Cabatuan Cemetery and Mortuary Chapel

I thought it was most appropriate to feature the cemetery at my father's hometown of Cabatuan, Iloilo. Many of our relatives are interred in this cemetery with my Lola's tomb located just across from the east side of the chapel. With her now lies the remains of some of my aunts as well as the grandfather I never came to know. A history of the town and the church may be found at the Cabatuan.com website. The LGU's website doesn't contain much info nor any good photos pertaining to the town's heritage. Good for us who are not there that there are good folks who made the effort to have such information online.

Main gate of the Cabatuan cemetery

Founded in the late 1800's by the Augustinians, the cemetery's old mortuary chapel is found just down the path from the gate. There are 2 other gates to the cemetery looking just like this gate. A more detailed history of the Church in Cabatuan including old photos and documents may be found at the same website I mentioned. The same site also has a feature on the cemetery and the chapel.

I used to have a lot of photos of the cemetery and the surrounding areas. Unfortunately again, I lost most of these to the great flood of 2009. We do have one framed photo of the cemetery with a perfect view of the chapel from the gate. This was taken by a partner in the first law firm the Clairvoyant joined after she passed the bar exams of 1999. His wife was also from Iloilo and among his hobbies were photography. He was quite good and dabbled in journalistic shots. We received a nice set of black and white photos he took during our wedding. A copy of the framed photo may be found below. Note that some images in the photo are the result of reflections when I took a photo of the frame. They are not the outcomes of any supernatural phenomena.

Mortuary chapel of Cabatuan as seen from the cemetery main gate

The space just before the chapel used to be occupied by the tomb of the late Tomas Confesor, perhaps the most well know of Cabatuan's sons and daughters. The tomb was moved many years ago and now there are much more greens in the cemetery, bringing more life in an area that, despite being identified with death, should reflect a celebration of life. Today, All Saints' Day, the living will surely flock to the cemetery to pray for and remember those who passed away before our time.

Other good references online that I found about the cemetery are the ones by the Heritage Conservation Society and the one by Valerie Caulin, a freelance writer.