The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has lifted the suspension on most quarry operations, but maintained the ban in Cebu’s Naga City.
After a thorough review, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said they decided to allow mining firms in La Union, Pangasinan, Bulacan, Pampanga, Zambales, Batangas, Rizal, Camarines Sur, Misamis Oriental, Iligan City, and Davao City to resume operations.
“There are no communities around quarry sites who will be affected in case of a landslide,” he said.
Still, he prohibited the quarrying in Naga City that included the operations of Apo Land Quarry Corp.
“Ninety percent of quarry sites nationwide will resume operations, provided that these areas are one kilometer away from the communities that can potentially be affected,” he said.
On Sept. 20, a huge landslide in Naga City buried houses in barangays Tinaan and Naalad after days of heavy rains.
The death toll rose to 65 with 21 people still missing and 18 injured.
Cimatu said experts from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau have been deployed to the landslide area to inspect the condition of the quarry site.
He reiterated quarrying activities in the area would remain suspended until further assessment.
The quarry site operated first before a community was built.
He said he got a phone call from Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez who warned that the quarrying suspension could trigger the prices of construction materials to go up.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier declared a state of calamity in the country’s four northern Luzon regions to speed up relief and rehabilitation efforts in the provinces struck by Typhoon “Ompong” (Manghkut).
Under the Proclamation No. 593 signed by Duterte on Tuesday, the President placed the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, and the Cordillera Administrative Region in a state of calamity in the wake of the onslaught of Ompong.
“All departments and other concerned government agencies are hereby directed to implement and execute rescue, recovery, relief, and rehabilitation work in accordance with pertinent operational plans and directives,” Duterte said in his proclamation, which was released to public on Thursday.
“All departments and other concerned government agencies are also hereby directed to coordinate with, and provide or augment the basic services and facilities of affected Local Government Units,” he added.
The President also tasked the law enforcement agencies, with support from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, to undertake necessary measures to ensure peace and order in affected areas.
Under a declaration of state of calamity, price ceilings on basic necessities and prime commodities are imposed, no-interest loans are granted to the most affected section of the population, and calamity funds are appropriated.
The estimated agricultural damage due to Typhoon Ompong has reached P26.77 billion nationwide, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Commission reported on Thursday.
The damaged areas were in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4-A, 5, 6, and the Cordillera Administrative Region, the agency said.
“Ompong” affected about 171,932 farmers in CAR alone, it added.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol has identified desiltation, the process of removing silt from water bodies, as a priority for rehabilitating the affected areas.
He said desiltation will protect food production in Luzon from further floods caused by overflowing rivers.
“Desilting Luzon’s major rivers must be among the rehabilitation’s priorities,” he said in a meeting with Luzon governors in Metro Manila this week.
Flooding from the overflow of silted rivers was one of several concerns the governors raised before Piñol during their meeting.
Piñol cited the need to desilt the country’s longest waterway, the Cagayan River in northern Luzon. With PNA
