Samal vice mayor laments quarrying in Mount Tagbay

DAVAO CITY – The vice mayor of the Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos) has grown frustrated and exasperated over his unheeded pleas with other city officials to put a stop to the quarrying operations of four firms at the island’s protected Mount Tagbay.

“It has become such a lonely battle,” Vice Mayor Orly A. Amit told The Manila Bulletin as he decried the wanton cutting of trees and other destructive activities in areas 300 meters above sea level that was covered by Igacos’ Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP), which was legislated in 2008.

The CLUP prohibited these activities on the mountains in the island but, Amit alleged, quarrying have been going on for several years now at the peack of Mount Tagbay.

The vice mayor questioned the operations of the quarries, citing the provision of the existing CLUP that guarantees protection of Igacos’ mountain range which replenishes the streams and the groundwater.

“When I went back to public service in 2016, I saw that they did not only cut the trees on the mountain, but they also brought the bulldozers,” he said.

He said he was told the quarry stones were needed for the concreting of Samal’s roads and other infrastructure.

But Amit pointed out that these did not have to come from the mountainside because this would cause irreversible damage to Tagbay.

“I want them to see how important mountains as the source of water of the world. The rivers do not flow up to the mountains. All rivers come from the mountain,” he said.

The vice mayor also questioned how the quarry operators were able to obtain business permits from the City Government and environmental compliance certificates from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), when the CLUP had already identified portions of the mountain 300 meters above the sea level as protected and production forest areas.

“The quarry operations in Samal, all of them, they are at 300 meters above sea level. There is no problem in quarrying if you get (materials) from the rivers because the river would replenish by itself but if you get quarry materials from the mountain, who will fix it?” he said.

He added that the environmental law had been put in place to protect Samal, but lamented it will be of no use if its city officials will not dare to fully implement it.

Amit underscored that the CLUP and other significant measures, such as the revenue code and Septage and Sewerage Ordinance, should be properly implemented.