TACLOBAN CITY – The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Leyte will invite representatives from the National Irrigation Administration to discuss the extent of damage caused by the operation of Nicua Mining Company in the municipality of MacArthur town,Leyte.
The invitation of Leyte SP to the NIA came out as the provincial board wanted to be clear if there were no damages caused by the mining operation in MacArthur as representatives of Nicua Mining Company said that they have no knowledge on any damage due to their mining operation as alleged by the NIA particularly on irrigation system that was constructed to support rice fields in said town.
In the recent session where representatives of Nicua were present, they claimed that they are not aware on the claim of NIA that there are irrigation facilities provided by them to the farmers in the two barangays covered by their operation.
The said claim of damages on irrigation facilities was revealed by Leyte second district Board Member Anlie Apostol as reported to her by some farmer residents and NIA officials.
The invitation for NIA officials to appear in their next session was raised by Apostol and her fellow board member from the second district, Niccolo Villasin.
“We wanted to be clarified on the alleged damage that was caused by the mining operation to the irrigation facilities in MacArthur as it is essential farm-support to our rice farmers,” Villasin explained.
In the video presentation made by the representatives of Nicua , the video showed that most of the affected lands were rice fields.
“If indeed the reports that reaches my office that irrigation facilities were affected by their operation it does not only affect the farmers in the two barangays where their operation is concentrated but including other barangays where the irrigation canals traverse,” Apostol stressed in an interview after their talk with Nicua representatives.
“Construction of those irrigation canals cost millions of pesos.That is why we wanted to be clarified if indeed these are true because this will affect the production of our farmers,” she added.
“That is why, we invited them to appear before us on our next session including the representatives of Nicua and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau to discuss with us and show to us what were the damages that they claim and how much does those damages cost,” Apostol added. (ROEL AMAZONA)
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