ANGELES CITY – If he will have his way, the president-emeritus of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (PamCham) and chair of the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon (ADCL) would rather put a stop to the billion-peso quarry industry in Pampanga.
Business leader Rene Romero said, “it looks like the local government failed to oversee and regulate the conveyance of quarry materials (from the source to their destinations)” or simply the thousands of trucks that haul sand and other quarry materials from the river channels.
“We are glad to read in newspapers the huge quarry collection. Ang laki na ng kinikita ng quarry ngayon nasa billion mark na (The quarry collection now has breached the billion peso mark),” Romero noted during the media forum last Friday dubbed “Batirulan king Cafe Juan” at the Holy Angel University here organized by the Capampangan in Media, Inc. (CAMI) in cooperation with the Clark Development Corp. and the Social Security System.
“But the problem is, from our point of view, there seems to be no regulation on the quarry haulers. Makikita mo overloaded ang mga trucks (You can see that the trucks are overloaded) and these trucks now have been extended to contain more materials.
Ang tataas, ang lalake’, ang hahaba (The trucks are now taller, bigger and longer),” Romero observed. “These trucks use the Friendship Road in going to their destinations and we often see truckers paying ‘passway fees.’
Where do these fees go?” he asked noting the pockmarked roads caused mainly by the heavily laden trucks.
“Earlier, we have requested the local government to rehabilitate the Friendship Road from Manibaug, Porac, to Angeles City all the way to Paning’s (in the City of San Fernando) but the LGU and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) just point to each other,” Romero recalled.
“But now that it (Friendship Road) is being rehabilitated by the national government through the DPWH, where is the billion that we earn from quarry operations?” For me personally, Romero said, “if the government is inadequate in regulating the trucks that haul sand, maganda pa siguro wala nang quarry dito at the same time hindi na nadi-disturb ang ating environment (…it is better if quarrying will be stopped here while at the same time the environment will not be disturbed),” Romero said.
Just last week, the provincial government of Pampanga released its quarry collections which showed an increase breaching the P1 billion mark. The Capitol said this is the first time that the P150 sand tax and P250 administrative fee breached the P1 billion collection.
“It is important to derive more income from quarry so that our local revenues are increased for more social services,” Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda said. The provincial government, cities or towns, and villages from where the sand was hauled divide the sand tax revenues at a 30-30-40 percent sharing in compliance with the provision of RA 7160 or the Local Government Code.
Meanwhile, the administrative fees went solely to the provincial government that uses the proceeds to monitor and regulate the industry. Data showed that the high revenue was generated from weighing scale fees with a total collection of P52,261,500 where the amount of P49,432,000 was culled from quarry trucks doing business in Pampanga.
ADCL is an advocacy group composed of individuals from various sectors of the community who are committed to share ideas and resources, open gates for opportunities and engineer development programs for Central Luzon’s economic growth and financial stability.
ADCL is also a nonstock, non-profit group with SEC Registration No. CN200712667. It is also an accredited NGO by the provincial government of Pampanga and a regular member of the Pampanga Provincial Development Council.
