Manila the capital of the Philippines
with a population of 10 million the city
is overflowing with people and the dead
Manila’s North cemetery is the city’s
largest with 70 to 80 funerals a day and
more than 1 million buried here it’s
filled beyond capacity spilling over
with corpses for most this would be a
chilling place to visit but to some
Filipinos this sea of tombs and bones is
the place they call home
an entire community built on top of the
dead ray meal and Rito has lived in the
city of death since 1988 hey did they
plan it on a lot of people think it’s
scary to live here inside the cemetery
the celibacy mentor Te’o
he turned an aboveground tomb into a
two-story house few people would want to
do their laundry only feet away from a
corpse and a crib or brush their teeth
on top of a gravestone there’s even an
empty tomb inside Raimi’s living room
but this will be the grave for my family
me I’m gonna say whoever is first to go
will be buried here
ramie lives here by choice because this
is where he works his job is only a few
tombstones away and it’s not for the
squeamish at least three times a day
Rainey must exhume the dead with space
and money scarce many poor families must
rent burial sites here in what are
called the apartments and like any
tenant the dead can be evicted if the
rent isn’t paid after five years the
apartment is open then it’s Rama’s job
to remove the body piece by piece
decomposed or not
it’s a task that took some getting used
to when I first started here at the
cemetery the first time I handled bones
I could meet for two weeks that only I
couldn’t sleep
my stomach was upset I felt like
throwing up Wow but three weeks into the
job I got used to it
little by little and I started eating
again you’re not I know
here death is everywhere literally
staring residents in the face in this
neighborhood unclaimed bodies litter
front yards becoming children’s
playthings or ballast for tin rooftops
but ramie a devout Catholic places the
unclaimed corpses in a mass grave so
that their souls may rest in peace I’m
Arab on Papa those who don’t have money
to Ribery the bones are stored here
there are more than 2,000 bodies here in
the Philippines caring for graves isn’t
a matter of placing flowers once a year
and that’s what makes it possible for
the cemeteries residents to live here
many people want to have someone to tend
their loved ones crypts on a full-time
basis mario from alice an epitaph maker
has called the cemetery home for over 25
years
Mario’s lease agreement is one few
Westerners would want to sign take care
of a crypt and its corpses and you can
move in with them for free and in turn
his family has a place to live
yummy hello people ask me why we live
here anything I tell them because and
that rent is free but gum up everything
is trouble even with otter claw
it may be creepy but it’s also quiet and
safe particularly when compared to the
slums of Manila where squalor and drugs
are part of daily life
Remiel and rito does hope that someday
his son jr. will find a home far from
the tombs and coffins of the cemetery
but until then Rama’s family and others
like Mario for malice will continue to
live in a place many would find taboo
funny with me money China this really
isn’t a place for the living without but
they’ve animal it’s a place for the dead
but they have the other lives but in the
end it’s our home
with a population of 10 million the city
is overflowing with people and the dead
Manila’s North cemetery is the city’s
largest with 70 to 80 funerals a day and
more than 1 million buried here it’s
filled beyond capacity spilling over
with corpses for most this would be a
chilling place to visit but to some
Filipinos this sea of tombs and bones is
the place they call home
an entire community built on top of the
dead ray meal and Rito has lived in the
city of death since 1988 hey did they
plan it on a lot of people think it’s
scary to live here inside the cemetery
the celibacy mentor Te’o
he turned an aboveground tomb into a
two-story house few people would want to
do their laundry only feet away from a
corpse and a crib or brush their teeth
on top of a gravestone there’s even an
empty tomb inside Raimi’s living room
but this will be the grave for my family
me I’m gonna say whoever is first to go
will be buried here
ramie lives here by choice because this
is where he works his job is only a few
tombstones away and it’s not for the
squeamish at least three times a day
Rainey must exhume the dead with space
and money scarce many poor families must
rent burial sites here in what are
called the apartments and like any
tenant the dead can be evicted if the
rent isn’t paid after five years the
apartment is open then it’s Rama’s job
to remove the body piece by piece
decomposed or not
it’s a task that took some getting used
to when I first started here at the
cemetery the first time I handled bones
I could meet for two weeks that only I
couldn’t sleep
my stomach was upset I felt like
throwing up Wow but three weeks into the
job I got used to it
little by little and I started eating
again you’re not I know
here death is everywhere literally
staring residents in the face in this
neighborhood unclaimed bodies litter
front yards becoming children’s
playthings or ballast for tin rooftops
but ramie a devout Catholic places the
unclaimed corpses in a mass grave so
that their souls may rest in peace I’m
Arab on Papa those who don’t have money
to Ribery the bones are stored here
there are more than 2,000 bodies here in
the Philippines caring for graves isn’t
a matter of placing flowers once a year
and that’s what makes it possible for
the cemeteries residents to live here
many people want to have someone to tend
their loved ones crypts on a full-time
basis mario from alice an epitaph maker
has called the cemetery home for over 25
years
Mario’s lease agreement is one few
Westerners would want to sign take care
of a crypt and its corpses and you can
move in with them for free and in turn
his family has a place to live
yummy hello people ask me why we live
here anything I tell them because and
that rent is free but gum up everything
is trouble even with otter claw
it may be creepy but it’s also quiet and
safe particularly when compared to the
slums of Manila where squalor and drugs
are part of daily life
Remiel and rito does hope that someday
his son jr. will find a home far from
the tombs and coffins of the cemetery
but until then Rama’s family and others
like Mario for malice will continue to
live in a place many would find taboo
funny with me money China this really
isn’t a place for the living without but
they’ve animal it’s a place for the dead
but they have the other lives but in the
end it’s our home
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