CEBU CITY – Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia, in a press conference on May 3, described Ombudsman Samuel Martires’ media statement as “grossly misinformed” referring to the act in question as quarrying, when it was desilting all along, as the basis of the Ombudsman 6-month preventive suspension order against Garcia.
It can be recalled that Rappler, in its April 29 report quoted Ombudsman Martires as saying, “Remember Chocolate Hills in Bohol? This case is worse! Doon sa Chocolate Hills, naglagay ng resort pero hindi ganun ka extensive ang damage… ito quarrying. It destroys everything, tapos sa protected area pa.”
This triggered an alarming reaction from governor Garcia that Ombudsman’s swift action to issue a preventive suspension against her was apparently a mis-appreciation of certain facts. Garcia said, the Ombudsman would have been more enlightened if he had carefully even just read the special permit that was attached to the complaint.
“It is not quarrying,” Gov. Gwen said in response to this statement by the Ombudsman. “I really stretched my imagination trying to find some relevance, an iota of relevance at all between what happened to the Chocolate Hills of Bohol, where private resorts were allowed to be constructed there up and what happened in Manangan River, we were desilting in order to let precious water flow to the group and dam so that Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) could meet its commitments,” Garcia explained.
Garcia further said that in 2028, because of this massive horrendous quarrying, more than 100 lives were lost when that massive landslide happened right at the back of Cemex, or this cement plant that is fed by Apple land, which she had issued a cease and desist order, because they are now quarrying where communities are right under their MPs.
“The ombudsman, I believe, because he never gave me the opportunity to respond, has been grossly misinformed. That is his tragedy, not mine, because his statements in Rapper exposed how truly unenlightened, he was as regards the Mananga case,” Garcia stated.
Meanwhile, some sectors in Cebu expressed full support for governor Garcia. In a press statement from Sugbo News, Capitol’s official news website, Talisay City Mayor Samsam Gullas and Cebu City Mayor Raymond Garcia joined the inter-agency meetings, since the Mananga river passes through their respective jurisdictions.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR); Protected Area Management Board (PAMB); Environmental Management Bureau (EMB); Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB); and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) also provided expert advice to the Governor on how to best solve the problem.
It was decided then that desilting shall be carried out in order to free up the springs of water which could no longer flow because of heavy silt that have accumulated on the riverbed.
According to Atty. Rory Jon Sepulveda, the Governor’s legal counsel that the question on the existence of Environmental Compliance Certificates or ECCs is not a problem since both the Capitol and the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) have these.
Since part of the river is covered by the Central Cebu Protected Landscape, it was PAMB that passed a resolution approving the de-siltation plan and authorizing the Governor to carry out the same, Sepulveda said.
Garcia said that an impending water and health
crises were at looming at the time and that was the bigger crisis that must be
addressed the soonest. “Innovative? Yes.
Pioneering? Yes. Was it legal? Yes, because all concerned regulatory government
agencies were on board and were always part of all decisions,” Garcia added.
No comments:
Post a Comment