DUMAGUETE CITY -- Ayungon town Mayor Edsel Enardecido is appealing to Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo to review the permits granted to small-scale quarry operations in the province as some may already be involved in mining operations with the use of heavy equipment.
Enardecido in a telephone interview on Thursday aired his appeal two days after heavy equipment belonging to the Pilipinas Eco-friendly Mining Corporation (PEMC) in Ayungon, Negros Oriental, was torched by armed men.
The mayor reiterated his previous stand that the said company has been violating certain provisions of the law on mining.
Enardecido said he has repeatedly asked PEMC to comply with the requirements under Republic Act 7942, otherwise known as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, such as an Environmental Compliance Certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
According to him, his administration has not given PEMC a business permit after the latter allegedly refused to acknowledge the local government unit’s authority since it already secured a permit from Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo, head of the Provincial Mining and Regulatory Board.
“It is supposed to be small-scale quarry operations pero daghan man sila ug heavy equipment plus ang volume nga ilang gi-quarry sobra na sa allowed para nila (but they have plenty of heavy equipment and the volume of quarry is more than what is allowed for them,” the mayor said.
The New People's Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has claimed responsibility for the burning of heavy equipment belonging to PEMC inside a quarry site.
In a press statement released to the media also on Thursday, Dionesio Magbuelas, Mt. Cansermon Command Spokesperson of the NPA-Central Negros, said that the NPA “punished” the PEMC because it “will dislocate almost three to five barrios, affect 2,000 hectares of farmland and livelihood surrounding its mining site, damage almost thousands of hectares of rice fields in Barangay Banban, and will bring destruction to the seas and livelihood of fisherfolk caused by silt that devastates streams, rivers, irrigation systems up to the shore.”
More or less 50 fully armed men burned heavy equipment belonging to the PEMC at its quarry site in Barangay Jandalamanon in Ayungon, a town about 81.7 kilometers north of this capital, shortly before midnight last Tuesday.
While the report did not mention the type of heavy equipment burned, the NPA claimed in its statement that the damage was estimated at more than PHP130 million on eight backhoes, two payloaders, two dump trucks, two generators, and a crusher.
“PEMC supplies silica to 10 major cement factories in the Philippines and is the 15th company profiting greatly from open-pit mining,” the NPA said in its statement. (PNA)
