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The governor of Cebu, Gwendolyn García. (Dale Israel / Inquirer Visayas)
CEBU CITY –– More crushed dolomite rocks will be shipped from the city of Alcoy, south of Cebu, to give the shores of Manila Bay the appearance of a white sand beach.
But Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said the province would do its best to stop the transport of 10,500 wet metric tons of dolomites supposedly to cover a 500-meter stretch of shoreline.
In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Garcia said the cease and desist order he issued against Dolomite Mining Corporation (DMC) and Philippine Mining Services Corporation (PMSC) was intended to stop the shipment of synthetic fine sand to Manila. .
The governor has sent the Provincial Directorate of Environment and Natural Resources of Alcoy to carry out a visual inspection of the mining site.
The inspection is part of the investigation initiated by the provincial government after the transport of 3,500 wet metric tons of crushed dolomitic rocks for the aesthetic transformation of Manila Bay.
García threatened to sue everyone involved in the extraction of dolomitic rocks in Alcoy.
The Office of Mines and Geosciences in Central Visayas (MGB-7) previously issued two Mineral Transportation Permits (OTP) to PMSC authorizing the shipment of dolomites to Manila worth P1.64 million.
There are three pending OTPs prior to MGB-7.
García clarified that he did not stop the operations of the DMC and PMSC, whose activities in Alcoy were covered by a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) with the government for 25 years.
He said he just wanted to stop the national sale of dolomite rocks by the two sister mining companies that are not covered by the MPSA.
“Then Usec. (Benny) Antiporda, it’s not the province’s system that sucks. It’s the way that PMSC goes beyond what is allowed by MPSA, ”Garcia said in reaction to statements by environmental officials in Manila.
Garcia said he would issue a clarifying executive order that would specifically halt DMC and PMSC operations conducted outside of the program stipulated by the MPSA and the government.
The MPSA, he said, specifically detailed the export of dolomite mined in the city of Alcoy to Japan and South Korea with specific years and volume of minerals to be mined from a specific area.
He suspected that the national sale of dolomite triggered the extraction of more minerals than those established in the MPSA.
The Capitol, Garcia said, is investigating the volume of dolomite mined outside of the agreement.
Given that the activities of national sale of dolomite are outside the MPSA, he said that the quarry does not have an assessment of its impact on the environment in Alcoy, which is a critical area for being the natural habitat of endangered siloy birds. extinction and endemic. or the Cebu Black Shama.
García said that the provincial government, the municipality of Alcoy and the barangays were deprived of their participation in the profits from their natural resources, since the national sale takes place outside the MPSA.
The governor said she already knew about the national sale of dolomites since August 2019 after she took office and issued a memorandum to stop all quarrying activities throughout the island of Cebu.
Last week, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) began to pour “white sand” into a 500-meter stretch of the naturally gray coastline of Manila Bay as part of the rehabilitation program launched by the Secretary of the Environment. Ambiente, Roy Cimatu, in January 2019 to save the bay. decades of pollution and urban decay.
LZB
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