By Raoul E. Calleja
With the shortage of housing being such a problem in the Philippines, La Loma cemetery in Manila has become home to a community that would otherwise have none. Encompassing about 50 hectares, the cemetery is both a resting place for the dead and a residence for the poor.
While travelling in the Philippines last December and January, I visited and photographed various cemeteries, most of them in the provincial countryside. These cemeteries were fascinating—overcrowded, overgrown, yet cerebral and beautiful.
However, none showed as blatant a social reality as what I encountered at La Loma cemetery. Here, the beauty of the eroded, time-worn monuments and statues was not accompanied by the timeless tranquility of those in the provinces. The homeless had appropriated the large, some would say ostentatious tombs and mausoleums of the rich. Hundreds now call these places their home, transforming the mausoleums into functional dwellings that do not look temporal. The interiors have been redecorated, becoming bedrooms, while the areas adjacent to the tombs are now living areas complete with electricity and running water.
Strolling through the cemetery initially, I felt self-conscious about being a foreigner with a camera—as if I had entered someone’s home without permission. But the people I met were very accommodating and open. Tita Villarosa who invited me into her home to take a portrait of her family of nine. As an outsider, I had expected my questions to be met with resentment, but they were answered with pride and sincerity.
The community at the La Loma cemetery appears to accept the realities of its situation. It is their way of life, and for some, the only one they have ever known. It is the social reality of a country roughly the size of the maritimes, but with a struggling economy and a population of other 60 million. The residents of La Loma are proud and content because they have food, clothing and—most of all—a roof over their heads.
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