Proof of the Chatto administration’s best governance, is this report that quarry revenues under the incumbent governor’s watch has hit a record high of over P5 million for this year. According to a press release from the Capitol’s DEVCOM media bureau this is an unprecedented annual income since Gov. Edgar Chatto ordered the faithful enforcement of the sand and gravel and other quarry resources ordinance in the province. Bohol under Chatto and Vice Gov. Concepcion Lim has been awarded the best-governed province by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). Bohol Environment and Management Office (BEMO) head Leonilo Lafuente confidently forecast the total income which could reach more than P5 million to include permit fees and penalties.

He mainly attributed this to the reform instituted by the Chatto administration leading to intensified religious enforcement of the quarry law and regular monitoring of mineral extraction activities. Permitees underwent orientation on the more forceful government policy while LGUs were made to appreciate their essential role in and given their just share from the responsible utilization of natural resources, according to Lafuente. He said many violators, notably those who had been used to illegal quarrying before capitol changed leadership, were apprehended in 2010 when Chatto became governor. This could mean that many had been into illegal operations until the present administration imposed an iron will, according to Lafuente.

They were forced to comply with the laws in their quarry operation as the governor had them realized the seriousness of his reform agenda, according to the BEMO chief. Lafuente recounted that the provincial government had in fact raked in some P1.3 million in just two months briefly after Chatto assumed office last year. It was when the then newly-installed governor ordered a no-nonsense enforcement of the quarry ordinance and environmental laws governing small-scale mining. That quarry income in so short a time had then already surpassed by manifold the annual income in previous years, Lafuente said. The BEMO official admitted that there were still violators apprehended and penalized this year, but their number decreased precisely many heeded to capitol’s call and stopped their illegal activities.

Lafuente said the execution of the laws without fear or favor, even if the offenders are government officials themselves, remain a marching order. A town official engaged in quarry business got irked why only now that his men were apprehended for certain violations when in fact no one caught them in the past. BEMO sources confirmed this information. Lafuente explained that the intensified campaign against illegal quarry extractions and related activities adheres to the overarching sustainable development agenda of the province. He disclosed the crafting of special supplemental guidelines for a more successful---and meaningful--- implementation of the small-scale mining ordinance of the province. The new policy set intends to avoid ecological degradation, compensate for the “damage” done on a quarry site and secure the quarry workers.

One proposal seeks to prohibit quarrying in wooded areas.

Lafuente hinted that if the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) penalizes the illegal cutting of just one tree, why should the government allow quarrying in a forested mountain. It is also proposed to strictly rehabilitate a quarried area as requirement for extraction permit renewal thru backfilling waste materials into the extracted portions, benching or laddering of cliffy quarry sites, and planting of trees even not right in the vicinity of the extraction. Lafuente however assured that as practiced by the present dispensation, the government observes consultation process with the stakeholders in the formulation of policy. Consultative and participative governance is a hallmark of the administration of Chatto, who is this year’s national Dangal ng Bayan Awardee of the Civil Service Commission after being conferred the Lingkod Bayan Award while he was vice governor a decade ago. Chatto is the only elective local government official conferred the two highest honors in Philippine civil service. ( With Ven rebo Arigo)