BAGUIO CITY – Concerned residents of Barangay Camp 7 again raised the issue of the continuous operation of the controversial batching plant in their place which reportedly noes not have the appropriate permit from the local government.
While it is true that the local government issued a business permit to Great Zone as a general contractor, the concerned residents claimed the business permit to a general contractor does not actually cover the operation of the cement batching plant that was erected within their community.
The affected residents also questioned the Cordillera office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB-CAR) for issuing an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) to the general contractor for the batching plant when the environmentally critical plant is located within a residential area, thus, the need for the conduct of an investigation on the circumstances that resulted to the issuance of the ECC for the cement batching plant.
The concerned residents, who are allegedly affected by the operation of the batching plant, claimed the general contractor must secure a separate permit for his batching plant because it should be subject to periodic inspections not only by the local government for its compliance to existing environmental laws but also concerned government agencies for other nuisance that it poses to the public.
They called on Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan to pursue the appropriate action needed to close the operation of the batching plant since they had already suffered much from the nuisance since it was put up that even resulted to the clogging of canals and drainage systems in their area as the contractor willfully stockpiled construction materials along the road inconveniencing the motoring and commuting public.
Because of the existence of a previous agreement that contractor transfer the batching plant outside the city, the residents believe the local officials must put added pressure to the contractor for him to fulfill his verbal commitment and not hide under the ruling of a local court that declared an ordinance prohibiting the operation of batching plants in the city as unconstitutional.
They challenged the concerned offices tasked by the local chief executive to publicly report their complaints to make the real issue visible to the public, and not to be harassed by the influence of the rich general contractor so that appropriate actions can be immediately made to stop the daily nuisance in their community and let them live in peace.
Earlier, the City Council passed Ordinance No. 43, series of 2007 prohibiting the operation of cement batching plants within the city but it was declared unconstitutional by a local court, thus, such decision was subsequently appealed by the local government to the Court of Appeals (CA) and that the same is operative unless otherwise declared inoperative by the court with finality.
By HENT
