By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Way back in 2004 after typhoon Igme wreaked havoc on farmlands in the Tabuk Valley on both sides of the Chico River destroying around 50 hectares of ricelands in just barangays Laya West and Cabaruan of Tabuk and Sucbot of Pinukpuk by stripping the earth and making them part of the riverbed or by burying the ricefields in gravel, sand and mudfows, I wrote two news articles in which the victimized farmers heaped the blame for their woes on indiscriminate quarrying.
In one of the news items, a farmer was quoted as saying: “If they only do their extraction of aggregates with thought for the welfare of the people living along the Chico River, this would not have happened. As early as 1998, the residents of the barangays submitted a petition to authorities for the regulation of quarrying in the area but it fell on deaf ears. We had specifically asked that when the quarry firms extract aggregate, they should deposit the boulders they cannot use on the eastern bank of the river to protect the ricelands.”
The other news mentioned that then Barangay Captain Manuel Sarol of Dagupan Weste which is upstream of the three affected barangays had ordered all quarry extractors in his barangay to stop their activities on account of the damage wrought by their activities and that the trucks of violators will be impounded pending any order to reopen the operations.
I could vaguely remember that around that time I went to the river to take photos of the quarry operations and what stuck in my mind from that visit – the photos might still be somewhere in my files – were random pocket quarry operations in the riverbed. My impression was that the operations was dictated by the policy of least cost for the most returns.
Sometime last July, a former schoolmate called me asking that I go document the ongoing quarrying operation in a prohibited part of the Chico River somewhere in Calanan. I did pass that way and took some photos of a couple of equipment on the riverbed not far from the river bank but I was unable to meet the informant after that to ask if he was referring to the same site.
These images in my mind did not prepare me for what unfolded before my eyes when I went to take a look at some quarry operations in Laya West, Dagupan Weste and Appas morning of Tuesday. The long and short of the inspection was that all the quarry operations there were within the 300 meter– wide proposed megadike channel. I also saw that unlike before, there were no longer any waste or debris – materials left after the commercial sand and gravel specifically boulders – left where the extraction was going on. I understand that all the materials moved by the equipment are hauled to the stockyards.
I took photos of a back hoe at work right in the stream and within the proposed 300 meter-wide channel.
I had a chance to interview Cabaruan farmer Antonio Paguel, Jr. and Hilary Sumbad and Antonio Bonilla, barangay captains of Laya West and Dagupan Weste in the afternoon and they all claimed that the quarry operators in their barangays now conduct their operations with thought for the welfare of people downstream. They date back the change to 2015 when the Tabuk City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office conducted a survey of the Chico River and delimited the area where quarrying could be done. They alleged that with some prodding and guarding, quarry operators in their respective areas now extract in the designated area.
They are all waiting for the staking of the designated quarrying area with concrete markers so that it would be easier for the barangay government and the farmers to stop any reversion to indiscriminate quarrying in their respective jurisdictions.
I understand that the 17 kilometer 300 meter-wide Mega Channel proposal is the output of the composite Chico River Control Strategic Plan Task Force organized through Executive Order No. 15-01 issued by Mayor Ferdinand Tubban in January 2015. I will give you more details on how the mega channel plan came to be in a future article.
To answer the question in the title of the column, I urge the curious and the skeptical to go take a look at the quarry operations I have visited and also to talk to the farmers and barangay officials of Cabaruan, Laya West, Dagupan Weste and Sucbot then we can compare notes. I must clarify that I am not speaking for quarrying operations I have not seen because for one, on Wednesday, someone informed me there is presently a quarrying activity within the property line in a barangay west of the Chico River.**
