30 arrested for illegal quarrying in Pampanga

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has arrested 30 individuals for illegal quarrying activities allegedly being conducted in an ancestral lands of indigenous peoples in Porac, Pampanga.

Operatives of the NBI and of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources also seized heavy equipment, tools, conveyances and extracted minerals worth almost P1 billion in a November 28 operation in Barangay Manuali, the bureau said Monday.

The arrested individuals, including a barangay chairman and three Chinese nationals, face charges for theft of minerals under the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and for unauthorized and unlawful intrusion under the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997.

One Anson Tanglao and one Chinese national Leong Sek I, identified as owners of Tag Mineral Resources, Inc., were among those named in the charges. Employees of Clarete were also identified.

Ryan Clarete, said to be the captain of Barangay Manuali and manger of LAC Quarry, and the firm's purported owner/operator, Chinese national Mou Ke, were similarly tagged in a complaint.

The NBI said it will investigate the owners and board of directors of Clarete's and Tag Mineral Resources, Inc. for the possible filing of the same charges against them.

The confiscated items from two mineral processing plants and quarry sites are temporarily in the custody of the barangay.

The NBI operation was purportedly based on a complaint of the aetas, through the group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, about quarrying activities in their ancestral land without their consent.