Friday, April 25, 2008 'Illegal' quarrying may spark violence in Mabalacat
MABALACAT -- A village chief has expressed his apprehension that the continuing quarry operation by a Tarlac-based operator in his barangay might result in bloodshed.
Barangay Calumpang chairman Jimmy Jimenez disclosed that a certain Danny Adrias, an official of Barangay San Vicente in Bamban, Tarlac, has allegedly been hauling quarry materials from their barangay since last month.
Adrias showed the barangay officials and Pampanga quarry checkers an old Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) stating that Barangay Calumpang is part of Bamban, Tarlac.
But Jimenez said the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Commission on Elections (Comelec), and the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) have already corrected the false title that declares the village as part of Bamban, Tarlac.
DILG Regional Director Josefina Estrella, in his certification last January 16 that "per record, Barangay Calumpang forms part of the Municipality of Mabalacat. It has an official Barangay Code Number 35409005.
Another certification issued by the Comelec on January 17 stated that "based on the 2007 Official Master List of Barangays on file in this office, Barangay Calumpang is included in the list of barangays comprising the municipality of Mabalacat, Pampanga."
On the 18th of the same month, NCIP secretary Eugenio Insigne, in his reply letter to Sunggod, said, "we are glad to inform you that we have already made the correction with regard to the location of Barangay Calumpang in the Municipality of Mabalacat."
NCIP Regional Director Salong Sunggod requested the DILG, NCIP national office, and Comelec to issue certification in order to correct the false entry in the CADT being shown by Adrias, Jimenez said.
Jimenez said he had already elevated the issue to the Pampanga Provincial Government.
Barangay Calumpang is a subject of boundary dispute between the provinces of Pampanga and Tarlac. (RGN)
