Zoning board blinks, gives nod to crematorium
Residents of Barangay Balabago in Jaro district can file their appeal before Housing Land Use and Regulatory Board (HLURB) after the City Zoning Board of Adjustment and Appeals (CZBAA) reversed its earlier decision denying the proposed crematorium. e board.
City Legal Office chief Atty Edgar Gil said the aggrieved residents can seek redress before the HLURB over the recent decision of the CZBAA in the appeal made by applicant Greg Abecia. The HLURB is the right agency to review the decision of the CZBAA favoring the operation of a crematorium.
Gil, who is also the CZBAA chair, said he could not do anything after the six members of the board now voted for the approval of the project. They (the members of the board) have their own reasons why they changed their decision over the proposed crematorium when they earlier rejected the project, Gil said.
Those who voted for the approval of the crematorium were Councilor Eduardo Peñaredondo, chair of the committee on zoning and expropriation of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, Councilor Jose Espinosa III, City Engr. Marito Amatorio, City Treasurer Katherine Tingson, Jose Tengco of the City Planning and Development Office and Nathaniel Guillergan also of the City Planning, said Gil.
The reversion of the CZBAA's decision is an offshot of the appeal entered into by Abecia. In its February 2008 decision, the board denied Abecia's application for a crematorium. At that time, there was a split decision over the project from among the six members of the board.
The rejection was made after two of the members of the board abstained from voting, two voted against the project and two favored. Those who favored for the project were Councilor Peñaredondo and City Engr. Amatorio.
In its first decision, the board said the applicant failed to meet the required distance for a crematorium. The crematorium facility should not be less than 200 meters from the nearest school. The proposed crematorium facility is only some 170 meters away from school.
Crematorium facility or crematorium furnace is used in cremation process. Cremation is the act of reducing a corpse by burning. Contrary to popular belief, the remains are not ashes but rather bone fragments which are then crushed in a device called cremulator. In funerals, cremation can be an alternative funeral rite to the burial of a body in a grave.
In the same first decision denying the proposed construction of a crematorium, the board cited that aside from not having met the required distance, the proponent failed to seek a positive endorsement of the project from the new set of barangay council members.
The council revoked the endorsement earlier made by the previous barangay council. There is no social acceptability of the business project, contends the board.