Oro supports rehab of Iponan watershed

THE City Government of Cagayan de Oro issued its commitment to rehabilitate the Iponan River Watershed, as it signed on Thursday a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the Iponan Watershed Multi-Partite Monitoring and Law Enforcement.

Councilor Emmanuel Abejuela, who represented Mayor Vicente Emano, said the City Government is supportive and committed to what has been cited and specified in the MOA.

Abejuela said the local governments, under the MOA, will take the lead in convening affected local communities to participate in public dialogue and information dissemination activities and enforcement and regulation of small-scale mining activities.

Aside from the City Government, other signatories to the MOA include the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the Environmental Management Bureau, the City Government of Iligan, Provincial Government of Misamis Oriental, Department of Interior and Local Government, police and the military including the National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Immigration and environment group Sulog.

The parties also agree to implement actions consistent with and in accordance with the participating agencies’ respective mandate, law, rules and regulations.

Abejuela said the MOA signing is also a guarantee that incoming officials should be committed to pursue what has been signed.

The MOA seeks to put an end to the unabated illegal mining operations along the Iponan River Watershed.

The parties also agreed to immediately put a stop to all illegal and destructive mining and other extractive activities within the Iponan Watershed and to review compliance to Environmental Compliance Certificate issued by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, including its terms and conditions, and to immediately issue cancellation and cease and desist orders in cases of violations.

The signing of the MOA came after a series of raids has been conducted, resulting in the arrest of several Chinese nationals found to be illegally extracting gold minerals and working without necessary legal working documents.