Quarrying site for dolomite rocks in Alcoy town, southern Cebu | Photo courtesy of MGB – 7
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The local chief executive of Alcoy town in southern Cebu on Saturday, September 12, has confirmed that their town has not received any share from mining operators sourcing and selling dolomite rocks.
“Tinuud nga wala mi share. (It’s true, we don’t have any share over it),” Mayor Michael Angelo Sestoso told reporters in a teleconference on Saturday.
Sestoso’s statement came days after Governor Gwendolyn Garcia pointed out that the local government of Alcoy, a fifth-class municipality located 102 kilometers southeast of Cebu City, was unable to earn from the companies mining and processing dolomite rocks there.
The Capitol has intervened to address the issues surrounding the controversial transport of crushed dolomite rocks to Manila Bay.
Sestoso, for his part, said they would support all plans from the provincial government to assist their locality.
“The municipal government of Alcoy is supportive of the orders our governor has made in relation to mining dolomite rocks,” said Sestoso in Cebuano.
The mayor also said the local government of Alcoy had requested the firms mining and selling dolomite to cooperate with orders from the Capitol.
“We will be meeting with representatives from the mining companies next week but we already notified them about the Capitol’s orders,” said Sestoso in Cebuano.
“But we would be happy if the firms will fully cooperate with what the provincial government has come up with,” he added.
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Central Visayas (MGB-7) earlier confirmed that raw materials used to transform Manila Bay into an artificially made white-sand beach were sourced from a supplier quarrying dolomite in Barangay Pugalo, Alcoy.
Over 3,500 metric tons of crushed dolomite were shipped out from Alcoy, Cebu for the controversial project in Manila.
The rocks, they said, were transported by a mineral processing company also based in Alcoy.
This development prompted the Capitol to issue a cease-and-desist order to the two mining operators in Alcoy, directing them to stop the shipment of processed dolomite to the country’s capital.
READ MORE: Garcia: CDO covers only transport, selling of dolomite in local market
Garcia also called for several meetings with local officials from Alcoy and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to shed light on the matter.
The governor expressed concern that continued quarrying in the mountains of Alcoy could eventually lead to a deadly landslide, citing the tragedy in Naga City last 2018.
Sestoso said an inter-agency team from various national government agencies and the Capitol would conduct quarterly inspection at the quarrying site to check signs of soil erosion. /dbs