MikeLigalig.com

By Ric Obedencio
Bohol Chronicle

To protect the interest of the province and quarry permit holder, Vice-Gov. Julius Caesar Herrera assailed the conduct of raid by the Bureau of National Investigation (NBI) of the manganese mining in Anda town.

Herrera was reacting to NBI men who recently seized the extracted manganese without the information of Task Force Kabukiran (TFK) formed by Gov. Erico Aumentado. TFK was created to curb indiscriminate illegal logging and quarrying in the province to preserve the environment.

The vice-governor said the raid was deplorable, adding that the NBI should have coordinated with TFK, being a member.

He said NBI's inappropriate action has contributed to the mounting outcry of the people against the government. In attaining a certain degree of success in whatever government project or activity being undertaken for the people, government agencies should put their acts together, he said.

"CROSSFIRE"

The provincial government appears to be caught between grudging manganese businessmen, according to Capitol reliable source.

The source said that a Manila-based manganese buyer shifted transactions to Anda town from Hench Mining Service Development Corp. (HMSDC), which has quarry operations in Candijay. It is reportedly owned by a certain Domingo Chua of Cebu City.

The source said the shift was triggered after HMSDC was found to have "illegally" mined the manganese in barangay Panas, Candijay town.

In his letter to Gov. Erico Aumentado, Kagawad Elmer Hinautan of barangay Panas, Candijay town asked the governor to revoke the small-scale mining permit issued to HMSDC for illegal extraction of manganese. Similarly, Liga ng mga Barangay federated president Arlene A. Caadlawon, an ex-officio member of the Candijay Sangguniang Bayan, also urged the governor to cancel and stop the said mining because "no municipal Resolution has been granted" to the miner.

Bohol Environment Management Office head Engr. Rene Villaber said in a separate interview that Aumentado has already halted HMSDC from extracting manganese in Candijay.

It could not be ascertained whether HMSDC had "deputized" the NBI to raid the Anda manganese operations seemingly because of trade competition. This writer tried to contact NBI office here for comments but to no avail. Its telephone did not answer.

Herrera said the NBI should not have been allowed itself to be used by some businessmen if indeed it was allegedly being "tapped" to raid the mining operations owned by a certain Sofronio Simacio of Anda.

Villaber said that the governor upheld Simacio's extraction because it has legitimate documents to support mine operations. He also said that following the NBI's raid, TFK has released the confiscated cargo trucks and restore the Simacio's mine operations.

BLAME GAME

"Blame" is the name of the game between the provincial government and the Cebu-based Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regarding the proliferation of the quarry operations in the province.

It appears that both are accusing each other on the issuance of permit to quarry that led to the unabated illegal extraction activities in the province.

The province and the DENR based here noted that a lot of pre-requisite documents have been processed and issued by the MGB without the knowledge of the former. One of these pre-requisites, DENR Tagbilaran said, is the needed consultation with and favorable endorsement of the locality just like what happened in Candijay.

In its letter to the governor, the MGB asked the provincial government to stop issuing special permits because "it has somehow contributed to the difficulty in the management of mining or quarry activities in the province" unless standard procedures are being followed.

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan did not take the issue sitting down and passed on June 2008 a Resolution urging the MGB to stop processing applications for mining operations prior to issuance to permit exclusively by the governor, said board member Alfonso Damalerio II, environment protection committee chairman.

He said that the demand for the MGB to freeze the applications processing was prompted until such time that the Bohol Small-scale Mining Ordinance he proposed is approved by the SP.

The demand is also an answer to the clamor of the local government units where there are quarry operations, Damalerio said.

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