Priest, townsfolk protest quarrying in Aurora
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Residents and a Catholic priest are protesting quarry operations in Aurora that supply materials to a government-funded project at the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport (Apeco) for the risks it brings to the quarrying site, a source of irrigation water.
In a petition, residents asked Environment Secretary Ramon Paje and environment officials in Central Luzon and Aurora to stop the company, Rocky Mountain, from extracting and hauling sand, gravel and boulders from the Calabgan River in Barangay Bianoan in Casiguran.
Fr. Jose Francisco Talaban, the parish priest of Casiguran, sent his appeal to the provincial government’s environment and natural resources officer, Ma. Teresa de Luna.
In a phone interview, Talaban said President Benigno Aquino’s promise of “daang matuwid (straight and narrow road) … [is] not felt in northern Aurora because government agencies in the province are not heeding Mr. Aquino’s authority.”
In their separate documents, the residents claimed that village leaders did not consult residents when the quarry permit of Rocky Mountain was renewed.
They claimed that the company did not present a plan detailing the volume of materials it will retrieve from the river or how it would rehabilitate the quarry site in accordance with mining laws.
Talaban questioned the quarrying because the same site had just been dredged under a P30-million flood control project by the Department of Public Works and Highways in 2009. The quarrying there resumed for the fourth time in mid-June, he said.
Residents reported that their household wells had dried up and irrigation for some 700 hectares of rice lands in nearby villages of Esteves and Dibet, had diminished.
In a phone interview, De Luna said she could not revoke the permit since the issuing authority was the governor. Rocky Mountain’s permit was in order, she said.
De Luna said she sent a team last Monday to investigate. She declined to disclose the findings. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon
