CEBU, Philippines —The number of illegal quarrying apprehensions in Cebu Province is reduced by about 50 percent, according to the Provincial Environmental and Natural Resources Office (PENRO).
PENRO Chief Jayson Lozano said that there were about 1,200 apprehensions in 2017 or an average of 100 monthly apprehensions. In 2018, PENRO only has an average of around 50 apprehensions a month.
The most common violations are overloading and reusing of delivery receipt (DR). A DR can only be used once and for a maximum of 10 cubic meters of sand or gravel. Each permittee is issued several DRs which correspond to the volume which the company is allowed to extract in a given period of time.
Strengthened law enforcement and reaching out directly to the permittees are two of the major contributors to the lesser violations recorded this year according to Lozano.
He explained that meeting with the permittees and asking them to police their own men can also minimize the violations.
To further boost this mechanism, Capitol held a seminar yesterday with officials of barangays that have quarry permittees regarding pertinent laws about mining. —MBG (FREEMAN)