Monday, July 28, 2008 Priest leads fight vs Mt. Polis quarrying By Gloria Tuazon
MT. POLIS, Mountain Province -- Along the stretch of road passing through Bontoc, Mountain Province to Banaue, Ifugao are the inevitable sights of heavy machinery pushing their steel arms to dig deeper into the sides of the mountains.
The metal screens positioned here and there to strain the diggings and separate them into piles of sand, gravels and rocks and sold as aggregate commodities. The entrepreneurs gain, but the land and the watershed which is located in the area suffer.
And everybody who benefits from the gift of life in the form of water suffer with it.
This has been a long standing problem since the opening of the road. People saw the potential of the business, tried it, was approved and given permits and business boomed. The license lapsed, others came and Sumigar bleeds to this day. Concerned people from both provinces lobbied to stop the "mutilation" of the forest, but their persistence and efforts are remain unheeded efforts.
To date, the heavy machineries are still inching their way through the area, scarring the land further and adding to the threats on the watershed which covers most of the Cordilleran Region from Mountain Province, Ifugao and Benguet. The watershed is the main reason for concern of the protection of the mountains and the mossy forest around and beside it. With continued quarrying, the soil erodes and when the rains come, the sediment and siltation flows down to water sources, polluting them.
The circle of life is disturbed both in the forest, the rivers and the communities and people who derive life from it.
Rev. Fr. Valentin Dimoc, rector of the St. Mary Magdalene Church in Lagawe who heads the office of the Social Action Development Commission (SADC) of the Catholic Vicariate of Bontoc-Lagawe, is a "fighter" for the cause. He has been working, together with supporters, for the stoppage of the quarrying, illegal logging and the unbounded expansion of agricultural land into mossy forests and watershed areas.
He has been threatened and called foul names but is unpacified and will push it until people see the long term effect of the denudation and destruction of the mountains.
