Ex-mayor Val Chiong’s guilty feeling
After a week of silence following the massive landslide that hit Sitio Sindulan, Barangay Tina-an, City of Naga, former mayor Val Chiong finally talked about the tragedy. Val, the father of Mayor Kristine Vanessa Chiong, admitted he felt guilty about the incident. During the weekly “Dialogue on the Program” over dySS Super Radyo Cebu hosted by Lloyd Suarez last Saturday, Chiong said that had he not played politics, the number of fatalities could have been minimized.
When he was mayor, he said he received the monitoring and assessment reports conducted by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (MGB-DENR) 7. In several instances, the MGB recommended the relocation of the residents living in Sitio Sindulan for being in the “danger zone.” The MGB has been conducting geohazards mapping in the quarry sites of Apo Land and Quarry Corp. (ALQC) since 2007. It recommended the relocation of some 26 households then.
Chiong said the affected residents approached him and asked for his help to prevent the demolition. For humanitarian and political reasons, he ignored MGB’s recommendations. But he denied favoring ALQC.
“There was a notice of demolition for Sindulan. I guess I am guilty because I asked Apo not to implement it. The company even started planting trees in Sindulan. It then left the area and moved farther up because I asked for it to after the residents appealed to me. The residents of Sindulan know their houses were up for demolition back then but I approached Apo on their behalf.”
The company has been quarrying in the area for quite sometime now and it supplied raw materials for cement products to its sister company, Apo Cement Corp., whose plant is located on the national highway in Barangay Tina-an. Limestone (locally known as anapog) is one of the ingredients of cement.
According to the website naga-cebu.com, “Apo Cement Plant is known as one of the modern plants in the country despite being one of the country’s oldest, having been established in 1921. It produces both Pozzolan and Portland cement under the Apo cement brand. The plant was designed and built to the strictest industry standards recognized worldwide, utilizing modern cement technology for efficient processing and consistent product formulation.”
The finger pointing involving the local government unit of Naga, the MGB and the ALQC is continuing. Mayor Kristine claimed she was not remiss in her obligation because she issued a cease-and-desist order (CDO) stopping ALQC’s operations after reports about the cracks surfaced. She only lifted the CDO when she received MGB’s report on Aug. 29, 2018. It states that “the cracks found in Sitio Tagaytay, an adjacent sitio of Sindulan, was not caused by the quarry operations. It was a natural phenomenon...It does not pose danger to the nearby communities.”
MGB officials denied they were negligent claiming they were frequently monitoring the area. But they admitted that they failed to conduct an assessment in Sitio Sindulan days before the incident. Is their failure to monitor not negligence on their part? ALQC also strongly denied conducting operations in the collapsed area.
With their strong denials, who is to be blamed for the incident? If this were a murder case, the principal or the main culprit would beALQC. Why? Because it destroyed nature in exchange for money and greed. The Naga government and the MGB are accomplices and accessories and are equally criminally liable. The blood of the victims is on their hands.