Sunday, May 20, 2012

Illegal sand, rock mining back in Sariaya

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May 21, 2012


SARIAYA, Quezon— Four persons were caught hauling illegally sourced sand aboard two trucks in Barangay Castañas in Sariaya, Quezon, on Friday, a move expected to stop rampant illegal sand quarrying in the town.
“The extracted sands are often hauled to hollow-block makers and construction   projects in nearby towns and Batangas province,” said lawyer Sheila de Leon, chief of Tanggol Kalikasan-Southern Tagalog.
De Leon and her staff members joined members of the Provincial Mining and Regulatory Board, police and Army soldiers in an operation in Sariaya on Friday.
Barangay Councilor Apolinario Rivarez said illegal quarry operators from Batangas had been digging for sand in the shallow portion of Tayabas Bay fronting their village for several years now.
The unabated sand quarrying had caused the sea water to advance about 300 meters and occupied a sizeable portion of coconut farmland.
To show the grave effect of long years of beach quarrying, Rivarez said the calm sea water fronting his hut used to be the village’s softball playing field.
Rivarez pointed to several uprooted coconut trees along the coast, which, he said, were the effect of inland invasion of sea water. He said more than 50 coconut trees had been uprooted due to sea water invasion.
He said illegal sand quarrying stopped after it was reported on TV last month. “But lately, the sand haulers are back. They operate at night,” said another villager.
Illegal quarrying
A truck was seen at a distance being loaded with sand quarried along the coastline.
In Castañas, the group caught a truck being loaded with sand from the river under the newly constructed concrete bridge.
The truck driver, Reynaldo Endrinal Jr. from San Juan, Batangas, said they bought the sand for P550 per truck from a local resident engaged in sand quarrying using a spade.
Endrinal pointed to a village councilor in Alupay in Rosario, Batangas, as the owner of the truck. “We have no more sand to quarry in our place that’s why we’re buying them here in Sariaya,” Endrinal told the Inquirer.
The group also flagged down another truck loaded with sand along the Quezon-Batangas ecotourism road in Castañas.
The truck driver, Jurning Teope from Tiaong, Quezon, pointed to one Edwin Ardena also from the same town as the owner of the cargo.
The truck drivers and their helpers were brought to the barangay office for custody. De Leon said the suspects would be charged with illegal quarrying.
De Leon said they have also been receiving reports that destructive rock mining operations have returned at the base of Mount Banahaw in Sariaya.
“The man-made rivers from illegal mining activities pose a serious danger in case of flash floods,” De Leon said.
The local government has been limiting quarry operations to the natural riverbed.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Mt. Banahaw still closed to trekkers, open to pilgrims

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Banahaw, San Cristobal mountains closed to trekkers till 2015

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Dead ‘butanding’ in town raises questions

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LUCENA CITY—An 11-ton whale shark, locally known as butanding, was found dead Monday by fishermen in waters off Mauban, Quezon, 157 km southwest of Manila.

Erly Reasonda, head of Mauban municipal environment and natural resources office, said the 27-foot long and 7-foot wide whale shark was reported by fishermen to a town employee at around 11 a.m.

“We immediately rushed to the site just a kilometer away from the town shoreline and found the huge whale shark already dead,” said Tonton Pansacola, tourism office staffer, in a phone interview.

Lawyer Sheila de Leon, executive director of Tanggol Kalikasan-Southern Tagalog (TK-ST), said she received a message in her Facebook account on Monday informing her that the whale shark was hit by a large commercial fishing boat which is banned in Lamon Bay.

She urged local officials and national government agencies to conduct an extensive investigation to find the true cause of death of the butanding, the world’s largest fish known for its gentleness.

“The local government should search for that boat and file a criminal case against its owner,” the lawyer said over the phone.

De Leon said TK-ST has been receiving reports about unlawful commercial fishing activities being rampant again in Lamon Bay.

She said, however, that the dead whale shark bore no signs of physical harm. “We found no bruises, wounds or contusions after our thorough inspection of the body” she said.

Reasonda said the whale shark was a female.

Chuckie Rivera, community relations officer of power firm Quezon Power Ltd. which owns and operates the 440-megawatt power generating plant in Mauban, said the butanding was towed by a boat to the plant’s pier yesterday.

The plant’s pier is the only facility in the area with a crane capable of hauling the whale shark out of the water.

Rivera said the whale shark’s carcass was already foul-smelling when found.

By noon yesterday, the whale shark was buried at the sanitary landfill of Mauban.

Whale sharks can grow up to 40 feet long. They feed only on planktons, acting as living filters to improve overall water quality in the seas.

Whale sharks are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as “vulnerable” to extinction and are protected by Philippine laws under Republic Act No. 8550 and Fisheries Administrative Order No. 193.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

World’s biggest flower abloom anew on mystique mountain, but…

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World’s biggest flower returns to Banahaw; but waterfall runs dry

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