It is Undas season, a Philippine National Holiday where the whole day is devoted to loved ones who have passed away. The moment Halloween ends, dozens of families flock to memorial parks to commemorate their departed loved ones.
Being a morbid topic, people tend to avoid discussing anything related, be it illnesses, hospitalization, deathcare services, and of course, death itself.
Nevertheless, death and deathcare are things that need to be discussed as one must be prepared for the day one’s proverbial “time” has come.
Preparations include preparing a visitation services, a funeral service, and a memorial park to be buried at. Failure to prepare for these only make mourning much more difficult because one will have to make these arrangements with a heavy heart.
One of life’s biggest heartbreaks is losing a loved one and no matter how hard he/she tries, any individual cannot be truly prepared for something like this.
However, sometimes one does not take the needed measures to lower one’s burden — making one’s trying times even more tedious than they have to be. Consequently, the situation becomes a hassle, and in worse cases, unbearable.
To properly prepare, one should invest in different death care properties and to make the passing of a loved one easier on us. The perfect send-off for your loved one’s soul and residence for his/her remains is a tranquil and attractive memorial park.
Here are the best ones in the Philippines.
1. Heritage Memorial Park
Heritage Park debuted on February 2001. Being a newcomer in deathcare services, Heritage entered an industry dominated by decades-old providers and they sought to establish themselves as worthy to their competitors.
They began offering world-class facilities and services to a public unaccustomed to such innovations from a Philippine memorial services provider.
Such is the Crematory and Mortuary, whose state-of-the-art architecture and service has gained recognition through numerous awards and features. Another example is the Heritage Pavilion, whose classic Asian architecture becomes an added aesthetic for visitors who engage in a myriad of activities, from kite flying to picnics.
Heritage Memorial Park is situated along C-5 in Taguig City. What used to be 76 hectares of land of Fort Bonifacio’s military base is now Heritage Park.
2. Forest Lake Memorial Park
Forest Lake Memorial Park is a Landco Pacific Corporation-owned Memorial Park. They built their first memorial Park in 1997 at Zamboanga City. For over 25 years, Forest Lake has constructed more than 30 parks across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
The Forest Lake business represent themselves with a logo shaping an infinity sign with mean three brand values: Love, Legacy, and Gratitude.
Through their brand values, Forest Lake envisions a memorial park where family memories are treasured, immortalized, and celebrated by the living through a never-ending tradition that puts family at the forefront.
The company aims to be “A Better Place” where loved ones’ memories are treasured, celebrated, and immortalized while consistently expanding the business beyond their current 30-plus parks to serve more Filipinos.
3. Eternal Gardens Memorial Park
Eternal Gardens is one of the pioneers of memorial lot provision, opening its first memorial park in Baesa, Caloocan City on August 11, 1976. In the context of 1976, topics of death and deathcare were even more avoided, hence purchasing memorial lots in 1976 was unpopular.
Despite this, Eternal Gardens founder Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua was committed to providing Filipinos with top-of-the-line memorial parks outside Metro Manila.
As recent as 2019, Eternal Gardens have established 11 memorial parks in key provinces like Bicol, Batangas, Laguna, and Misamis Oriental.
Eternal Gardens prides themselves in shaping the shift in a memorial mindset of preparing for one’s death by investing in deathcare early. As a consequence for them, over 90% of its clients bought their property way ahead of need.
4. Everest Hills Memorial Park
Everest Hills is a memorial lot provider owned and developed by the Vazquez-Madrigal Group of Companies and is managed by its subsidiary, Peak Development Inc.
Their value proposition is adding prestige to the tranquility and peacefulness of their beautiful memorial parks, which spans over 100-hectares of luscious greens and natural rolling hills with sprawling mango trees and serene surroundings.
For over 20 years, Everest Hills has been dedicating themselves to making their memorial parks sacred and calming, making every visit and family get-together a memorable moment for the commemorating family.
From the words, “Everest” and “hills”, the memorial park has become a sanctuary for environmentalists as the green and natural scenery is just too eye-catching to ignore. The whole park provides an atmosphere enhanced by beautiful and artful landscaping overlooked by the clear, blue sky.
5. Manila Memorial Park and Crematory
Manila Memorial Park is not only one of the biggest memorial parks in the country, they are actually the first company to introduce the concept of memorial parks in the Philippines.
Castle and Cooke, the company that owns and operates Millilani Memorial Park in Hawaii conceptualized a memorial park in Manila after seeing the unsanitary, congested, and displeasing situation of memorial parks in Manila in 1964.
Therefore, in Parañaque City in the then-province of Rizal, in that same year, Manila Memorial Park Cemetery, Inc was established together with a group of Filipino investors.
In August 1985, it became the first cemetery to host a modern crematorium in a memorial park setting, establishing it a year after Pope Paul VI lifted the ban on cremation for Catholics.
Since then, the cemetery became part of a larger network of burial sites of Manila Memorial Park, Inc. with five other cemeteries under the Manila Memorial Park brand opened in other parts of the Philippines.
They have since expanded to Quezon City, Dasmariñas, Bulacan, Cebu, and Davao.
6. Golden Haven Memorial Park
Golden Haven Memorial Parks, a member of the Villar Group of Companies, is a subsidiary of Golden MV Holdings, Inc. one of the largest real estate companies in the Philippines in terms of market capitalization.
With over 30 branches nationwide since 1984, Golden Haven has taken the mantle as the premier death care service and hailed as the largest and most beautiful memorial park in the Philippines.
Aside from the beauty displayed across large areas of land, Golden Haven is the most complete death care provider in our country.
They offer heterogenic, unique, and superior services to give your departed loved ones the best deathcare in terms of value of investment, excellent service, gorgeous and clean parks that consists of landscaped gardens, paved walkways, water fountains, and extraordinary architectural designs.
For residential development, Golden MV Holdings operates through Bria Homes, which works to provide Filipinos with affordable house and lots.
Investing now
Whether from the six listed memorial parks above or other memorial lot providers unlisted above, there is a range of huge and pleasing parks ready to provide you and your loved ones with the perfect place for eternal rest.
The park may be present, but if one continues to be hesitant about investing in deathcare, then the opportunity will be all for naught as if the day comes for one’s life or the life of one’s loved one to end, and no pre-death arrangements are made, then one’s death is not only heartbreaking, it is also logistically and financially burdening.
To avoid such a dilemma, it is smart to invest now as deathcare property, just like buying an affordable house and lot is the perfect investment, whether for death preparedness or real estate. So invest now while the prices are cheaper.
Written by Cholo Hermoso
