Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu on Wednesday threatened to shut down a quarrying firm and cancel its permit for encroachment into the Masungi Geopark in Baras, Rizal.
“Aside from closure, we will summon and give them notice of violation with what they did here,” he said.
He identified the quarrying firm as Rapid City Realty and Development Corp., whose mineral production sharing agreement granted by the DENR in 1998 is now being looked into by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.
In a recent area inspection, Cimatu, along with Undersecretary Benny Antiporda, removed and confiscated the barbed wires hammered into the Tibig trees in the disputed area.
He blamed the quarrying firm for fencing off one-fourth of the 2,000-hectare ecotourism and conservation Masungi Geopark.
According to Cimatu, he has instructed the Mines and Geosciences Bureau to scrutinize the mineral production sharing agreements of another two quarrying firms—Quarry Rock Group Inc. and Quimson Limestone Inc., along Rapid City Realty and Development Corp., that have also been operating within the Upper Marikina River basin protected landscape using agreements issued in the late 1990s.
“This is a watershed, and also a protected area. We have already identified this as a protected area and these mining companies are within the protected area,” Cimatu said.