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By Maricel V. Cruz, Reporter
(Last of 2 parts)
The San Lazaro Crematory is the first
crematorium facility in the country, offering its service mainly to
the poor and the destitute. Lack of funds, however, has prevented it
from modernizing. Private crematoriums have sprouted, meanwhile,
providing better and more efficient procedures for burning the dead.
HISTORICAL accounts trace as far back as 4000
BC, the Bronze Age. Early cremations involved nothing more than
placing the deceased in a funeral pyre and letting fire take its
course.
In more recent times, cremation has grown wide
acceptance as a cheap and convenient alternative to burying the
dead. In New England, more than 25 percent of the people who died
will be cremated. By the year 2010, it is projected that one out of
every two people, or 50 percent, will choose to be cremated.
In the Philippines, cremation is steadily
becoming popular, despite misgivings over the practice aired by the
Catholic Church.
The San Lazaro Crematory was established in 1904
to address a health concern — preventing an epidemic by
incinerating the bodies of victims of communicable diseases.
Today San Lazaro has shifted its focus to
providing services to the poor. The facility charges a flat rate of
P6,000 for a cremation regardless of the size and weight of the
deceased. The process takes at least four hours and the bones have
to be ground manually later because the heat in the cremation
chamber is too low to reduce them to ashes.
In the Loyola Memorial Chapel in Guadalupe,
Makati City, time, not money, is the main concern of the family of
the deceased. Loyola is one of about 10 funeral companies that have
added cremation to their services.
Joville Corpuz, administrative assistant at the
Loyola Crematory, says business executives and upscale families are
the ones keenly interested in cremation.
“It is not the cost that is their prime
consideration,” according to Corpuz. “What they want is fast,
efficient service.”
Loyola’s cremation fees depend on the age and
the time before a cadaver is cremated. For infants two years old and
below, it charges P5,400; for over two years to adult, P9,000.
And for P12,000, Loyola will cremate the
deceased on the same day of death.
The cremation takes from three to four hours,
including the waiting time for the ashes to cool before they are
placed in a receptacle.
The bereaved can wait in a chapel-type room
which can accommodate 20 people.
Corpuz says the family and relatives can look at
the cadaver just before it is cremated, but not during.
The cremating chamber has burners fuelled by
liquefied petroleum gas at both ends. Blowers at the sides circulate
the heat for even incineration. The heat is kept at 1,000 degrees
Celsius.
On average, Loyola cremates 89 cadavers a month.
First part
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