FEES at a public cemetery in Barangay Bagacay, Dumaguete City, had been fixed following the approval on final reading Wednesday, August 31, of an amendatory ordinance of the updated omnibus tax ordinance, particularly Section 69 of Ordinance 139, series of 2008.
As approved during deliberations and public hearings, permit fees for cadaver disposition includes P100 for burial permit; P300 for exhumation of cadaver; disinterment costs, P100; cremation, P300; embalming permit, P100; post mortem examination for Filipino residents, P500 and P1,000 for foreign nationals; permit fee for entrance from another municipality or city, P100; and permit fee for transfer to another municipality, city or province at P100.
For the pre-fabricated niches, the first three layers fee is pegged at P1,200, while the topmost layer may be availed only by identified indigents as certified by their respective barangay chairmen and submitted to the Department of Social Welfare and Development for appropriate validation and for issuance of a certificate of eligibility.
Of the P1,200 payment for pre-fabricated niches, P250 will go the cleaning and maintenance good for five years.
Ordinance author Councilor Estanislao Alviola said from a budget of P3 million this year, P2 million was allotted for the construction of 276 pre-fabricated niches, and the other P1 million is for the disinterment works at the new Dumaguete City Public Cemetery.
Under an existing city ordinance, disinterment of remains of persons interred for more than five years is required where family members or relatives may choose to transfer the disinterred remains to a common tomb or to bone chambers, to a private columbary, or to the pre-fabricated niches for a rental of P1,200 good for five years.
According to Alviola, the ordinance was enacted to solve burial space problems at the city public cemeteries, due to difficulty in assigning burial space for deceased persons. (PNA)