EDITORIAL - Public safety risk

The provincial governor has stressed that quarrying is needed for construction. This is also a point raised by players in the extractive industries: the country needs raw materials, many of which come from the earth, for construction and other economic activities.

With deaths during Typhoon Rolly blamed partly on quarrying, however, President Duterte has approved a recommendation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to suspend quarrying in the town of Guinobatan in Albay. The other day the President had visited the town, where residents complained that boulders indiscriminately piled along three rivers by quarrying firms were washed away by lahar and floodwaters from Mayon Volcano at the height of Rolly, aggravating the destruction from the typhoon. The residents lamented that this always happened during typhoons in their town.

The President stressed that he was suspending judgment on the issue until the DENR finishes its investigation. Albay Gov. Al Francis Bichara has said that dikes on the slopes of Mayon Volcano had collapsed from the heavy rainfall spawned by Rolly. Bichara also doubted that the quarrying firms had left their stockpiles along the rivers for floods to wash away.

Quarrying around Mayon, however, will have to be rationalized, considering how prone it is to mudslides. Volcanic debris keeps accumulating along the slopes of Mayon, one of the country’s most active volcanoes. During heavy monsoon rains and typhoons, the debris is easily loosened and washed away, rampaging down to the communities around the volcano.

In December 2006, for example, powerful Typhoon Reming triggered massive mudslides from Mayon, leaving over 1,200 people dead or missing in Albay. More than a hundred of the fatalities were residents of Guinobatan. The area around the volcano is also regularly rocked by earthquakes. Disturbing the earth around the volcano through quarrying activities inevitably raises the risks to public safety during natural calamities. Following Rolly’s onslaught, the government will have to improve safety protocols for communities around the volcano.