Illegal miners use spades to avoid detection
LUCENA CITY—Illegal rock miners at the slope of Mount Banahaw in Sariaya, Quezon, use spades to avoid detection by government authorities, an official of the Quezon Provincial Mining and Regulatory Board (PMRB) said on Monday.
They “conduct their business without the use of heavy equipment but only with spades and manual work,” said Webster Letargo, vice chair of the PMRB.
He said most rocks from illegal mining were often brought directly to buyers engaged in construction work in the
Calabarzon region and Metro Manila.
Letargo said all registered heavy equipment for quarry operations in Sariaya had color tags to prevent their use in unauthorized digging. “The heavy equipment outside its assigned area can be easily spotted so these guerrilla-style quarry operators use manual labor,” he said.
Residents in quarry sites were on the alert again after a series of typhoons and strong rains hit the province last year and memories of past landslides remained fresh in their memories.
“Every time there are strong rains, my children get nervous. They can’t sleep at night,” a housewife in Barangay Sto. Cristo told newsmen on Saturday.
At the height of Typhoon “Santi” in 2009, two youngsters drowned at a quarry site in Sto. Cristo when one of them slid on an unseen quarry hole. Her companion tried to rescue her but both of them drowned.
Villagers told newsmen that illegal quarry operations had returned to the slope of Banahaw. Letargo said his office had caught some illegal miners and heavy equipment operators outside of their area of jurisdiction.
He said the PMRB was coordinating with Sariaya local government officials to stop the return of unlawful rock mining.
The Sariaya quarry operation, like any mining activities in other parts of the province, is under the control and supervision of the PMRB, with the local government performing only ministerial functions as provided by the Local Government Code.
Letargo urged all government agencies and the communities to work together in the campaign to prevent any catastrophe as the rainy season approached.
Last year, mining authorities and local officials put to task the multitripartite monitoring team to cope with the resurgence of unlawful mining operations.
The team can revoke permits of quarry operators mining illegally such as operating outside of their licensed areas.
Letargo said the PMRB, police and Army would put up more checkpoints along Maharlika Highway to prevent the exit of illegally sourced rocks and aggregates.
Sinforoso Martinez Jr., Sariaya municipal environment and natural resources official, warned rock crushing plant operators not to use illegally sourced materials for their aggregate productions. “They can’t just buy raw materials without delivery receipts or we will cancel their business permits,” he said over phone.
