by Dennis Abrina November 3, 2019 'LGBT' GRAVEYARD. A kin of a departed member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (L...
November 3, 2019
ROSARIO, Cavite – On the eve of Undas (All Saints’ and All Souls’ days), members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community here who started flocked on Thursday to visit loved ones and dearly departed to a cemetery dedicated for them now found their dead "gone."
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency, Michelle Lomocso, the 34-year-old caretaker of the memorial park where “Ikatlo” niches dedicated to the so-called “third sex” are established, clarified these tombs still exist.
“The former niches dedicated to the LGBT have been turned to 'regular' tombs due to insufficient space brought about by the increasing number of dead to be buried in the graveyard,” Lomocso said in Filipino.
She said the Salinas (old name of Rosario, Cavite) Garden of Memories is no-longer solely for the LGBT community after it was launched by the local government four years ago.
"Yung initial building po nito ay around 200 apartment type pa lang, ngayon po ay nasa almost 700 niches na (The initial building here was around 200 apartment-type then, but now, it now houses almost 700 niches)," the 27-year-old grave digger Denmark Usero said.
The concept popped up when the members of the LGBT community who were active in local government activities to champion their “gay rights” in festivals and festive events like the “Salinas Tinapa (smoke fish) Festival” which this town is famous for, wished to “also have their space in eternal peace” in this coastal town.
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In 2014, a landowner donated some 23 hectares of land to the Rosario local government to be used as a public cemetery, and it was then when local officials initially decided to put up space for the “third sex.”
Then Rosario Mayor Jose “Nonong” Ricafrente initiated the local government project for allocating the resting place for the departed members of the town’s LGBT community in 2015.
Around 2,000 square meters of the burial ground was allotted for the deceased LGBT members at the Salinas Garden of Memories.
While the civil registry office grappled for what gender to put on an LGBT member’s death certificate, Ricafrente’s brainchild, on the other hand, was to construct apartment-type tombs at that time, customized with LGBT “rainbow” colors.
“Ang kagandahan lang dito, sa lapida ng mga yumao eh, nakalagay din yung mga alias nila kapag gabi, tulad ng Vincent Pedeosa alias “Duday” sa gay name (What is beautiful about this is that the deceased grave marker also inscribed their “aliases” like “Duday” as gay name for Vincent Pedeosa),” the graveyard watcher said.
The ground caretaker said the deceased male homosexuals occupy the niches painted with pink, while the departed lesbians occupy the rainbow-colored tombs.
The tombs were donated by the privately-owned Heaven’s Garden Memorial Park. (PNA)
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| 'LGBT' GRAVEYARD. A kin of a departed member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community visits a relative’s grave in the once dedicated LGBT community cemetery at the Salinas Garden of Memories, Barangay Tejeros Convention in Rosario, Cavite on Thursday (Oct. 31). (PNA photo by Dennis Abrina) |
ROSARIO, Cavite – On the eve of Undas (All Saints’ and All Souls’ days), members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community here who started flocked on Thursday to visit loved ones and dearly departed to a cemetery dedicated for them now found their dead "gone."
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency, Michelle Lomocso, the 34-year-old caretaker of the memorial park where “Ikatlo” niches dedicated to the so-called “third sex” are established, clarified these tombs still exist.
“The former niches dedicated to the LGBT have been turned to 'regular' tombs due to insufficient space brought about by the increasing number of dead to be buried in the graveyard,” Lomocso said in Filipino.
She said the Salinas (old name of Rosario, Cavite) Garden of Memories is no-longer solely for the LGBT community after it was launched by the local government four years ago.
"Yung initial building po nito ay around 200 apartment type pa lang, ngayon po ay nasa almost 700 niches na (The initial building here was around 200 apartment-type then, but now, it now houses almost 700 niches)," the 27-year-old grave digger Denmark Usero said.
The concept popped up when the members of the LGBT community who were active in local government activities to champion their “gay rights” in festivals and festive events like the “Salinas Tinapa (smoke fish) Festival” which this town is famous for, wished to “also have their space in eternal peace” in this coastal town.
In 2014, a landowner donated some 23 hectares of land to the Rosario local government to be used as a public cemetery, and it was then when local officials initially decided to put up space for the “third sex.”
Then Rosario Mayor Jose “Nonong” Ricafrente initiated the local government project for allocating the resting place for the departed members of the town’s LGBT community in 2015.
Around 2,000 square meters of the burial ground was allotted for the deceased LGBT members at the Salinas Garden of Memories.
While the civil registry office grappled for what gender to put on an LGBT member’s death certificate, Ricafrente’s brainchild, on the other hand, was to construct apartment-type tombs at that time, customized with LGBT “rainbow” colors.
“Ang kagandahan lang dito, sa lapida ng mga yumao eh, nakalagay din yung mga alias nila kapag gabi, tulad ng Vincent Pedeosa alias “Duday” sa gay name (What is beautiful about this is that the deceased grave marker also inscribed their “aliases” like “Duday” as gay name for Vincent Pedeosa),” the graveyard watcher said.
The ground caretaker said the deceased male homosexuals occupy the niches painted with pink, while the departed lesbians occupy the rainbow-colored tombs.
The tombs were donated by the privately-owned Heaven’s Garden Memorial Park. (PNA)
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