Quarrying in 3 Zambo Sur towns halted

DAVAO CITY—Hundreds of families depending on sand and gravel quarrying in at least three Zamboanga del Sur towns called on President Duterte to intervene, saying they were going hungry after the provincial government shut down quarry sites in their areas.

Town officials also said that billions of pesos worth of government projects had been suspended because of lack of sand and gravel.

But Gov. Antonio Cerilles stood by his closure order, saying it was aimed at curbing illegal quarrying. He said none of the operators had secured permits from the provincial government.

Those engaged in quarrying said they were puzzled because they had been paying extraction taxes to local governments.

Lorenzo Rollo, 54, a quarry worker in the past 20 years in Labangan town, said the shutdown last month was abrupt. The provincial government, he said, did not offer them any alternative livelihood.

Backhoe operator Salido Tumalis, 45, said it had been nearly a month since the quarry site where he was working in Barangay Bucong was closed.

“I have no work anymore. I have to find a new job,” Tumalis said.

“We are in a very difficult situation nowadays. We have no more income to feed our families,” Joel Namosaka, 34, who used to earn P300 a day as a quarry worker in Bucong, said in a telephone interview.

Labangan Mayor Ed Relacion said the stoppage of quarry operations in his town, a major source of construction aggregates in the province, displaced at least 600 families.

Since the stoppage, incidents of crime increased, specially theft cases, Relacion said. A meeting of the town’s peace and order council had been scheduled to discuss the problem, he added.

Mahayag Mayor Lorna Espina said some 200 families in her town were affected by the stoppage order.

“The local government of Mahayag is appealing to President Duterte and [Environment] Secretary Gina Lopez to give preferential attention to this particular problem,” Espina said.

Vice Mayor Nacianceno Pacalioga Jr. of Dumingag town said the stoppage also resulted in shortage of supply of sand and gravel “that even constructing a grave had become a serious problem.”

He said aggregates from other provinces were expensive, its prices more than double the preshutdown price of P300 to P400 per cubic meter of sand and gravel.

The lack of materials also suspended government projects in Dumingag, such as the construction of 44 senior high school buildings in 25 villages, and a bridge connecting the town to Zamboanga del Norte province, Pacalioga said.

The closure of the quarry sites came after mayors and village officials joined Rep. Divina Grace Yu in taking their oath with Mr. Duterte’s Kilusang Pagbabago and as members of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan members.

They were former members of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, which Cerilles heads in the province. Pacalioga said
the closure could have been politically motivated.

But Cerilles denied this, saying what he did was meant to stop illegal practices in the province.

He said the closure order was backed by a Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial board) resolution.

Vice Gov. Ace Cerilles, the governor’s son, said the board authorized Governor Cerilles to apply for an industrial permit to operate quarrying activities elsewhere in the province so the provincial government could sell aggregates at the same price before the closure. —ALLAN NAWAL WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE ALIPALA