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The Office of Mines and Geosciences-Central Visayas admitted to having issued permits to a mining company based in Alcoy, Cebu, to allow the transport of more than 3,000 metric tons of processed dolomite that was used to make the “white sand” that was thrown on the coast. from Manila Bay earlier this week.
In a statement, MGB 7 director Loreto Alburo said that the dolomite that was dumped in Manila Bay came from Dolomite Mining Corporation (DMC) in Barangay Pugalo, Alcoy city.
Alburo admitted that they issued a mineral transportation permit to the Philippine Mining Service Corporation, which processes the dolomite that DMC mines, to transport around 3,500 metric tons of processed dolomite to Manila.
Alburo said that DMC currently has a Mineral Production Participation Agreement (MPSA) with the government to exploit the area for 25 years or until 2030.
The raw dolomite mined by DMC is delivered to its sole buyer, the Philippine Mining Service Corporation (PMSC) for processing, Alburo added.
In addition to DMC, the PMSC plant in Alcoy received a Mineral Processing Permit (MPP) from MGB and is currently in its second five-year period that will expire in 2023.
The MPP has a maximum validity of 25 years.
“Dolomite materials from Cebu have been mined, produced and shipped to various buyers following appropriate laws and regulatory procedures,” added Alburo.
Malacañang has faced a wave of criticism over the Manila Bay rehabilitation project carried out at a time during the coronavirus crisis.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque explained that funds for the project were already allocated even before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Environmentalists and fishermen also described the remodeling of Manila Bay, which cost the government around 349 million pesos, as destructive in the Cebu area where the “sand” was obtained, while hardly addressing environmental degradation problems. of the Bay. (JKV)
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