Manila (AsiaNews/SCMP) – Some 200 homeless families are currently living in La Loma Catholic Cemetery, Manila's oldest burial ground. But yesterday though, the residents had to put up with the living coming to visit their dearly departed for All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. Still, for them it is a temporary inconvenience to be endured in exchange for rent-free living in a place that is clean, neat and relatively safe.

On a typical day, La Loma is a great place to stay, with its lush greenery and clean air, said Ronald Tiongson, 36, who works at the cemetery. "It's restful and the people are helpful and friendly," he said.

It is a playground to the hordes of children living there. Its empty alleys are ideal for bikes. Kids play hopscotch among the tombs and perch atop monuments to fly kites.

There is no electricity, but many mausoleums are equipped with a toilet and bath, drawing water from rainwater tanks.

Mr Tiongson points to a mausoleum that curiously bears his family name. "We're not related," he said, but "I used to sleep inside there as a child".

Mr Tiongson's father, Froilan, 66, is a second-generation undertaker who is careful to stress that he now lives "just outside" the cemetery, while his late wife is buried "somewhere inside".

Ronald, the youngest of three sons, followed his father into the undertaking business.

"There are many jobs available here," he says, "painting tombs, planting and trimming hedges, doing masonry work, carrying visitors on tricycles, burying the dead and disinterring their bones."

"I'm not afraid to crawl inside tombs to gather the bones," he said. "I'm more scared of the living because they can do you harm."