In the former Philippines capital Quezon City, the environmental department issued a moratorium on all quarrying activities citing imminent danger in the area, according to a report by BusinessWorld Online. The 24,530-hectare municipality is a riverbed where less than 100 quarrying companies operate to get sand and gravel.

"[Environment Secretary Jose L. Atienza, Jr.] made the order based on complaints from various concerned sectors and made it very clear that the action is not to put an end to businesses and not to question the authority of local government units, but more on being prepared for and to prevent disasters, especially during calamities," Leo L. Jasareno, mining tenements management chief of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, said in a press release.

Jasareno said that the MGB briefed the provincial government of Quezon last July on the bureau’s geo-hazard findings, indicating that there is an imminent danger of flooding in the area, the news agency reported.

A government team will make an inventory of the quarrys in that area to identify illegal aggregate operations. The moratorium will remain in effect until the teams report is complete, which may take one month, the news agency reported.