EDITORIAL - House probe

Cebu City South District Representative Rodrigo “Bebot” Abellanosa wants a congressional investigation into last Thursday’s massive landslide in the two barangays in Naga City that killed dozens and damaged at least 30 houses.

Abellanosa said he will call for the inclusion of the Naga City incident in the inquiry at the House of Representatives into the massive landslide at a mining site in Itogon, Benguet, at the height of Typhoon Ompong that killed many miners.

“Resolutions have already been filed calling for the investigation of the Benguet incident. We will include the most recent Naga tragedy,” he told The FREEMAN, “We will hold a committee meeting as soon as possible to take up the resolutions and hopefully schedule a public hearing to investigate both incidents.”

As chairman of the House committee on natural resources, Abellanosa is now reviewing all pending and existing legislations on the mining industry’s impact on the environment following the Itogon incident. This after President Rodrigo Duterte called for a halt to mining operations in the country.

We do hope that once the House probe pushes through, it will ferret out the truth about the two incidents, that it will be able to pinpoint their causes. And once it is done, lawmakers will be able to understand the state of the country’s mining industry and come up with legislations improve it.

Any Senate or House inquiry is conducted in aid of legislation. But there have been instances when these were used for political mileage. And Cebuanos don’t want the Naga incident to be used by some attention-seeking politicians, especially now that the country is holding elections next year.

We need the truth about the Naga City incident to come out. And we hope any House investigation will help bring justice to the victims’ families.