Inside Manila's cemetery slums: Russian blogger captures life among the dead

A Russian travel blogger has sparked conversation after documenting how some Filipino families live inside a Manila cemetery, sleeping directly on graves. In a video shared on Instagram, Tony Starr showed cramped tombs turned into makeshift homes, with children’s backpacks resting on burial slabs. “This is literally a grave. And here are kids’ backpacks. The conditions are terrible,” he said.

The footage captured people of all ages—from toddlers to the elderly—living among the dead in the city’s sprawling public cemeteries. Many families have no other shelter, so they occupy stone crypts and mausoleums, cooking, sleeping, and raising children in spaces meant for the deceased. The video has drawn attention to the extreme poverty that forces such arrangements.

This isn’t the first time a traveler has highlighted harsh realities in Asia. Another blogger recently described Bangladesh as a “branch of hell on Earth,” showing the Buriganga River’s banks buried under plastic and waste. Starr’s post, however, focuses on a specific, jarring image of daily survival—where the line between home and grave has all but disappeared.