MANILA, Philippines – The country’s richest city and financial district doesn’t have a public cemetery to bury its dead.

The city government of Makati, through resolution 2008-003, ordered the temporary closure of its public cemetery located at the corner of Kalayaan Avenue and N. Garcia.

The city government plans to develop the place and build a four-story columbarium.

According to the 2008 city resolution, the redevelopment should take 5 years. But four years have passed and no signs of development are visible.

The former cemetery is fast decaying – moss has grown on open tombs and skeletons now litter the place. Families of the cemetery occupants had already been given notices to claim remains of their departed but the notices have fallen on deaf ears.

Interment services ceased in 2008 and city residents have had to bury their loved ones in the nearby city of Pateros or the adjacent Manila South Cemetery. – Rappler.com