M. Lhuillier's "quarry" operations monitored

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Mining Regulatory Board is closely monitoring a ‘quarry’ operation in the mountain barangay of San Jose that was found operating without a permit.

The alleged illegal operation is inside the property owned by businessman Michelle Lhuillier.

During the site inspection conducted by the board two weeks ago, it was found out that what are being extracted is beyond the allowable amount indicated in the hauling permit issued to them last month.

Engr. Mario Bacalso, representative of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau in the board, said that Lhuillier’s violation is already extracting without permit.

Bacalso said that Lhuillier only applied for a permit to haul 1,000 cubic meters of loose soil that is supposedly an off-set of a site development.

Since the allowable amount has already been exhausted the permit is also deemed expired.

The board learned, base on the records of the company’s logbook, that almost 100 trucks, with a capacity of up to 16-cubic meters, hauls and transports sand and gravel to the city proper everyday.

With this, Bacalso said, the 1,000 cubic meters they applied for, for which they paid P30,000 or P30 per cubic meter, have been reached in less than a week since they started extracting.

Bacalso said that the operation has been running for weeks based on the extent of the damage they saw in the area.

Supposedly, Lhuillier was granted the hauling permit to transport only the loose soil that is the result of the site development.

But City Planning and Development Officer Alipio Bacalso said there was no site development permit issued to the owner.

Alipio said his office found two applications for site development for phase 1 and phase 2. Only phase 1 was approved but phase 2 is still pending.

Renato Mercado, chairman of the board, said that it was a “quarry operation in the guise of a site development” because the extraction they saw in the area is beyond the road and drainage construction that was applied by Lhuillier for site development.

Mario of MGB-7 said the board will recommend for the suspension of the operation.

Philip Zafra, Chief of Staff of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, said that the hauling permit should not, in the first place, have been issued because there was no site development permit.

But the previous board, he said, recommended the issuance and a certain “Portia” working with the board misled the office of the mayor by testifying that there was already a site development permit.

Zafra said that they will inspect the other entities that were granted hauling permit to check their compliance.

Zafra said that the board did not even inspect the Lhuillier site before they recommended for the issuance of the hauling permit.

Lawyer Bayani Atup, legal counsel of M. Lhuillier, did not comment on the issue saying he is yet to examine the files relative to the projects.

“The city government may be right or wrong,” Atup said. — (FREEMAN)