ANTIQUE – All public and private cemeteries here will open on All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2).
“Visit to memorial parks, cemeteries and columbaria in a relation to Undas 2021 shall start on Oct. 25 to Nov. 2” subject to specific guidelines to be issued by 18 municipal governments, according to Executive Order No. 187-A issued by the provincial government of Antique.
Local government units must ensure that minimum public health standards are observed such as physical distancing and wearing of facemasks. The provincial government suggested the following:
* schedule cemetery visits per barangay to avoid crowding
* “no vaccination, no entry” policy; cemetery visitors must present their coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination cards
* bar people below 18 years old and above 64 years old from entering cemeteries
* no gambling, no eating, no drinking of liquor, no loud noises in cemeteries
* only 30 percent on-site capacity in cemeteries at any given time
Last year, the provincial government closed all public and private cemeteries on All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day due to the pandemic.
Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force (PIATF) on COVID-19 secretary Margie Gadian said “cleaning up of the cemeteries should have to be done now.”
She also said the local police will be deploying personnel even before Oct. 25 to ensure that family members cleaning up the tombs of their dead loved ones would be secured.
“The police will make sure that there will be no bladed weapons or alcohol, only flowers and candles in cemeteries,” she said.
Antique is currently under general community quarantine. As of Oct. 18, it had 191 active COVID-19 cases, 5,536 cases that recovered and 278 cases that died.
The active cases are in the towns of Hamtic (31), Anini-y (23), Sibalom (19), San Jose (17), Culasi (15), Bugasong (14), Tobias Fornier (14), San Remigio (13), Patnongon (nine), Belison (seven), Tibiao (six), Caluya (five), Barbaza (four), Laua-an (four), Libertad (four), Valderrama (four), and Pandan (two)./PN
