HOUSE committee on environment and natural resources chaired by Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. has approved two bills banning mining and logging operations in Cagayan de Oro City, said in a statement Tuesday.
Cagayan de Oro 2nd -district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez is the one endorsed Bills Nos. 966 and 967, which he said aim to prevent flooding in the city and neighboring communities.
“It was approved last year but was not acted upon by the Senate in the 18th Congress. I refiled last July 2022,” said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said mining and logging “have adverse effects both to humans and the environment.”
Unabated and unchecked mining and logging operations have been blamed for flooding in the city in previous years, he said.
The committee endorsed the said Bills, which the House had approved on third and final reading in previous Congresses, had gathered dust in the Senate for the past 15 years.
Rodriguez said the proposals were first introduced in the 14th Congress, and refiled in the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Congresses.
Unfortunately, he said senators had inexplicably failed to act on the environment-friendly bills.
“We will not tire of filing and re-filing these bills because these will save precious lives, property and the environment. A single life or piece of property saved will be more than worth the effort,” he said.
He added that residents of Cagayan de Oro and Mindanao need not remind senators, some of whom are from the island, of the immense loss of lives and public and private property and infrastructure caused by massive flooding generated by Typhoon Sendong in December 2011.
Rodriguez also said that more than 1,400 died in the aftermath of the typhoon, 900 of whom were residents of Cagayan de Oro City, which bore the brunt of the storm.
“Sendong brought about the worst destruction in the history of Cagayan de Oro. The destructive flooding was blamed on unabated logging and mining operations in the city and neighboring areas,” he stressed.
He thanked Barzaga for endorsing the two bills in the first month of the 19th Congress.
Early endorsement by the committee will give the House enough time to approve them on third and final reading, he said.
“We hope that this time, senators will see the omnipresent danger from logging and mining our people in Cagayan de Oro face every day of their lives. We pray that our good senators will finally act on our bills,” Rodriguez said.
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