Another illegal quarry found

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Government discovered another quarry site in Barangay Pulangbato, larger than the one recently issued a cease and desist order in Barangay San Jose, and allegedly also owned by businessman Michel Lhuillier.

The Cebu City Mining Regulatory Board is now investigating the report, which, a staff of the Barangay Affairs Unit said, must have been going on for a very long time now because of the extent of the damage to the mountains.

The area is reportedly located in a secluded sitio of Pulangbato.

According to initial research, the quarry site in Pulangbato has no permit from the city government. There was also neither a permit nor an application for a site development.

If the quarry site is not more than five hectares, the quarry operator must apply for a quarry permit from the City Mining Regulatory Board.

Juliet Gutierrez of the CMRB said that the people they asked in the area said the quarrying is for a site development since the place is intended to be developed into a potential commercial venture.

A report reached City Hall that Lhuillier won a bidding to supply filling materials to a reclamation project in one of the coastal municipalities in Cebu which strengthened City Hall’s suspicion that Lhuillier is in the quarrying business.

The quarrying in San Jose was also claimed as a site development but the board ruled that it is a quarry operation because there was an excess of about 60,000 cubic meters extracted while their special hauling permit only allowed them to extract 1,000 cubic meters.

A cease and desist order was issued last Thursday. Gutierrez said the operation has been stopped and the gate was closed to prevent private haulers from coming to the area.

Gutierrez said that a representative from M. Lhuillier came to City Hall yesterday to tell them they are willing to pay their dues, which is computed to P2.1 million for the 60,440 cubic meters excess at P35 per cubic meter.

This time also, they will have to apply for a quarry permit which will cost them a different set of fees.

The quarry permit is renewable every five years compared to the hauling permit that is renewable every two months.

The quarry permit has stricter requirements like a barangay resolution, barangay clearance, technical description of the area applied, among others.

M. Lhuillier legal counsel Bayani Atup confirmed that the company will apply for a quarry permit “to make everything aboveboard.”

But Atup said that he cannot comment yet on the alleged quarry operation in Pulangbato as he has no personal knowledge of it. He said he will have to check their files first. (FREEMAN)