Quarrying and trucking

Ben Contreras

A P750 thousand income in a month should have warranted an investigation by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau. To make nonenewal of quarrying permits an excuse is a weak alibi. Like I said, a booming city requires huge quantities of sand and gravel and filling materials. P750 thousand is a joke!

But nobody seems to care — not the city government, not the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and definitely not MGB. It looks like everything is coordinated, and some people benefited.

MGB’s Rex Monsanto should do better than just call a meeting and then not follow the schedule. From 3 pm, it was moved earlier to 2 pm without everyone being properly informed except, probably, the big and favored ones.

Did the vice mayor call for an investigation into the dismal income of the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office? What for? If he wants to know the truth, all he has to do is ask about the 20 dump trucks and five backhoes owned by his father, what and where they are quarrying.

The syndicate in this industry is big and influential, all government officials. Daghan pabuang-buang kay nakasapi man.

The public is not being told of the truth, not MGB, not Clenro, not our mayor, not the city council, not Sulog (Is it still alive?), and not their paid propagandists. Everybody’s happy, so to speak. Well, wait for karma to seep in. It has just begun.

And by the way, who are the councilors into quarrying and trucking? Is this the reason why nobody gets investigated? Who are the congressmen into big-time quarrying? How come they’re able to lord it over the rest? Who are the untouchables?

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If we are going through a double whammy of a low water pressure and traffic woes, it is because of our complacency and I-don’t-give-a-s—t attitude. A lot of people are lying about the COWD, Rio Verde and Metropac deal.

Money changed hands, and that’s certain. Who got more and who got less wouldn’t matter. After all, there was no sweat invested but “laway.”

Poor Emmanuel Mulawan. When he was accused and arrested, many capitalized on the incident as if they really cared. After all the photo ops to show sympathy, everyone seems to have forgotten that Mulawan still languishes in jail.

A new outfit has offered a much lower price of water. Why not talk to them instead, COWD? Was it P8 per cubic meter? Wow!

And what about our Hapsay Dalan campaign? All words and lacking in action. Only a few RTA enforcers who’ve been there for years are truly effective and sincere in their jobs. The newly recruits are probably wrongly motivated. No wonder, they’ve been into one controversy after the other lately.

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Narco-politicians exist in the city, according to a confidential report. It is said to be common knowledge. We have our own “parang-hinog” in our midst. If a highanking official was not joking, their days are numbered. I hope there would be no blood spilling. But that won’t be the blood of the poor. Maybe this time, it’s going to be royal blood. Do they have moles in our agencies?