Chatto suspends quarrying

TRINIDAD, BOHOL, Philippines  — Governor Edgar Chatto has suspended the quarry operations in Barangay Kauswagan and washery or crushing facility in Barangay Banlasan in this town for lack of environmental compliance certificate (ECC).

Chatto’s move was based on the recommendations of the Bohol Environment Management Office (BEMO), which conducted an on-site inspection and found the facilities having no documents.

Leonilo Lafuente, head of the BEMO, said the governor is the sole authority to approve extraction and quarry permits pursuant to the Local Government Code of 1991.

What prompted Chatto to suspend the quarry operations, allegedly owned by town Councilor Pablo Molos, was due to the complaints of the Hugpong sa Mag-uumang Bol-anon (HUMABOL) that wanted these stopped for good due to environmental reasons, said Lafuente.

The suspension may be protracted because Molos had told BEMO that he has to secure and comply with the prerequisites in operating such facilities.

In his visit to BEMO the other day, he said he has no qualms about the suspension because he understood why the governor suspended both facilities even if the quarry has the ECC documents.

BEMO said that even if the quarry operations in Kauswagan have an ECC, the washery in Banlasan has none (ECC), and this must be secured separately.

The Freeman learned the farmers’ complaint against Molos started when they found out the water that runs through Kinan-oan River—supplying water to the farms—got murky allegedly as a result of the washery/crushing operations.

These operations have been there without the mitigating measure, said the farmers who eventually brought the matter to the Municipal Council.

Recently, the councilors adopted a committee report stating that Molos suggested he will have to divert the waste water in the washery to a pond nearby as a “filtering devise.”

But still the farmers were not contented, saying the washery should be stopped because it is situated at the river bank where the heavy and other equipment have been operating.

BEMO, meanwhile, said it was still verifying what it saw as “another quarry site” just near the site of the washery/crusher. (FREEMAN)