Setting Stone

Escuela Taller’s restoration of the Paco Park ossuary sets the tone for the full conservation program of the national park.

- Angel Yulo

The usual suspects of students practicing for group presentations sauntered across Paco Park’s central garden that February afternoon we visited. Unknown to them, another set of bright-eyed Manileños by the perimeter walls of the circular fortress were also practicing for school. A team of 20 hard hats from Escuela Taller, composed of nine students and 11 graduates, were restoring the ossuary of Manila’s former municipal cemetery.

Built by Spanish friars of the Dominican order in 1822, the 4100-square-meter Paco Park was meant to be the resting place of Intramuros’ dearly departed. Five tiers of burial niches (three levels remain visible today due to flooding) contained the remains of cholera victims of the early 1800s, high society in the late 1800s, and four national heroes after their executions: the Gomburza priests and José Rizal, whose remains were moved to Luneta.

Internments were ceased in 1912 and the Paco structure was declared a national park in 1966. Escuela Taller is a technical consultant for the National Parks Development Committee’s (NPDC) P12-million conservation program which began in 2015. The Spanish government even turned over a copy of the park’s original plans from their national archives.