Residents of Barangay Pitalo, San Fernando worry about their health since a ton of uncovered coal has been dumped in a lot in the barangay (FACEBOOK/CEBU FLASH REPORT)
Residents of a town in southern Cebu are complaining about the lack of action of barangay officials and the Environmental Management Bureau in Central Visayas (EMB-7) on the alleged dumping of coal in their area.
The stockpiled coal is dumped in an open area in Sitio Lacaron, Barangay Pitalo, San Fernando town, which is 38.4 km away from Cebu City.
A frustrated resident took to posting photos on Facebook of the dumped coal after their complaint was not acted upon since the coal was dumped last November 2015.
Estrella Manloloyo, 68, told Cebu Daily News that she and her neighbors have been complaining of black particles entering their houses.
Manloloyo lives at least 10 meters away from the privately owned lot of Anseca Development Corp. (ADC) where the coal is dumped.
She said she has advised her grandchildren to refrain from visiting her there.
“I am worried that my grandchildren might inhale the black particles which would be carried by the wind to their house each time a strong gust of wind hits the area,” she said in Cebuano.
The Facebook account of Cebu Flash Report first shared the photos of Pobre Tawn Kooh on February 6, where the latter appealed to the San Fernando municipal government to look into the stockpile of coal dumped in an open space without protective covering in Sitio Lacaron.
Manloloyo said one of their neighbors wrote EMB-7 Director William Cunado, asking him to look into their situation.
A photocopy of the handwritten letter of Violeta Musogi was obtained by CDN. The letter had a stamp from EMB-DENR, which indicates that the agency had received it on Nov. 4, 2015.
Musogi, however, did not receive any call or response from EMB-7 until today.
In a phone interview, Pitalo Barangay Captain Ludovico Iligan admitted there is indeed a stockpile of coal in Sitio Lacaron.
The 20-hectare lot owned by ADC have at least a ton of coal stockpiled there.
Iligan said the coals are what’s left after ADC transferred some four other tons placed there in November last year.
He said that he met with the man in charge of the lot two weeks after the coal was placed there and learned that it would only be placed there for 2 months.
He also learned recently that operational problems of the companies supplied by the coal owner led to the delay of the removal of the pile of coal.
Iligan also admitted that he didn’t know the owner of the coal.
Iligan said the man in charge of the lot told him recently that the coal will be removed by February 25.
Iligan said the barangay will impose sanctions and penalties on the owner of the coal if it will not be removed by then.
Meanwhile, Eddie Llamedo, regional spokesperson of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (DENR-7), said the private lot owner must have an existing agreement with the coal provider.
Asked if there’s a violation committed by the lot owner, Llamedo said DENR will still have to see what their agreement is.
ADC is a business enterprise engaged in earth-moving activities.