Millions of Filipinos flocked to various cemeteries on Thursday to visit their dead in an annual tradition that combines Catholic religious rites with the people’s penchant for festivity.

At the Manila North Cemetery, at least one million visitors paid respect to their dead in commemoration of All Saints’ Day, cemetery director Eduardo Noriega said.

Noriega said that thousands of people who were unable to go to the cemetery yesterday are expected to visit their dear departed today when the country observes All Souls’ Day.

At the Manila South Cemetery, authorities said that at least 400,000 people visited their departed loved ones.

At Manila’s Loyola Memorial Park, one of the city’s biggest private cemeteries, families had camped overnight, pitched up tents and brought in food for a day-long picnic by the graves and tombs of their dead.

40 arrested
In crowded public cemeteries elsewhere across the city of 15 million, police confiscated alcoholic beverages and banned gambling to maintain peace and order.

Noriega said that on Thursday, at least 40 people, mostly minors, were arrested for drinking alcohol inside the Manila North Cemetery. One person was also arrested for using marijuana, while others were detained for using illegal stairs installed outside the cemetery walls.

Authorities also confiscated deadly weapons, gambling paraphernalia and loud sound systems.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, meanwhile, warned the public against fake priests roaming the cemeteries and reciting prayers for unsuspecting families in exchange for monetary donations.

Assistance
Hundreds of medics and volunteers set up field clinics to provide medical assistance. Radio reports said that many had fainted due to the extreme heat in densely packed cemeteries.

“This occasion serves as our family reunion,” said Fely de Leon, a retired 80-year-old trader as she laid out an assortment of food on small tables around the plots of her late father and brother.

“We will be here for the rest of the day, and we expect more or less 30 family members to arrive.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Thursday deployed its e-wheels and mobile command center dubbed as “Agila 2” in major cemeteries in Metro Manila.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said that the e-wheels were used by newly trained constables to help in the traffic management and monitor the situation inside major cemeteries.

The MMDA deployed the e-wheels riding teams to Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City, Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City and North and South Cemeteries in Manila.

The agency also deployed a mobile command center to keep track of traffic incidents. Tolentino said that Agila 2 has its own cameras that monitor the traffic situation in areas near cemeteries and the exodus of people during the observance of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.

“They will help in maintaining peace and order in cemeteries,” Tolentino said.

Penalties for grave robbery pushed
Meanwhile, a measure penalizing grave robbery has been filed in the House of Representatives.

Former president and now Rep. Gloria Arroyo of Pampanga province and her son, Rep. Diosdado Arroyo of Camarines Sur filed House Bill 6606 or the Anti-Grave Robbers Act of 2012, which seeks to penalize robbery of cemetery articles.

“The damage done by grave robbers goes beyond the measurable as it dishonors the deceased and causes anguish to those who survived them,” the younger Arroyo said.

“This type of theft must be severely addressed,” the Pampanga lawmaker added.

The measure seeks to amend the Revised Penal Code by inserting into it Article 302-A, which provides that those who commit grave robbery or the taking all or part of a tomb, coffin, monument, gravestone, or all part of a commemorative, decorative, or other cemetery-related article or committed in a cemetery, graveyard or burial ground, the culprit will suffer the penalty next higher in degree than that what is prescribed in the provision.

Presently, the Revised Penal Code provides a punishment of reclusion temporal (12 to 20 years imprisonment) if the value of the property taken by an armed robber from an uninhabited house or public building or edifice devoted to religious worship, will exceed P250.

When the offenders do not carry arms, and the value of the property taken exceeds P250, the penalty next lower in degree will be imposed.

Viel visits
President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s sister, Victoria Eliza “Viel” Aquino-Dee, was the first to visit the tomb of their parents, former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and former president Corazon “Cory” Aquino at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City.

According to a member of the Presidential Security Group, Viel visited her parents’ tombs ahead of her other siblings because she is scheduled to travel today. Viel is the third daughter of Cory and Ninoy.

President Aquino may visit his parents’ tombs today.

Manila Memorial Park Manager Lamberto Peña said that the Aquino clan would often pay their respects to their parents on November 2 to avoid the exodus of people during All Saints’ Day.

Peña also said that two sealed envelopes intended for the President were left in the tomb of his parents.

The letters, discovered by a caretaker, were turned to the Parañaque City Police for safekeeping.

WITH REPORTS FROM RICHIE A. HORARIO AND AFP