She tells us that a graveyard in northern Manila, in the district of Novotas is home to some 600 families, some as large as 16 members. This would be bad enough, but a little digging reveals this is not the main graveyard where most of the shanties are found. Manila North Cemetary is home to some 10.000 families. Source and a photo essay here. The people live for under a dollar a day, driven to their family mausoleums or shanties, but this isn't a temporary thing.
I almost missed it, but Morella's piece notes that these are second generation graveyard dwellers. One of the interviewed, 20 year old mother of two said she would like to leave "But we were born here and we grew up here. I don't think we will be able to get out of here."
The news post is here, grim as it might be. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100628/wl_asia_afp/lifestylephilippinescemeterypoverty
Oh, and since Internet is a great but also an absurd way to read about news and places, Google now thinks I enjoy graveyards. Yeah, do a couple of searches along the lines of "manila north graveyard" and the first link will point you to Google maps which populates the window with other destinations you might be interested in, which in my case is other nearby graveyards. Sorry the pic is in Finnish though.
The other absurdity is Wikipedia, which has an article of the same place. It lists the notable burials there, as well as the intention to build a crematorium. Perhaps for people who intend to visit notable dead architects or something?
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