Aside from putting a few hundred quarry workers out of work, the temporary suspension of all quarry operations in the province of Catanduanes has forced construction companies to likewise suspend work in major government projects.
The Tribune learned from a trusted source that Hi-Tone Construction and Development Corporation, a giant firm based in Albay, has issued a work stoppage order affecting all of its infrastructure projects being implemented under the auspices of the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) regional office.
Located in Virac, San Miguel and Caramoran, the projects range from river control structures to national road maintenance projects, each of them costing over a hundred million pesos each.
Last July 1, 2025, on his first day in office, Governor Patrick Alain T. Azanza issued Executive Order No. 01, series of 2025, temporarily suspending all quarry operations in the province, citing the need to evaluate the state of quarrying activities in the province, particularly the inventory, review and checking of all environmental compliance certificates, location clearance, status clearance, business permits and other certifications from concerned government agencies to ensure compliance to laws, rules and regulations.
“It emphasized that the suspension of quarry permit is tantamount to “no quarry permit” issued, thus failure to comply with the order shall be considered as violation and “may cause the permanent revocation and blocklisting (sic) of the permit and the permit holder, respectively, and without prejudice to the lifting (sic) of appropriate cases under any existing pertinent laws.”
According to Section 3 of the same EO, the order shall remain valid and effective “pending the outcome of the purposes for which this Order has been issued.”
However, Section 9, on its effectivity, stated that the EO “shall take effect immediately for a period of thirty (30) days, unless otherwise revoked or repealed.”
In a post on social media, the governor likewise alleged that during the past administration, somebody at the Governor’s Office had been demanding bribes from quarry operators, with some of them even allowed to operate without permits and environmental clearances.
Some of the permittees or dummies of politicians have been abusing the law, stockpiling volumes of aggregates in excess of allowable limits, he added.
Azanza claimed that during the past administration, quarry operators were forced to give bribes of up to P100,000 per permit to the Governor’s Office and an unidentified politician, with the GO official receiving kickbacks of P100 per cubic meter, much more than the quarry fee of P30 per cubic meter charged by the province.
The suspension, however, rendered jobless for at least a month over 200 workers manually screening sand and gravel at various quarry sites in Virac (Buyo, Pajo and Sto. Domingo) and in Bato, Caramoran, Viga and Gigmoto.