Sitoy: Cordova enforcing total ban on quarrying
A Worker backfills the quarry site in brgy Bangbang Cordova. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)
CORDOVA Mayor Adelino Sitoy said the municipal government has been enforcing a total ban on quarrying “all kinds of stones” as early as 2008 amid reports of coral stone excavation in one of the town’s coastal barangays.
In a phone interview yesterday, Sitoy said the town through a municipal council resolution called for the quarry ban after noticing that the operations caused degradation in rock and soil formation in many places.
“We in Cordova have long called for a ban. But we’re not the issuing authority on permits. It’s the Office of the Governor’s,” he said.
“But for our part here in the municipal government, we have not issued a single permit since the ban,” the mayor said.
Sitoy sent Cebu Daily News a copy of a 2011 municipal council resolution which provides for the “total ban of all kinds of stone quarrying activities within the town of Cordova.”
Permits
He said it reinforces an earlier resolution made by the council in 2008.
The resolution also called on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-7) in the region and the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) to stop issuing quarry permits in Cordova town.
The resolution stated that the ill effects of stone quarrying is evident in some barangays such as in Gabi, Ibabao, Cogon and San Miguel where large, uneven holes” have started to appear.
“Cordova sits on rocks and stones without which Cordova may sink to the bottom of the sea which is also the case for the entire island of Mactan,” it said.
The resolution then was approved by Cordova Vice Mayor Rodrigo Jumao-As and Sitoy.
Early this month, fisherfolk families, of barangay Bangbang in Cordova complained about an ongoing excavation of coral stone at a private lot in their area which they fear may cause health problems.
Consent
The drilling, they said, uses chemicals that may pose health risks to their children.
On learning about the report, Sitoy said he sent a team to personally check the site.
He said the team was met by representatives of Solid Stone Corp. who showed an Environmental Compliance Certificate from the Environmental Management Bureau for a “Site Clearing and Leveling” project.
“They have the consent of the owner of the lot and the ECC. We’ll plan our next step of action against this,” he said.
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