Officials and affected residents in San Miguel town have expressed alarm over what they described as “uncontrolled” quarrying operations along Bato river.
The present situation of the river along the town’s barangays has prompted Vice Mayor Noel Morales to ask for a one-year moratorium on quarry operations in order to allow fish population to recover and prevent the possible degradation of the water body.
He said he is apprehensive about the negative effects of continued quarrying of aggregates especially since many residents depend on fishing as their livelihood.
He told a local broadcaster that even the municipality does not have an idea who are now running quarry sites along the portion of the river within its territorial jurisdiction.
The former police officer also noted the varying prices of aggregates being sold to the project by the quarry permittees in San Miguel, adding that he plans to pass an ordinance requiring that quarry permittees in the town should be actual residents.
Earlier, the Tribune elicited from Mayor Antonio Teves the admission that the local government unit is now aware of the quarry permittees operating in the town as the latter have not secured business permits.
Likewise, he shared his observation that the one quarry operator is extracting no less than 30 truckloads of 10 cubic meter per truckload every day from quarry sites, equivalent to about 9,000 cubic meters in a month.