Parish wins in fight vs. illegal quarrying
SAN FABIAN–The vigilance and activism of the members of the local Church community, led by their parish priest, paid off in its fight against wanton quarrying along the long stretch of Bued River.
According to Father Oliver Mendoza, parish priest, the provincial government recently issued a cease and desist order to the provincial environment office stopping quarrying in the area in response to their complaints.
He said the complaints and the problems posed by the indiscriminate quarrying in the town was raised to him initially during his celebration of the Holy Mass in the barangays.
Subsequently, the parish, through his initiative, held a public dialogue for a ventilation of the people’s sentiments as well as the quarry operators’ side.
Fr. Mendoza said he was initially dismayed at the refusal of the officials of the local Department of Environment and Natural office to cooperate and merely claimed the latter didn’t know the identities of the quarrying operators. Hence no operator attended the dialogue.
He was curtly told to get the list from the provincial government. “How is it possible that you don’t know who these people are? How can you monitor them if you don’t know them?” Mendoza recalled asking them.
The Mines and Geo-sciences Board earlier issued a letter confirming that the quarrying operations in the area were not being regulated.
“The Church’s stand is if there should be quarrying, it should be regulated,” Fr. Mendoza added.
He said under the law, quarrying must be one deep meter only but in the Bued River, operators used backhoe heavy equipment and the quarrying sites were already three meters deep.
He said the operators who were eventually identified vowed to help in the rehabilitation of the quarry site.
Fr. Mendoza cited Mayor Mojamito Libunao Jr. and the Sangguniang Bayan (municipal council) members for their prompt and positive responses and official endorsements of their complaints to the provincial office.
He said as result of the indiscriminate quarrying operations, 23 houses near the riverbanks were washed away by rampaging floodwaters during Typhoon “Pepeng”. #
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