READ: Public cemetery caretaker, among Davao City's 'model retirees'.

Rodolfo Calvo had to work even on weekends, sometimes on Sundays, to oversee the Tibungco public cemetery

MODEL RETIREE. Public cemetery caretaker Rodolfo Calvo worked even during weekends for the past 24 years. Photo from Davao City PIO

MANILA, Philippines – For the last 24 years, Rodolfo Calvo worked quietly in a place in Davao City hardly frequented by the living.

Over the years, he ably ensured order at the Tibungco public cemetery, where his tasks as caretaker included deciding on where the dead should be buried.

Calvo had been credited with organizing the public cemetery so that people would not get lost in the labyrinthine 3-hectare site, especially during All Souls' Day and All Saints' Day.

"It's not even an 8-to-5 job. Someone told me, I do not have to work during weekends, especially Sundays, but what can you do when you are needed and called out on a Sunday and 5 in the morning at that?” Calvo said.

The caretaker of Davao City's public cemetery will be among the "model retirees" that the city government will honor on Monday, September 26. Some of these retirees had served for as long as 44 years, the Davao City information office said in a statement.

DAVAO CITY CEMETERY. The public cemetery in Davao City. Photo from Davao City PIO

Calvo is one of 69 city government retirees to be feted by the city government on Monday.

City Administrator Zuleika Lopez said the model retirees "gave and rendered their best civil service to the city government in Davao."

The city government, through its Program in Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (PRAISE), will give incentives to the model employees.

The program gives P20,000 cash incentives to those who served the city for a maximum of 40 years; P15,000 for those with at least 30 years of service, P10,000 for those who served at least 20 years, and P5,000 for those who served at least 10 years.

SOURCE: RAPPLER