NEWSFLASH

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LEGAZPI MUSLIM CEMETERY TO SOLVE SHIPPING WOES

Legazpi City, Nov. 4, 1997 - The growing Muslim community in Legazpi City wants to put up its own cemetery to save P50,000 each time a body is shipped home to Mindanao for burial.

Hadji Nasser Dicampong, Muslim community leader, said at a public hearing over the weekend that despite the prohibitive cost, Muslims are forced to borrow money to ship home their dead "because it is against Islam teachings to bury our dead in non-Muslim cemeteries."

City Councilor Noel Rosal explained that a public hearing had to be called on the Muslim group's request because the sentiments of the rest of the city's population had to be heard before the city could grant a permit for the cemetery.

The proposed cemetery site is at Sitio Misua-B, Barangay Banquerohan, about 15 kilometers south of the city's center.

Father Joy Vargas, village parish priest, had expressed support for the proposal.

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