By: Ellalyn V. Ruiz and Charina Clarisse L. Echaluce
Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu has appealed to millions of Filipinos to make All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days more meaningful by keeping memorial parks and public cemeteries garbage-free.
Cimatu said paying respect for the dead is not only shown by visiting them but also by keeping their final resting place clean.
“Let us honor our departed loved ones the right way. Let us leave them with our prayers and not with our trash,” he said.
Cimatu added that turning graveyards into dump sites during “Undas” is “a form of disrespect towards the dead.”
“The Filipino custom of honoring our deceased loved ones includes prayers, visit to the cemetery, family reunions, and eating together,” he pointed out, adding that “as we get-together for this annual tradition, let us also practice proper waste segregation.”
“Separate paper, plastic, metal and tin, glass, and food wastes,” Cimatu said.
He asked those going to memorial parks and public cemeteries to bring trash bags to be used for waste segregation and to place their food in reusable containers instead of buying food packed in plastic and aluminum foils.
The Department of Health will be on Code White Alert until Nov. 3 as millions of Filipinos flock to cemeteries for Undas.
DoH spokesperson Lyndon Lee Suy said they are raising the Code White Alert in anticipation of the influx of people going to and from cemeteries.
“We’re on Code White for this All Saints’ Day to make sure that all health facilities are ready to address any possible concerns with regards to health threats that may arise during this observance. So, all of them are ready,” Lee Suy disclosed.
Under a Code White Alert, all medical teams are on standby for immediate mobilization with hospital manpower like general and orthopedic surgeons, anesthesiologists, internists, and nurses ready to respond to any emergency situation.