CAGAYAN de Oro City's income from quarries as of the first and second quarters of this year has drastically fallen due to the slow approval of quarry permits, a city councilor said.
Councilor Enrico Salcedo said on Monday, October 9, that compared to last year's income generated from quarrying fees, this year's income has decreased by more than a million.
Data from the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (Clenro) revealed that the income produced from quarrying fees for the months of January to August of 2017 totaled P772,650, a huge drop compared to the P2,823,680 collected during the same period last year.
"Tungod kay until now ang renewal bagal kaayo. Hangtod karon wala na renew ang quarry permit kay tungod sa MGB (Mines and Geosciences Bureau). Mao nang gipatawag namo sila kay unsa'y hinungdan nganong dugay kaayo ang approval sa permit. Tungod kay ang mo-approve man gyud diha kay ang CMRB (City Mining Regulatory Board). Ang chairman sa CMRB ang director sa MGB, si Director Rex Monsanto (It's because until now, the renewal of the permit is slow. Until now, the quarry permit has not been renewed because of MGB. That's why we called their attention to find out the reason why the approval of permit is taking a long time. It's because the CMRB is supposed to approve the permits. The chairman of CMRB is also the director of MGB, Director Rex Monsanto)," Salcedo said.
He added that according to CMRB, one of the reasons for the slow approval of quarrying permits is the violations in the mining plan.
"Ingon sila naay violation man gyud. Kung naay violation, i-fine nato sila. Tutal nag-fine naman sila, tabangan sila kung unsaon masunod nila ang mining program. Ang nahitabo karon, dugay kaayo ma-approve ang ilang permit tungod kay talagsa ra ga-meeting ang CMRB (They said there's a violation. If there's one, they should be fined. Since they were fined, they should help the violators in following the mining program. What happened now is that the CMRB only organized their meetings once)," Salcedo said.
Vice Mayor Raineir Joaquin Uy has directed the Committee on Environment, Committee on Ways and Means, and the Committee on Trade and Commerce to look into the decrease.