Remembering the dead, celebrating the living

AT the end of October, Filipinos return home to their respective provinces to celebrate Undas with their families. The term comes from the Spanish word honras, meaning honor or respect.

Yet, the conditions experienced by Filipinos are anything but honorable or respectable. There is much we can learn from our commemoration of the dead to uplift the conditions of the living 

In the book of Exodus, the masses of the Hebrew people go on a long journey after being delivered from Egypt into the Promised Land. Filipinos, too, go on an exodus of their own. Whereas the Jews had the vast expanse of the desert, our roads are overloaded with vehicles. The congestion is so terrible that motorists call it “Carmageddon.” This yearly occurrence highlights a critical flaw in our transit system. Because we lack efficient alternatives, we are dependent on motor vehicles. Provincial buses are jam-packed, while drivers have to brace themselves physically and mentally for the taxing journey as they crawl along expressways and highways.

Developed countries employ various means of transportation to serve the different mobility needs of people.

Busways, subways, monorails, light rail and trams move people within the city.

Meanwhile, high-speed trains such as Japan’s Shinkansen, France’s Train à Grande Vitesse, and China’s Shanghai Maglev Train travel as fast as 300 kilometers per hour, providing efficient and dignified regional connectivity. They are also more sustainable than aviation.

In the 1975 Manila Bay Metropolitan Region Strategic Plan, where I was project officer, my team proposed developing cities in the surrounding provinces as “counter magnets” to address the growing primacy of Metro Manila and to provide regional connectivity and balanced growth. Thankfully, this has been realized with the onset of the Luzon Economic Corridor and the North-South Commuter Railway.

Meanwhile, in the World Bank-funded Metro Manila Transport, Land Use and Development Planning Project, where I was team leader and senior planner, my team proposed the expansion of circumferential roads in the metro. Many are familiar with EDSA (which is part of C4) and C5, but the plan was to incorporate 10 circumferential roads. C10 was designed to connect Bataan and Cavite while bypassing Metro Manila altogether.

Despite the gravity of our transport crisis, there is still hope in addressing it. However, we must undergo a paradigm shift by prioritizing mass transit over private vehicles.

One of the greatest ironies about our society is that we are capable of constructing grand monuments for the dead, but we are unable to provide decent housing for the living.

M e m o r i a l p a r k s are among the most well-maintained green spaces. The fanciest mausoleums even have architecture and amenities that put decent houses to shame. In a way, cemeteries are very much similar to exclusive subdivisions, except that the occupants are no longer living.

Given this disparity, there has to be a more productive and sustainable use for cemeteries and memorial parks. We can apply the current trends in urban planning that revolve around mixed-use developments and spaces.

For example, incorporating non-disruptive establishments such as small shops, restaurants and cafes would increase foot traffic, provide livelihood, and generate a more consistent activity cycle.

By acting as open spaces for leisure, recreation and even disaster response, cemeteries and memorial parks can become multifunctional venues, while still honoring their intended purpose. Paco Park in Manila and Père Lachaise in Paris are both examples of municipal cemeteries that became multipurpose spaces due to their cultural heritage and significance.

Expanding the concept even further, cemeteries and memorial parks can even be used to address poverty and the housing crisis. If we can integrate residential communities with golf courses, such as in the case of Sta. Elena Golf and Country Estate, then we can also explore a similar concept for memorial parks.

Currently, an estimated 10,000 people are already living in the Manila North Cemetery as informal settlers. Given the lack of open spaces, scarcity of affordable housing, and extreme poverty, residing among the dead is preferable over dwelling among the living.

However, surviving is not the same as living. By incorporating socialized housing, we can transform these places from graveyard slums into sustainable and equitable communities that serve the poorest of the poor.

The Filipino celebration of Undas shows that we are a spiritual and family-oriented people.

However, the lived reality of many people does not reflect our culture and values when mobility is stifled and housing is scarce.

Whenever I give talks about disaster resilience, I always emphasize that problems are always opportunities for growth and development. By applying modern urban planning principles to cemeteries, graveyards and memorial parks, we can transform them into places for remembering the dead and celebrating the living.