DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 19 Oct) – The Davao City Transportation and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO) encouraged Dabawenyos to visit their deceased loved ones at the cemeteries early as the local government anticipates an influx of people on All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
At the Wireless Public Cemetery in Davao City during last year’s “Undas.” The local government limited cemetery visits only up to Oct. 23 to prevent the crowd from gathering on Nov. 1 and 2, fresh from the surge of the Delta variant of COVID-19. MindaNews photo
Retired Col. Dionisio Abude, CTTMO head, said on Wednesday that the city would open the cemeteries and allow visitors during this year’s “Undas” after closing the cemeteries in the previous two years as a measure to restrict mass gathering to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
He said the local government has lined up plans to alleviate the traffic congestion by enforcing rerouting schemes in major public and private cemeteries, including Davao Memorial Park in Matina, Davao Wireless Cemetery along Father Selga Street in Barangay 6-A, San Pedro Memorial Park along Circumferential Road, Forest Lake in Maa, Golden Orchard Memorial Park in Talomo, Masonic Cemetery along A. Pichon Street in Poblacion, Roman Catholic Cemetery along Father Selga Street, and Davao Chinese Cemetery along Marfori Street.
Abude said they will be deploying more traffic enforces and implement one-way routes in streets near the cemeteries.
Signages will be put up along the streets to guide the motorists, he added.
“We are reminding you to visit your departed relatives before November 1 and 2 so that you will not contribute to the congestion of traffic, especially during peak hours… Anyway, our purpose is to remember and offer prayers to our departed loved ones.
Let’s not join the crowd,” Abude said.
Last year, the local government closed all cemeteries for two weeks from October 24 to November 7 to avoid huge crowds from coming to cemeteries that could possibly cause the spread of COVID-19.
Davao City remains at Alert Level 1, the least restrictive in the country’s alert level system on the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
