SONA project: Contractors quarrying illegally

TABUK CITY, Kalinga - According to the records of the Environment and Natural Resources Office (ENRO), only two of the eight SONA (state of the nation address) project contractors in the province have permits to extract sand and gravel issued by the provincial governor through the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB).

The ENRO named the two contractors as Omengan Construction and Development Corporation (OCDC) and VUC Engineering (VUC) both of which obtained their permits to quarry for 2009 on June 30 or six months late.

Environment and natural resources officer Dominador Tumbali also admitted that none of the SONA contractors have environmental compliance certificates (ECCs) and free prior informed consent (FPIC) from the tribes in whose ancestral domains they are quarrying.

Regarding the ECC, Tumbali said that permittees are supposed to apply in January since their work are usually done in the first two quarters of the year but none of the SONA contractors did “so we have nothing to indorse for the conduct of the ECC process.”

He said that there is only one quarry outfit in the province which has an ECC. The outfit is not involved in the SONA project

As for the FPIC, Tumbali said that they have been conducting consultations but only with the barangay officials and not with the concerned indigenous groups.

“Henceforth, we will require the companies to undergo consultations with the host tribes,” Tumbali said.

Reminded of the provision of the comprehensive land use plan (CLUP) of this city designating the stretch of the Chico River from barangay Dupag down to barangay Bantay which includes barangay Lucog where OCDC and VUC are quarrying as tourism zone and therefore off limits to quarrying, Tumbali said that that too is an issue.

“The problem is they never come to ask permission before they go down to the river. We only learn when the quarrying is already ongoing. We just assume that the extracting companies confine their operation to established gravel pits of the DPWH,” Tumbali said. .

An ENRO personnel who requested anonymity said that it cannot be helped if SONA contractors working in the Tabuk portion of the project quarry in the prohibited zone because downstream, stones for masonry and riprap are already scarce.

The ZZW learned from the ENRO that the projected sand and gravel tax from the 17 packages of the SONA project in Kalinga for 2008 and 2009 is P5M but as of this writing, only P100,000.00 has been paid by the contractors.

Tumbali, however, is not worried about the low collection saying that to date some of the 2008 SONA packages have not yet been accomplished and that contractors usually pay their sand and gravel tax when they get their final payments.

Tumbali also expects that the just signed memorandum of agreement between the provincial government and the DPWH which requires the latter to automatically deduct from payments of contractors the sand and gravel tax due from them will facilitate the payment of the estimated taxes.

Tumbali complained that the collection of sand and gravel tax has been taken for granted until the coming of the SONA projects “when all of a sudden it became important.”

“The mineral program of the government is not the responsibility of just one officer. All stakeholders should contribute their part in the protection of the resources. Our vehicle cannot go to the municipalities of Lubuagan and Balbalan and we are undermanned. Every concerned agency should assist us,” Tumbali said. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr., ZZW