CLARK FREEPORT—The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has recommended the suspension for another week of the sand-quarrying operations in the Pampanga side of the Sacobia River, as well as the northern side of this free port.
The MGB said overextraction of sand from the Sacobia River will endanger the P700-million Sacobia Bridge that links the main zone of this free port to the vast Clark economic zone.
If left unchecked, multibillion-dollar investments from a host of multinational companies that set up factories and buildings near the area might be in danger of being swamped with floodwaters from the river in case of nonstop torrential rains.
As a result of these findings from the MGB of the DENR, sand-quarrying operations in the Pampanga side of the Sacobia River is suspended for another week.
Art Punzalan, Pampanga government environment and natural resources officer, said the continued suspension will allow the MGB to oversee preparations for the rehabilitation of the overextracted quarrying section of the river channel and give way to a ground survey in the area and set boundaries.
During Monday’s presentation of the Rapid Assessment Report conducted by the MGB, Noel B. Lacadin, chief of the geosciences division, said a 1999 study estimated 4.7 million cubic meters of lahar was recommended for extraction, leaving a maximum of 3.4 meters in depth along the river channel and its embankments.
Because of the then heavily silted river channel, Marcos Village was in danger of being eroded based on the 1999 study.
Lacadin said after Mount Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991, Santa Rita in Concepcion, Tarlac, was wiped out by lahar and in 1992, Tabun, Mabalacat, was also wiped out by lahar events, which formed part of an “alluvial fan”.
He said a secondary explosion in 1991 diverted the lahar upstream of the Abacan River to the Sacobia River that greatly contributed to strong lahar flows. It was only in the following year, he said, when another secondary explosion diverted lahar to the Pasig Potrero River system.
Lacadin said if no desilting was made in the Sacobia River then, Marcos Village would have been eroded and “we would have a laharized CDC [Clark Development Corp.].” The scenarios in the alluvial fan would have happened in Clark, he said.
“We can conclude the desilting process was a success after that and from 1999, we were not consulted again by CDC until last week to conduct a study on the present condition of the river channel,” Lacadin said.
Punzalan said more or less only 480,000 cubic meters of sand remain that can safely be extracted. He added it will be divided by 24 slots because there are 24 applications for quarry operators and will be raffled off to them. But this time, we will have a monthly monitoring to prevent overextraction,” he said.
Punzalan added the 4.5 million cubic meters recommended by the MGB then was overextracted to up to 12 million cubic meters leaving up to 5 meters high in the embankments.
“Our duty is to save the environment first because it is already considered as a critical environmental portion,” he said.
Punzalan said a 1-kilometer radius from the Sacobia Bridge is now a “no quarry zone”.
The up and downstream sections of the river were identified as possible quarry sites by the MGB, but a ground survey will first have to be undertaken, he added.
Gov. Lilia G. Pineda, who was present at the CDC boardroom when the presentation was made, said roads leading to the new quarry sites will be developed to access the areas.
She added quarry operators over extracted sand near the bridge because it was near the road and easily accessed, while the up and downstream sections bogged down quarry trucks because of the soft ground.
In concluding their report, Lacadin said the river is characterized as “braided upstream, which means it is depositing, it can easily overtop its banks that is why it should be desilted”.
The management scheme is to straighten the channel, he said.
“But in the middle area it cannot be quarried because it might affect the Sacobia Bridge,” he said.
Other officials in attendance during the MGB presentation aside from Pineda included Clark Development Corp. Chairman Jesus de Jesus and CDC President and CEO Noel F. Manankil.