Still unrepentant

Bencyrus Ellorin

THE controversies surrounding  quarrying in Cagayan de Oro does not only redound to money.

There are greater issues such as environmental conservation, thus the need to ensure that quarrying as an extractive industry has enough environmental safety nets and at the same time gets billed by the government for exploiting natural resources belonging to our patrimony.

Government regulation on industries like quarrying is needed to prevent over extraction and the collection of reasonable fees, enough for the local government unit to roll out conservation projects to mitigate the adverse impact of this extractive industry to the environment. As I have recommended in my previous column, a certain percentage of the sand and gravel fees should be set aside as payment for environmental services. This fund should be used only for environmental conservation and rehabilitation projects in communities where quarrying is done.

Thus, it is not really an issue of projecting P50 million, P9 million or P300 million quarrying income to be at par with Bukidnon.

The executive department and the Environment Committee of Councilor Zaldy Ocon are in agreement that there is a need to reform regulation of the city’s quarrying industry.

From what I gathered: Is City Hall happy with the increased revenues from quarrying to around P9 million from P2.7 million? No. Is it satisfied with the projected P50-million annual collection if the quarrying fees are reasonably increased? Not exactly. Is it happy with the enforcement of the sand and gravel regulation? No, leakages need to be plugged.

In fact, Councilor Ocon is mulling stricter regulatory measures and stronger enforcement of sand and gravel regulations and religious collection of quarrying fees. The councilor is also excited with the idea of setting aside payment for environmental services from the quarry revenues.

City Hall may want hundreds of millions from sand and gravel, but to solely consider revenues may be disastrous to the environment. As explained above, this extractive industry needs to be regulated not just for revenues but to ensure it is an environmentally sustainable venture. A projected P50-million income may more or less require the same volume of extracted soil, but can only be achieved if the fee is increased from P25 to P100 per cubic meter.  That’s still cheaper than Bukidnon’s P200 and Tagoloan’s P165 per cubic meter.

If indeed Bukidnon gets P300 million annually from quarrying, we should be happy for them. But there is no comparison to start with. Bukidnon collects P200 per cubic meter compared to Cagayan de Oro’s P25. Bukidnon’s land area is 1,049,859 hectares while Cagayan de Oro’s only has 57,851 hectares. A kindergarten pupil can understand that there is no apples-to-apples comparison here.

But, yes, money can blind people, even the most educated. This may be story of the disgraced former civil society representative to the City Mining Regulatory Board (CMRB). He was said to be eyeing a multimillion-peso quarry supply contract for a subdivision development project. He was said to have used his powers to delay the approval of quarry permit applicants whom he considered his competitors. One of the applicants was his own cousin, and a long-time campaigner of a congressman. His cousin was planning to level the hilly portions of their family’s land to decrease flood and landslide risks, increase value of their land and at the same time earn from the extracted soil. The cousin was also  supplying sand and gravel to the same subdivision development project the then CMRB member wanted to exclusively do business with by supplying sand and gravel.

Perhaps intoxicated with power and salivating over the millions of potential income from a subdivision development,  he shot himself to the mouth by issuing a “funny” memorandum some time in 2014 to 1st District Rep. Klarex Uy, “ordering” the legislator to stop quarrying activities. This person seemed lost in his funny memo that he used several logos, including the logo of Save CDO Now! and then invoked his authority as a CMRB member (which was actually a usurpation of CMRB’s authority). He really believed he had powers to order a congressman.

In response, one of the lawyers of the congressman inquired with the CMRB if the person who issued them that funny memo is the same person whose name appears in several sand and gravel delivery receipts to a subdivision development project.

Curious, I looked into this and found out that the only participation of the congressman was when he asked why the approval of the quarry permit of one of his political leaders (the cousin of the CMRB member) was delayed when all requirements have been complied when the application of a son of a police general’s being processed by the same CMRB member was passed in no time.

The other participation, which was a valid business deal, was the renting by the cousin of the CMRB member of the  trucks of a son of the congressman who was into trucking business. “Alang man wheel borrow among gamiton pag deliver sa sand and gravel,” the cousin of this CMRB member told me then.

So, the CMRB member not only used his power against his cousin and competitor but also objected to the approval of a quarry permit of another businessman whose identity I will withhold in the meantime. The businessman wrote City Hall to complain and detail how that CMRB member tried to stifle his quarry permit application.

Eventually, this person was asked by Sulog, the civil society group that delegated him to sit in the CMRB to step down for clear conflict of interests.

Now, still unrepentant, through a partner cum self-proclaimed pundit, they continue to attempt revising public record and mislead people by saying that the powers-that-be unleashed their attack dogs when they exposed the alleged illegal quarrying activities.

In fact, a self-proclaimed pundit is now spreading lies on social media that the Sulog chairman, who happens to be a former regional director and now Chairman of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), and Rep. Uy have connived to protect the mining interests of the latter because he donated the CDA building.

That’s a really malicious lie. The building of the CDA main building in Canitoan was funded using CDA’s budget. The other building was built using public funds released with the help of Ating Koop party-list Rep. Isidro Lico. The property where the buildings now stand was donated by the late Mordeno Cua.

I hope this puts to rest the quarrying issue.