The cost of Dying in the philippines
Binky
Is it cheaper to live or to die?
By Margie Quimpo-Espino
Inquirer
Published on Page A1 of the November 1, 2006 issue of the Philippine
Daily Inquirer
NEXT TIME somebody tells you he wants to die -- ask him first: Do
you have the money to pay for the high cost of dying?
If he does not, tell him it will cost less for him to live.
Dying is expensive. And the expense does not include the
hospitalization and medical bills of the deceased.
No wonder the business of dying is alive and doing very well.
With roughly 400,000 deaths in the Philippines a year, the business
of providing services for the dead is worth at least some P2.4
billion annually, with the minimum cost of a funeral service at
P5,000. Another P400 million is spent yearly on burials, considering
that the cost for a place in a public cemetery starts at P1,000.
But as the wealthy now have varied options, the cost can easily
double.
La Funeraria Paz Inc. president Melchor G. Ocampo admits the funeral
service business can be lucrative. He is not aware of funeral homes
that have closed shop -- only those that have expanded.
The reason is simple: The market is always there because death is
inevitable.
Funeraria Paz, founded in the 1900s, is the oldest funeral parlor or
mortuary in the country. It started with a small chapel at the
corner of Calle Paz (now C.M. Recto Avenue) and Calle Almanza (now
F. Torres Street).
Petronilo del Rosario envisioned Funeraria Paz as a place where
families and friends could pay their last respects to their departed
loved ones.
Apolinario Mabini and Melchora Aquino were among the first to be
serviced by Funeraria Paz, which now has 61 chapels in its three
branches -- Baguio City, Araneta Avenue in Quezon City, and Sucat
Road in Parañaque City. Next year it plans to add seven more chapels.
250 wakes a month
Ocampo says a Funeraria Paz parlor has about 250 wakes a month.
Compute this with the P50,000 to P375,000 cost of its funeral
services and you come up with something like P12.5 million to P87.5
million in monthly revenues.
But Ocampo points out that only about 60 percent of "clients" or
friends and relatives of the dead pay the cost of the funeral
services. The others are memorial or life plan holders.
He says services include the coffin and a five-day viewing, plus
transport and burial. The price depends on the kind of coffin, the
chapel and the hearse. The cost of the package does not include the
burial lot or cremation.
Ocampo says the most expensive service that Funeraria Paz has
rendered so far amounted to P1.1 million with a bronze casket worth
P700,000.
Costs do not include food for visitors. For poorer clients, biscuits
that cost less than P100 a can and coffee are served. For the
wealthy, there is full catering during the wake and designer clothes
for burial.
Cemeteries
Manila Memorial Inc., one of the biggest private cemeteries in the
country, has six parks in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. Manila
Memorial's SVP Dennis G. Lopez says the lowest price for a lot is
P29,000 in Davao while the range is about P40,000 to P100,000 for
lawn lots in Manila.
Manila Memorial is owned by several businessmen led by Alfonso
Yuchengco of the YGC Group, the Siguion-Reynas, Villoncos and
Buenaventuras. It set up the first memorial park in the country in
1964 at Sucat, Parañaque, where the late Senator Benigno "Ninoy"
Aquino Jr. is buried.
But as private cemeteries cater more to the wealthy, the prices of
the lots can go higher for those who want to get a lot that can
accommodate several burials -- usually for families. The range is
from P100,000 in Davao to P400,000 in Manila.
Cheapest
But the really rich buy what are called family estates that can
accommodate 15 to 96 lots. The price tag -- P800,000 to P10 million.
But of course, burying the dead need not be as costly as in the
private cemeteries.
Burying the dead can cost as little as P5,000 at the Sol Memorial
Home in Tondo, Manila, a third-class funeral parlor. Its proprietor,
Caridad Mangubat, says she provides services in the houses of the
dead. The cheapest service is P5,500, which includes a coffin,
lights, processing of papers and transport.
But Sol Memorial also has an expensive package -- P80,000 for a
metal casket, viewing equipment, chandeliers, carpet, embalming,
processing of papers and funeral coach.
The poor usually bury their dead in public cemeteries.
Government-run cemeteries in Manila like the Bagumbayan Catholic
Cemetery, Hagonoy Catholic Cemetery, Tuktukan Catholic Cemetery,
Tipas Cemetery and Aglipayan Cemetery in Barangay Ligid-Tipas,
charge a burial fee of P1,000 but the local government gives
discounts to poor families.
However, the fee is good for only five years, after which the bones
are exhumed and removed to give way to another body.
In Mandaluyong City, public cemetery administrator Luz Racelis says
the lease of a box-type niche, "apartment style," costs P1,500 for
five years without renewal or extensions.
Bone crypt
Remains to be exhumed after five years are placed in a "bone crypt"
along with those previously exhumed after the lease had expired.
The lease of a lot for a private tomb is P350 for the first five
years and renewal fee of P50 per year after the first five years.
Those leasing will shoulder the cost of constructing the tomb --
P10,000 to P30,000. However, there are no longer available lots for
lease at the public cemetery.
At the Manila North Cemetery, officer in charge Ed de la Cruz says a
niche construction permit costs P1,500. The niche or where the
coffin will be placed costs from P1,500, for an ordinary one, to
P8,500. The rent contract is for five years.
The apartment type costs P1,000 per year for a maximum of five
years. Once the contract expires, the bones are placed in a
depository for a year (P1,500 storage fee); exhumation fee is P2,500.
At La Loma Cemetery, one of the biggest public cemeteries, Romuco
Ciriaco, interviewer and records verifier, says the interment fee is
P3,000. The apartment type costs P8,000 for five years; the bone
depository, P1,000 to P2,000.
A regular burial lot measuring five square meters costs P76,000 and
carries a 40-year leaseholder contract. Corner lots are more
expensive at P18,000 per sq m and also carry 40-year leaseholder
contracts.
- With reports from Tara Quismundo, Edson Tandoc and
Margaux Ortiz