AFTER taking aerial shots as part of its preliminary evaluation, the Cebu Provincial Government has now started its actual inspection of all quarry sites.

Three teams composed of Capitol engineers and personnel of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office started taking a closer look at quarry sites on Monday, Sept. 2, 2019.

After assuming office last June 30, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia had issued Memorandum Circular 4-2019, which aims to put a stop to the “unabated” illegal quarrying activities and prevent the “further degradation” of the environment which may lead to calamities, destruction of properties and loss of lives.

The teams, under the supervision of Provincial Engineer Hector Jamora, are expected to come up with a report on their findings by the end of the week.

Among their responsibilities is to check if operations have remained within the approved quarry boundaries as stated in the permits.

Aside from this, the inspection teams will also provide a comparison between what was actually paid by permittees at the Provincial Treasurer’s Office in terms of extraction fees and the actual extraction volume.

“If there is such a huge discrepancy, it can only mean one thing: they recycled the delivery receipts; the Provincial Government is not getting its rightful due,” Garcia said.

The Capitol will also be recomputing the price per cubic meter in terms of extraction fee collections.

At present, the Province is collecting P20 per cubic meter for limestone extractions based on the consumer price index (CPI) of 2008.

Garcia said there is a need to update the fees by adding the difference of the 2018 CPI and the CPI of 2008.

Likewise, the Capitol will go back to collecting an environmental and management fee of P5 per cubic meter, instead of P5,000 per hectare.

Once the governor gets the teams’ reports, the Province will call for another meeting with quarry permittees. RTF