Table Talk By: Mike S. Apostol Sand quarrying right at RT Lim Blvd My early Sunday Morning brisk walking exercise at the bay walk in RT Lim, I saw for myself piles upon piles of empty cement jute sacks filled with fine sand from the shoreline of RT Lim Blvd fronting the former NEDA office and the Carmelite Sisters Monastery. It was a surprise to see illegal quarrying right at the heart of the city on a busy public beach. The quarrying left a deep canal at the far end of the bay walk going to the wharf. This deep canal will surely be the cause of erosion and a blatant display of arrogance by the concerned individual who is doing the quarrying. Just last Saturday, front page news of this paper The Daily Zamboanga Times, reports that four individuals were caught quarrying illegally in Limpapa the farthest barangay of the West Coast by elements of the Labuan Police station and personnel of the Office of the City Environment and natural resources (OCENR), RT Lim Blvd is just a few hundred meters from City Hall and the Central Police station and just a stone’s throw from the PNP Camp Batalla Headquarters and a few meters from the OCENR office at the Joaquin Enriquez Sports complex yet illegal quarrying of fine sand is done at the boulevard which took nature decades to create that public beach of fine sand. *** The individual concerned in that illegal quarrying at RT Lim Blvd must be influential and well connected, because that area is always guarded by policemen day and night. What makes matters alarming is that, collecting sand from the beach of a protected area like RT Lim Blvd is unconscionable. It is destroying nature and the environment and the full force of the law must be meted on the individuals who collected fine sand at the boulevard and for destroying the natural beach with a canal that will be the cause of erosion. “Ignorance of the Law excuses no one” and this blatant violation and destruction of the environment right at the heart of the city must not be ignored and the culprits should not be left unpunished because the damage they have done will take many years to be restored by nature. *** It is obvious and apparent that our authorities and officials are not keen on protecting the environment and will only act when there are complaints of destruction. We believe that monitoring activities that might endanger or destroy the environment is a daily task and routine. Looking and seeing the status of natural beaches and shoreline everyday and reporting what they observed and apprehend those they find destroying natural resources is not a hard task, in fact it is healthful, rather than sitting in a table waiting for complaints. The damage to nature has already happened after every complaint. *** The City Government, the DENR, the PNP and the OCENR, must join hands in protecting and preserving RT Lim Boulevard. Collecting fine sand at the RT Lim Beach must strictly be prohibited and nobody should be exempted from this violation and destruction by any tribe, creed or status because the boulevard is the only refuge left for the city against pollutant vandals and litterbugs who are occupying every piece of habitable area in the city regardless of whether it is private or public property. Sometimes the air that we breathe in the city is not anymore colorless and invisible because pollution almost makes us see the air that we breathe. *** Scoop: Protection of the environment is the duty of every living person from any tribe and the Law to punish violators should for all and the authorities enforcing this Law should be firm to be effective. Agree or disagree. ***
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 02:07:38 +0000
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