SARIAYA, QUEZON?Lucena Bishop Emilio Marquez called on Quezon officials to stop the widespread illegal quarry operations at the outskirts of Sariaya town.

Tragedies are waiting to happen if government officials ignore the plea of villagers living along the slopes of Mt. Banahaw in this town, the bishop said in a homily on Sept. 14, during the Mass in celebration of the feast of Sariaya?s icon, the Santo Cristo de Burgos.

Last month, after a series of typhoons in Luzon, David Suarez, assistant secretary at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) urged the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB) and town officials to stop quarrying.

The urgent calls from villagers as echoed by Marquez and Suarez, however, fell on deaf ears.

Moratorium

Francisco Sevilla Jr., PMRB vice chair, identified one quarry operator as Rene Arellano, holder of a mining permit, whose site in Barangay Sto. Cristo is where two children drowned when Typhoon ?Santi? struck.

On Nov. 3, Quezon Governor Rafael Nantes issued a cease-and-desist order against Arellano, while on Nov. 13, Environment Secretary Lito Atienza ordered a stop to all quarry operations in Sariaya.

Atienza directed the creation of a team composed of representatives from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Environmental Management Bureau and DENR?s provincial office in Quezon to make an inventory of quarry operations in Sariaya and to prepare an impact assessment report detailing the imminent danger that they pose on public life and properties.

Atienza told the team to see if the quarry operators complied with environmental laws.

Construction boom

Since the construction boom in the 1980s, Sariaya has been a source of high-quality aggregates for Metro Manila and Southern Tagalog.

Record from Sevilla showed that there are 35 mining permits and 22 expired ones in Sariaya.

Dondon Martinez, Sariaya environment officer, however, said over the phone only 10 quarry operators have renewed their license for this year.

Legal and illegal quarrying thrived in the villages of Sampaloc II, Sto. Cristo, Tumbaga, Canda, Limbon and Castañas.

Villagers said there was wanton extraction of cobbles, stones and boulders in these villages situated on both sides of the Janagdong and Lagnas rivers.

The Sariaya quarry operation, like any mining activities in other parts of the province, is under the control and supervision of PMRB based in Lucena City, with the local government performing only ministerial functions as provided for under the Local Government Code.

The situation has long been assailed by Sariaya government officials? complaining that at stake is the security of the residents.

Sevilla said his office saw no problem in the devolution of its power to the local government.

?We both have good intentions and that is to protect lives and the environment. We just need to talk and thresh out the problem,? he said.

The local government has been limiting quarry operations to the riverbed as part of its flood control program.

Illegal quarry operators, however, entice owners of low-yielding farms, particularly coconut plantations, to sell the land to them, which end up as quarry sites.

In Sampaloc II, an illegal quarry site carved a former coconut plantation into a vast river of boulders of varying sizes left by unlawful operators.

?The man-made rivers from illegal quarry operations pose a serious danger in case of flash floods from Banahaw,? said environmentalist lawyer Sheila de Leon of Tanggol Kalikasan-Southern Tagalog.

Sampaloc 2 Barangay Captain Aristeo Ilao denied that illegal quarries operate in his place.

?What we have here are legal quarry operations, all allowed by the PMRB,? he said.

Dialogue

Quezon Representative Proceso Alcala said he had been conducting a dialogue with DENR officials in Manila to assess the quarry operations in his district.

?What we ought to do is balance the economic welfare of the people, the contribution of Sariaya quarry to the government?s development program and our obligation to protect the environment,? he said.

Sariaya folk, local officials and environmentalists welcomed Atienza?s order to temporarily stop the quarry operations.

?Now is the time for the national government to give power to the local government to manage the quarry operations,? said Mina Moron, chair of Alay Kapwa Rural Women Multipurpose Cooperative, who has been leading the struggle to stop the rampant illegal quarry operations in her town.

The villagers said quarry operations pose health threats such as respiratory illnesses caused by dust particles from rock crushers and sand piles.

Sariaya Councilor Oliver Villapando, chair of the town council?s committee on environment and natural resources, said the DENR move to suspend quarry activities had long been pushed by the local government.