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[av_heading heading=’Chinese vessel in river dredging held offshore’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY BOY RYAN ZABAL
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Friday, February 3, 2017
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Government inspectors check the MV Zhong Hai 18, the vessel commissioned to dredge the silted Aklan River. RODNEL AGUIRRE / AKLAN FORUM JOURNAL
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KALIBO, Aklan – A Chinese vessel cannot leave Philippine waters until the investigation into the illegal dredging of the Aklan River is completed.
Eighteen crew members of MV Zhong Hai 18 will also be investigated for violation of immigration and labor laws.
“Authorities will hold MV Zhong Hai 18 and its crewmen indefinitely,” said Arturo Valdez, undersecretary for field operations of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Santarli (STL) Panay Resources Company Limited commissioned the Chinese vessel to dredge the silted Aklan River.
But the DENR’s National Environmental Crime Task Force served the company a cease-and-desist order on Tuesday.
It found out the STL had a yet-to-be-approved “as-staked survey” with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) national office allowing the dredging and the ship’s Chinese crew had “no papers and permits to dredge.”
Valdez said the ship had no mineral ore export permit for shipment/transport outside the Philippines. The DENR secretary issues such permit.
The crew also had no proper employment/work permits, while the STL violated its environmental compliance certificate and failed to consult the residents of Barangay Bakhaw Norte and the local government, he said.
Bakhaw Norte, an island barangay, was bounded by Aklan River and Sibuyan Sea.
MV Zhong Hai 18 arrived in the Philippines from the port of Zhuhai, China and anchored near the mouth of the Aklan River on Nov. 22, 2016.
Classified as general cargo, the steel-hauled vessel was built in 2011 and registered with the port in Suva, Republic of Fiji. It was 95.5 meters in total length and 16.8 meters in molded breadth.
Bakhaw Norte residents were alarmed when MV Zhong Hai 18 started carrying out underwater activities last month.
On Jan. 23, a DENR multipartite monitoring team discovered the ship was loaded with 1,200 cubic meters of sand dredged in two compartments.
Alleging it was “premature,” around 100 residents called for a halt to the dredging at the Aklan River in a protest at the provincial DENR office and the DPWH-Aklan District Engineering Office on Jan. 26.
On same day, provincial Environment officer Ivene Reyes also issued cease-and-desist and show-cause orders to STL managing director Patrick Lim.
On Jan. 30, DENR secretary Regina Paz Lopez received complaints against the dredging from Mayor William Lachica, Sangguniang Panlalawigan member Harry Sucgang and Bakhaw Norte barangay captain Maribeth Cual.
Lopez ordered the DENR’s National Environmental Crime Task Force to apprehend the vessel and serve the STL a cease-and-desist order the following day.
Cual, who led the protest against the dredging, thanked Lopez for her immediate action.
“Nakatulog na rin kami ng mahimbing dahil sa agarang aksyon ng DENR sa tulong na rin ng simbahan at mga opisyales ng Kalibo,” she said.
Cual promised her constituents that they will continue monitoring the activities of MV Zhong Hai 18. (Aklan Forum Journal/PN)
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