vault.
07:23 They are all together inside the hole. They do not know what their relationship is.
07:30 The family members will be buried there.
07:36 We just heard that they are there and they fell because they did not go.
07:45 According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, 84% of the 1,700 Filipinos who die every year are already in debt.
07:55 That is why the burial costs are higher.
07:57 The death registration is already 150 pesos.
08:00 The cheapest burial starts from 8,000 pesos.
08:04 And the lowest burial in a public cemetery is 5,000 pesos.
08:14 The current problems faced by Jericho and Angelica Casiano
08:18 is that their son John Paul died first after he was born on October 20.
08:25 He was already released.
08:27 It was only a second.
08:29 We came back at 7.
08:32 The doctor told us that the baby was already in the morgue.
08:36 I was surprised because he was already in the morgue.
08:41 We did not see him crying.
08:44 Jericho did not spend any money in the hospital.
08:47 But the burial of baby John Paul cost 6,000 pesos and 3,600 pesos for the burial.
08:56 Because of the tight budget, they borrowed the money to give a proper burial for their son.
09:03 When the baby was just about to be released, we bought the things.
09:09 It was about 1,000 pesos.
09:14 When the baby was released, we paid 3,000 pesos to get the certificate.
09:26 We only gave 2,000 pesos.
09:28 We had 4,000 pesos in balance.
09:30 We just borrowed the money to give a proper burial for the baby.
09:36 For the 3,600 pesos that was to be paid for the burial,
09:39 Jericho buried the bodies of baby John Paul in a small apartment.
09:45 They still do not have a budget for the painting and the tombstone.
09:56 But they are still hoping to give a proper burial for their son.
10:02 We just want to give a proper burial for our son.
10:11 We just want to give a proper burial for our son.
10:16 According to the Philippine Statistics Authority,
10:22 84% of the 1,700 Filipinos who die every year are in debt due to hospital bills.
10:31 Some of them do not have money to pay for the burial.
10:36 That is why they are forced to give their loved ones in small and small apartments.
10:43 It is painful to lose loved ones.
10:51 But losing money is even more painful to give them a proper burial.
11:00 With the help of the government,
11:01 I hope that the people will be given proper dignity and value.
11:07 I am Maki Pulido, and this is the Reporter's Notebook.
11:12 [Music]
11:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments