By Magtanggol C. Vilar
CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija, Oct. 29 (PNA) — Preparations for the commemoration of the dead have become serious subject to the residents of this city.
The local government units from the provincial, city and down to the barangay levels are involved especially in efficient management of traffic that has lately gone viral since the past few days at the heels of All Saints’ Day.
The city’s 168-strong police force headed by Superintendent Joselito E. Villarosa Jr. have already undergone re-training in the matter of policing and ensuring the peaceful and orderly conduct of traffic all over the city dubbed as “Tricycle Capital of the Philippines.”
This early, every single member of the police force has already an assigned post to ensure a peaceful celebration of “Undas.”
Likewise on alert are the 17-man City Emergency Search and Rescue/Recovery (CESAR/R) team, an integrated part of the city’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC), trained on CPR, first-aid treatment and basic medical procedures aided with an ambulance with medical-surgical and retrieval gadgets in case of road accidents.
The city’s four-hectare public cemetery which hosts a big number of the departed locals is, without a doubt, overpopulated giving birth to seven private memorial homes in strategic locations here.
These are Eternal Garden-Cabanatuan, Eternal Home Memorial Park, Eternal Peace Memorial Park, Goldwell Memorial Park/Villa Verde, Sagrada Familia Memorial Park, Sanctuary Memorial Park, St. Martin Memorial Park, and Serenity Columbary.
A bold move of City Mayor Julius Cesar V. Vergara which dates back to his first term as mayor in 1998, saw the first public-private partnership program on record where private electric company Cabanatuan Electric Corporation (CELCOR) has partnered with the city government in providing full lighting of the five public cemeteries in the city, and frontage lighting for the private ones.
Starting on Thursday up to November 2, the “Operation Pailaw” scheme will make it easy for the tomb visitors to come, visit and clean their respective areas in the cemeteries and enjoy a quiet commemoration of All Saints Day and All Souls Day.
Two schools of thought are fostered in Nueva Ecija’s commemoration of the day of the dead.
The general practice especially among the greater number of Christian believers is to mark November 1 as the “All Saints Day” where they flock on a one-day sort of pilgrimage thereat.
In several towns in Nueva Ecija, the commemoration of the memories of their dearly departed is celebrated more somberly on November 2, popularly held as “Araw ng Mga Kaluluwa.”
In general, the day of the departed souls get a lot of attention from living kins by way of having their tombs cleaned, repainted and the shrubbery trimmed and freshened up somewhat.
Of course, candles in various forms and colors lit the tombs as a form of reverence prayers of sorts by the kith and kin as well as “paid prayer offerors,” at times, too, complete with a couple or two of professional criers, mark the event.
For those who can afford the costs, available are pompous varieties of flowers as roses, gladioli, calla lilies, tulips, orchids, and lots of cut foliage which usually command a high price during the period.
The current commemoration of the “Day of the Dearly departed” has also brought out new trends as in the display of tarpaulin printings of the occupants of the tombs – in full and vibrant colorful suits – for all the crowd to see and behold.
Though the usual lewd practices of gaming, drinking and loud music are now banned, however, the noise and din of crowds engaged in lively conversations much like reunion parties among friends and relatives rev up life in the otherwise dreary and ghostly atmosphere in the land of the dead.
To the true devotees, remembering their dear ones start first off with a mass and prayers in church with offerings of prayers for the dead and the blessing of candles to be taken to the graves of their missed relatives.
The memorial parks for the one-day commemoration rites are also turned into a virtual circus of tents and parasols of odd sorts and hues.
But who cares, all these are mainly intended to provide comfort to the living as much as provide even temporary amusement to the gone missing.
Of course, food and refreshments abound that add gaiety to the occasion.
All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day will come and pass fleetingly but each year of recollection will be marked with improvements from years past.
Among the additional practices here is the “Blood Pressure Watch” program sponsored by the Philippine Red Cross-Nueva Ecija Chapter.
According to PRC-NE Administrator Lenny Ladignon, teams of Red Cross volunteers will be sent to the various cemeteries here to make sure that visitors seeing their loved ones are checked for their blood pressures.
Problematic visitors are then referred to regular doctors in medical clinics for further checkups lest they make a dead scene.
“We, in Red Cross care for the living as much as we do for our dearly departed, reason why we have this program to make sure that they enjoy a long and healthy life,” said former Nueva Ecija Governor Tomas N. Joson III, president of the PRC-NE Chapter.
After all the fuzz, next day is back to the old grind of battling one’s way through traffic, chasing after bus rides and the usual race to earn for the next meal. (PNA)