It is only two days before this year’s Undas, and by now we know that the days immediately before and after it—Oct. 31, Saturday and Nov. 2, Monday—would be regular working days unlike in previous years when they were declared non-working holidays.
Back then, we would have days of more relaxed and pleasant traveling to and from cemeteries in our provinces where our departed loved ones were buried.
There is nobody to blame for this but the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders who are meeting in the National Capital Region two weeks after on Nov. 18 and 19.
In an apparent attempt to keep us home and enable foreign delegates and guests to travel to their meeting venues without the usual traffic jams, PNoy has declared these days as special non-working days in the NCR. In fact, in his overeagerness to be a perfect host, he is also closing down the entire NCR government bureaucracy for 4 days from Nov. 17 to 20.
Nov. 2, Monday is a day when most Filipinos would travel back to Metro Manila from their provincial cemeteries via air, land and sea but it will come to pass as a regular working day. This departure from previous practice is obviously PNoy’s way of appeasing the business community which has complained about the lost man-hours and productivity during the week of the Apec meeting.
Most Filipinos would then have to observe hurriedly this year’s Undas. They would have barely enough time to participate in traditional family reunions and spend less time showing their love and respect for their departed ancestors and relatives.
Of course, if they are already retired from work or unemployed, they still could have their extended traditional observance of the occasion. But if they are still employed, they have to take their leave of absence from work without pay.
We then expect Nov. 1 to be a very chaotic Sunday. Filipinos would be crisscrossing our major arterial roads—NLEX, SLEX, Cavitex, Edsa, and C5—and other national, circumferential, and radial roads. During that Undas weekend, they would be rushing back and forth from their homes to the airports, bus terminals and piers.
Most would be visiting the cemeteries in the towns in the provinces where they were born and raised—the same places where they would return on May 9, 2016 to vote for their mayor and president.
Despite being chaotic, the exodus of homecoming voters would be a much-awaited event for astute politicians. They know fully well that the campaign period is yet to start on Feb. 9, 2016 for national candidates and on March 25 for local candidates, but they would anyway be campaigning early in open defiance of Comelec.
The cemeteries are thus expected to be scenarios of festive celebration of early political campaigning.
But who cares—the administration presidential candidate Mar Roxas has started openly campaigning since the minute he declared his candidacy. In fact, the sitting President PNoy is also openly endorsing him and is acting as his campaign manager.
They should explain now how they could do this without spending the taxpayers’ money. Otherwise, they would be made to, anyway, right after they have lost control of government in the same way Laguna Gov. Ejercito was unseated for campaign overspending.
Some cities may even fight for ownership of public cemeteries.
Take for instance the Manila South Cemetery—one of the largest cemeteries in Metro Manila. It is owned by the City of Manila but is located within the premises of Makati City, thus qualifying it to be called the “Manila Cemetery in Makati.”
And to show everybody who the undisputed cemetery owners are, the names and faces of Manila City’s incumbent top officials—Mayor Erap Estrada and Vice Mayor Isko Moreno—are prominently plastered in its entrance arch.
Would they want to be buried permanently there someday?
Uniquely, Manila South Cemetery has a section for the poor with a prominent but simple marker that says “Libingan ng Mahirap.” This must be to remind everybody of the social status of the people who are buried in this particular section of the cemetery.
It is a neglected outlier within Makati that Vice President Jejomar Binay would not claim as his bailiwick. Otherwise, he would have it improved and made more appropriate for the lifestyle of the affluent residents of Makati.
As before, cemeteries would be venues of informal political debates despite the need of city folks to rush back to Manila on that same day Nov. 1.
The P2,000 pension increase, the lower income tax rate, and who our next president should be would likely dominate these small group discussions and debates in all cemeteries.
But the Friends of Rody Duterte would rather speculate on the candidacy or non-candidacy of their reluctant but popular presidential timber from Davao City—Mayor Digong or Rody or DU30 Duterte.
Would he become the eventual presidential nominee of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan before Dec. 10?
He would be a favorite topic in these friendly debates in all cemeteries this Undas.