1,000 villagers protest quarrying by councilor’s firm

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BONTOC, Southern Leyte—At least 1,000 residents in two villages are asking the national government to stop the sand and gravel extraction operations of a councilor.

Residents of Barangays (villages) Guinsangaan and Salog were forced to write a petition to President Benigno Aquino and Environment Secretary Ramon Paje and Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo after local officials allegedly ignored their appeal.

Rodel Bontuyan, a leader of the group Movement Against Quarrying in Bontoc, Southern Leyte, said protests against the quarrying were growing and a petition had been signed by residents.

In the petition, more than 1,000 residents also asked Mr. Aquino to investigate the quarrying and bring to court public officials involved in it.

The quarry operation is being run by a firm owned by Bontoc Councilor Arturo Cuadra Sr., according to Councilor Cleofe Abinion, chairman of the town council’s committee on environment.

But Abinion said Cuadra had started the quarry operation even before he was elected to the town council.

Cuadra also maintained that his firm had not violated any provision of its permit to operate.

“We have applied for industrial permit and as an industrial permit holder, we can extract more than a thousand cubic meters of sand and gravel. We have no limit on the volume of SAG (sand and gravel) extracted,” he said.

Cuadra said his application for an industrial permit was approved in October last year. He added that he started exporting sand and gravel in February.

In a petition, the residents asked Mr. Aquino, Robredo and Paje to stop the sand and gravel extraction in Guinsangaan and Salog, which they described as a “clear and blatant exploitation of the town’s natural resources.”

The petition said sand and gravel from Bontoc were brought to Cebu aboard a barge.

Councilor Abinion, defending Cuadra, scored the group protesting the quarrying, saying the protesters should have brought their case to the town council instead of using social media to air their grievances.

She said she asked the town council to answer the complaint but her fellow council members didn’t want to because politics was the driving force behind the group of protesters.

But she said “even if it is politically motivated, we could not dismiss it because it is a legitimate issue.”

Bontuyan denied the allegation that politicians were behind his group. “This is not politically motivated and this is purely a personal crusade. Politics will just compromise this personal crusade,” he said.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in Eastern Visayas promised to look into the complaint.

Ben Miñoza, MGB regional science specialist, said on Thursday the bureau would complete an investigation by next week. The investigation was conducted upon the request of the Sangguniang Bayan of Bontoc.