OUT of the 54 quarry permits issued in Cebu Province, only two have operated within their designated quarrying permits, a Capitol official said on Tuesday, September 24, 2019.
Rodel Bontuyan, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) chief, said that majority of the quarry permittees in the Province were found to have violated their permits by quarrying beyond their designated quarry areas.
For instance, during the initial inspection by the PENRO, they found out that a quarrying site in the City of Naga has an unpaid volume of extraction of 1,353 cubic meters.
“The inside volume of their permit is 98,992 cubic meters. However, they extracted outside the permitted area of up to 3, 402 for a total of 102, 394 cubic meters. They were only able to pay (to the Provincial Treasurer’s Office) of 101,041 cubic meters,” Bontuyan said, during a meeting with the quarry permittees on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019.
Of the total number of quarry permits in the Province (situated in Consolacion, Minglanilla, Danao City, Carmen, San Fernando, Talisay City, Dalaguete, Alcantara, Bogo, and Asturias) only one in San Fernando, Cebu and one in Carmen have operated within their allowed quarrying areas.
However, the said quarry site in Carmen still has no proper drainage system.
Gov. Gwen Garcia, however, said the quarry permittees have the right to contest the PENRO’s initial findings if they could provide sufficient evidence such as receipts and permits to do so.
“The province is losing revenues because of these unprecedented operations,” she said.
According to PENRO, for every 5,000 cubic meters of unpaid volume of extraction, the permittees will have to pay P10,000.
Moreover, Garcia said, for every violation (per PENRO’s field observation) recorded to include the absence of a boundary marker, siltation pond, no proper drainage system, no proper benching pattern, the permittees will have to pay P10,000 per violation. (SunStar Cebu)