Janiuay execs in unified call for probe on quarry damage to Suage Bridge
A moratorium of at least two years in all quarry operations in Janiuay, Iloilo is sought amidst growing and gnawing concerns on massive environmental damage here.
This, as twin resolutions await action and implementation relative to the corresponding damage as now seen in Suage Bridge and Suage River.
The moratorium was called for by the town's environmental and natural resources chief, Ricardo Minurito.
Located some 32 kilometers central of Iloilo City, town officials here passed Resolution No. 2007-121 and Resolution No. 2007-122 with similar calls for help.
First off was the request addressed to Governor Niel Tupas to conduct an actual field investigation on the cause of massive scouring of aggregates within the foundation of Suage River Bridge Pier.
Another one immediately followed suit, this time requesting the Environmental management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to do the same "field investigation."
And both, the Resolutions went, cited committee investigations that stated cause of damage "is due to quarrying downstream of the Suage Bridge."
The immediate investigation is requested "in order to protect the lives, limbs and properties of the commuters, pedestrians and the public in general."
Minurito in an interview told The News Today (TNT) that efforts have been beefed up in the barangay level to monitor the daily quarry activities. Sadly though, he pointed out, the problem is on "legal extraction" with illegal quarry activities easily prevented.
Current practice have quarry activities in one chosen quarry site minus the approval of barangay and town officials concerned.
Two specific cases here are the recent renewals of two key quarry operators that got the Capitol's nod minus Janiuay say on the permits granted.
"All we are asking and pleading for is at least two years in moratorium. Let us stop all quarry activities here in that period and allow our river and our resources to regain what it has lost in the past years," Minurito said. "Anyway we have provided for the major projects of Iloilo. Two years. That is all that we ask."