CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Governor Lilia Pineda on Monday confirmed that quarry operations in the province have resumed over the week.
This after talks between Governor Pineda and Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu was held.
Pineda thanked Cimatu for lifting the suspension order.
“We are happy and of course we are thankful that Secretary Cimatu listened to our appeal not to include Pampanga in the suspension order. I even told the Secretary that Pampanga quarry is not hazardous and explained to him that we need to desilt our waterways to prevent flooding,” the governor added.
With the quarry suspension, the Build Build Build project of President Duterte at the New Green City in Capas, Tarlac is affected and the construction might be delayed, as the Pampanga is its source of sand. Almost 70 percent of Manila’s sand source also come from Pampanga.
A week ago, Cimatu suspended quarry operations in 8 regions including Pampanga pending their safety assessment, shortly after a landslide near a quarry site in Naga City, Cebu killed at least 29 people.
“As I’ve said a while ago Pampanga is not a landslide prone area and there’s no mining activities here,” Pineda furthered.