AGAINST QUARRYING. Antique provincial board member Karmila Dimamay delivers a privilege speech on Monday (July 10, 2023). Dimamay said there is a need to regulate quarry operations considering that sand and gravel in the province are not infinite. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – A provincial board member on Monday called for an end to the "indiscriminate" quarrying along the river banks of the municipality of Tibiao before it causes a loss of biodiversity and results in the lack of supply of aggregates for road projects in the province.
Board Member Karmila Dimamay said during her privilege speech that she saw and learned from among the residents living nearby the Dalanas River in her hometown of Tibiao of ongoing quarrying less than a kilometer away from their river revetment.
“I was told by the people in the area there is even a night operation," Dimamay added.
She said that there is a big loader with at least five dump trucks processing and hauling aggregates in and out of the area.
Although, unaware of the purpose of quarrying aggregates in Dalanas River, she said that Antique supplies aggregates to Iloilo, Palawan, and other areas aside from those being used for Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) projects in Antique.
“We need aggregates for our development and infrastructure projects, but the problem with these (indiscriminate) quarry operations persists,” she said.
Dimamay called on the provincial board Committee on Infrastructure, which she chairs, and the Committee on Environment to sit down with the Environment and Natural Resources Office (ENRO) to discuss how to regulate the quarry operations considering that sand and gravel in the province are not infinite.
She added that they need to check the income the provincial government generated from the quarry operations, considering that it only earned PHP5 million in 2022 despite the billions of government projects implemented in the province.
“The quarry operators since last year are only paying PHP55 per cubic meter for the sand and gravel,” Dimamay said.
Despite the measly income from the quarry operations, the roads, particularly along the mountainous terrain from the provinces of Antique to Iloilo, are being destroyed by the dump trucks hauling the aggregates, she added.
The quarrying also deepens the level of the river banks, affecting the irrigation facility and causing the loss of biodiversity in the rivers. (PNA)
