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ROCKY ROUTE Large rocks arrived with avalanches of volcanic ash and mud from the slopes of Mayon volcano caused by heavy rains and fierce winds brought by Typhoon “Rolly” when it struck Albay province on Sunday. Rocks and volcanic flow washed away houses and rendered roads impassable in the village of San Francisco, Guinobatan city, prompting complaints against quarries in the province that President Duterte ordered investigated. —GEORGE GIO BRONDIAL
LEGAZPI CITY, Albay, Philippines – Quarrying around Mount Mayon will be stopped immediately as ordered by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Monday evening, but only once the agency sends a formal communication to the provincial government of Albay, the Mines and Geosciences. Bureau (MGB) said on Tuesday.
Guillermo Molina, director of the MGB for the Bicol region, said that he received instructions from the Secretary of the Environment, Roy Cimatu, to suspend quarrying in Albay and investigate the complaints of the residents of the city of Guinobatan, who informed the president Rodrigo Duterte on Monday that quarrying was the trigger for devastating avalanches of lahar (volcanic ash and mud) from the slopes of Mt. Mayon.
Ordered probe
Duterte, who toured the storm damage in Guinobatan Monday afternoon after Typhoon “Rolly” (international name: Goni) struck Bicol on Sunday, promised an investigation.
Upon their arrival in Manila, the president ordered Cimatu and Public Works Secretary Mark Villar to investigate the quarries around Mayon.
Cimatu immediately ordered the quarries around the volcano to be stopped and suspended the permits of 12 groups operating in the area.
He said he learned from the initial investigation that the quarry operators had left their stocks in the river channels. When Rolly hit, floodwaters and lahar flow from the Mayon slopes rushed into the canals with the reservoirs, which also contained rocks, he said.
As the waterways swelled, the muddy, lahar-laden waters flooded villages and washed away houses, killing four people, Cimatu said.
In reality, the lahar flood washed away or buried at least six people in the villages of Travesia and San Fernando in Guinobatan.
On Tuesday, Albay Governor Al Francis Bichara said in an interview that he welcomed the president’s order to suspend quarries in his province. “Any order from the president will be followed,” he said.
Bad for business
Bichara, however, added that he needed a formal communication on the suspension of the DENR in order to consult with the provincial board on the matter.
He explained that suspending quarrying would significantly affect the construction business in the province. “It will affect government infrastructure projects,” he said.
Albay supplies sand and aggregates to all of Bicol and the Visayas, Bichara said.
Molina said he would meet with the governor Tuesday to brief him on the president’s order.
He said he would assess the condition of all river channels with links to the slopes of the Mayon during the suspension of quarrying. The results, he said, should prove reports that some river channels are heavily silted and have leveled with the river banks, allowing water or lahar to break up the banks and flood surrounding areas during heavy rains. .
New policy
After the assessment, Molina said a policy would be developed to regulate the extraction of lahar and other volcanic materials around Mayon.
MGB records show that of the 101 quarry operators in the area, 100 have permits issued by the provincial government and one by the bureau of mines.
Under DENR rules, quarry operators must have environmental clearance certificates before local governments can grant them business permits. The rules also allow operators to extract sand and gravel on no more than 5 hectares of land in a river channel.
In Albay, quarry operators work in areas totaling 500 hectares in seven river channels around Mayon.
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