MARX IS right: History repeats itself: first as tragedy, second as farce.
That dictum once more instanced in the story of Ordinance 176.
Officially titled “An Ordinance Providing for Equitable Shares of Fees/Taxes imposed by the Province of Pampanga for the Extraction of Quarry Materials and other Purposes,” O-176 was passed by the sangguniang panlalawigan (SP) sometime in early 2008, if memory serves right.
Principally crafted by the Pampanga Mayors League under the presidency of Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda as Proposed Ordinance 172, O-176 sought the integration of the P150 per-truck administrative fee collected by the provincial government to the P150 per-truck sand tax. The resultant P300 then be the whole pot in the 30-30-40 sharing scheme among the provincial, municipal and barangay government units, instead of the P150 sand tax only.
A day of great rejoicing at the SP was the day O-176 was inked. For Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio, it was a day of mournful defiance. Further widening the already great divide that obtained at the Capitol that time.
Instantly, Panlilio’s chorus line of Abak na Balen, Kapampangan Marangal Inc., Pampanga Association of Non-Government Organizations, and others mobilized his supporters and threatened to unleash “people power” upon Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao, the SP and the Pampanga Mayors League via a signature drive to start an initiative against O-176.
Failing to marshal enough signatures – last public count was a low 400, if memory serves right again – Panlilio vetoed O-176 in a contrived melodrama of sorts: affixing his signature to the veto paper amid the stirring strains of Kapampangan Ku.
The SP instantly overrode Panlilio’s veto. And for as long as he could legally hold, he sat on O-176.
We remember then that whenever the SP asked the executive department why it had not yet implemented the ordinance, the instant and constant answer was that it was still preparing the implementing rules and regulations. Indeed, “IRR. IRR.” came to be a mantra of the Panlilio administration.
Then, on March 17, 2008, Holy Monday itself, Panlilio filed a case with the regional trial court against the implementation of O-176 invoking the “right” of non-quarry towns and barangays to get their own shares from the quarry revenues to pursue their own development plans.
An exasperated Guiao could only lament: “That’s his mode of (un)reasoning. Then, they were arguing implementing rules and regulations. Now, (with the court case) he’s singing a different tune.”
Too hot to handle for the honorable judges proved to be the case Panlilio filed at the RTC. Three of them, for various reasons, inhibited themselves from handling the case.
“I can’t blame them because the case is expected to be highly politically charged.” So was Panlilio quoted then.
That was the last thing heard of O-176, having been overtaken by more politically volatile, and therefore media-fancied, events as the move to recall Panlilio – it did not push through for lack of material time despite the over 240,000 signatures; the recount of the 2007 votes which ended with Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda declared as true winner; and finally the campaign and elections of 2010 that avalanched Panlilio out of the governorship.
Then – wonder of wonders – last Tuesday, the SP by an 8-3 vote unceremoniously repealed O-176.
Repeal proponent Board Member Nestor Tolentino was quoted in the media as having said that “the scrapping of the ordinance will give the province its ‘fair share’ in the quarry collection to effectively fund projects and development plans for the province.”
Further rationalized Tolentino: “The provincial government has been the one shouldering the expenses in the manning of the quarry checkpoints and has been spending to keep quarry collections high through its administrative management. It would be better if the province would be able to have more funds to pursue its many development plans.”
Virtually quoted verbatim there is Panlilio in his obstinate stand against O-176.
More rationalizations from Vice Governor Guaio quoted as having said that “the board members saw the need to repeal the ordinance to give way to much better management of the fees derived from the administrative fees… the repeal would pave the way for the use of the quarry shares of the province which were held ‘hostage’ by the legal battle over the ordinance.”
A direct apologia from Guiao: “This issue has been lingering in the courts for two years now. It would not be healthy for the province if the ordinance would not be repealed in favor of the many projects that await funding.”
Again, I thought I heard Panlilio talking there.
With its repeal of O-176, the SP definitively affirmed the rightness of Panlilio’s stand against it. Even as the honorable board members ate their own crap. Cow dung!
No principled politics there. Only exigencies. A farce of a legislation O-176 turned out to be.
That dictum once more instanced in the story of Ordinance 176.
Officially titled “An Ordinance Providing for Equitable Shares of Fees/Taxes imposed by the Province of Pampanga for the Extraction of Quarry Materials and other Purposes,” O-176 was passed by the sangguniang panlalawigan (SP) sometime in early 2008, if memory serves right.
Principally crafted by the Pampanga Mayors League under the presidency of Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda as Proposed Ordinance 172, O-176 sought the integration of the P150 per-truck administrative fee collected by the provincial government to the P150 per-truck sand tax. The resultant P300 then be the whole pot in the 30-30-40 sharing scheme among the provincial, municipal and barangay government units, instead of the P150 sand tax only.
A day of great rejoicing at the SP was the day O-176 was inked. For Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio, it was a day of mournful defiance. Further widening the already great divide that obtained at the Capitol that time.
Instantly, Panlilio’s chorus line of Abak na Balen, Kapampangan Marangal Inc., Pampanga Association of Non-Government Organizations, and others mobilized his supporters and threatened to unleash “people power” upon Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao, the SP and the Pampanga Mayors League via a signature drive to start an initiative against O-176.
Failing to marshal enough signatures – last public count was a low 400, if memory serves right again – Panlilio vetoed O-176 in a contrived melodrama of sorts: affixing his signature to the veto paper amid the stirring strains of Kapampangan Ku.
The SP instantly overrode Panlilio’s veto. And for as long as he could legally hold, he sat on O-176.
We remember then that whenever the SP asked the executive department why it had not yet implemented the ordinance, the instant and constant answer was that it was still preparing the implementing rules and regulations. Indeed, “IRR. IRR.” came to be a mantra of the Panlilio administration.
Then, on March 17, 2008, Holy Monday itself, Panlilio filed a case with the regional trial court against the implementation of O-176 invoking the “right” of non-quarry towns and barangays to get their own shares from the quarry revenues to pursue their own development plans.
An exasperated Guiao could only lament: “That’s his mode of (un)reasoning. Then, they were arguing implementing rules and regulations. Now, (with the court case) he’s singing a different tune.”
Too hot to handle for the honorable judges proved to be the case Panlilio filed at the RTC. Three of them, for various reasons, inhibited themselves from handling the case.
“I can’t blame them because the case is expected to be highly politically charged.” So was Panlilio quoted then.
That was the last thing heard of O-176, having been overtaken by more politically volatile, and therefore media-fancied, events as the move to recall Panlilio – it did not push through for lack of material time despite the over 240,000 signatures; the recount of the 2007 votes which ended with Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda declared as true winner; and finally the campaign and elections of 2010 that avalanched Panlilio out of the governorship.
Then – wonder of wonders – last Tuesday, the SP by an 8-3 vote unceremoniously repealed O-176.
Repeal proponent Board Member Nestor Tolentino was quoted in the media as having said that “the scrapping of the ordinance will give the province its ‘fair share’ in the quarry collection to effectively fund projects and development plans for the province.”
Further rationalized Tolentino: “The provincial government has been the one shouldering the expenses in the manning of the quarry checkpoints and has been spending to keep quarry collections high through its administrative management. It would be better if the province would be able to have more funds to pursue its many development plans.”
Virtually quoted verbatim there is Panlilio in his obstinate stand against O-176.
More rationalizations from Vice Governor Guaio quoted as having said that “the board members saw the need to repeal the ordinance to give way to much better management of the fees derived from the administrative fees… the repeal would pave the way for the use of the quarry shares of the province which were held ‘hostage’ by the legal battle over the ordinance.”
A direct apologia from Guiao: “This issue has been lingering in the courts for two years now. It would not be healthy for the province if the ordinance would not be repealed in favor of the many projects that await funding.”
Again, I thought I heard Panlilio talking there.
With its repeal of O-176, the SP definitively affirmed the rightness of Panlilio’s stand against it. Even as the honorable board members ate their own crap. Cow dung!
No principled politics there. Only exigencies. A farce of a legislation O-176 turned out to be.
