QUARRY CITY

The Davao City council has approved 96 quarry applications on top of the 63 active quaries

A total of 96 quarry applications were approved in Davao City; this is on top of the 63 active quaries

The Davao City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) assured the city councilors yesterday, December 10, 2018, that the 96 approved permits and 50 pending requests for quarrying operations are not harming the environment yet.

During the city council session yesterday, the assurance from the Cenro prompted the city councilors to vote for the 18 requests for allowable use of sand and gravel quarry items under Councilor Diosdado Angelo Mahipus.

“Based on our assessment, we are in favor of granting the [quarry requests],” Acting section chief of Cenro Mines and Geosciences Melody Dapusala said yesterday, adding that they already conducted partial assessment and area verification, as well as the requirement for compliance certificate.

Dapusala said they have been closely monitoring the 63 active quarries operating in the city.

Despite the approval of the quarry requests, Councilor Maria Belen Acosta objected and demanded for the Davao River Resource Sustainability Assessment which the Cenro failed to provide during the council session.

“We need to know the threshold. How many quarry operations could be done in the city?,” Acosta said, clarifying that there is a need for the council to know the limit of the city in terms of quarry operations or they will have to approve every single quarry requests which could be harmful to the environment.

“We could have been more scientific on these items. What is one or two sessions for this so that everybody will be assured that there will be no longterm repercussions or effects,” she said.

She added that the requirement of Cenro for massive tree planting does not assure sustainability for the environment if over quarrying happened.

“So far, wala pong [over quarrying] dahil monitored po sila,” Dapusala said.

Meanwhile, Mahipus said that the items queued have long been overdue and those who requested this already complied with all the needed requirements.