CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The sand that Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruptions spewed out has brought “riches” to villages in Pampanga province buried by the volcanic debris.

Health insurance, medicines, electricity, service vehicles, barangay halls, classrooms and land for resettlements are among the items that some barangay captains are spending on from their share in the quarry revenues collected by the provincial government.

Take the villages of Manibaug-Pasig and Mancatian in Porac town.

On Tuesday, Manibaug-Pasig received two checks for P4.053 million, increasing its take to P10.69 million from July 2, 2007 to May 15, 2008.

The checks for Mancatian reached P3.375 million, increasing its total share to P7.719 million during the period.

That same day, 10 towns and 39 villages received a total of P33.147 million from out of the P47 million generated from the P150 tax per truckload of sand from Nov. 16, 2007 to May 15, 2008.

Their combined revenue share rose to P65.68 million from July 2, 2007 to May 15, 2008. Towns get 30 percent and villages 40 percent.

Bigger share

“What we’re getting now is 1,000 times bigger than what we used to receive,” Marcelino Escoto, barangay chair of Manibaug-Pasig, said after he received the checks from Gov. Eddie Panlilio.

Barangay chair Apolomiano Tadeo of Mancatian said his village’s share used to be only between P20,000 and P40,000 monthly.

“We’re happy because we’re able to do many projects and we’re helping many of our villagers,” Tadeo said. “This is a big help.”

Revive village

Part of Mancatian’s money went to a P1.5-million down payment for a hectare of land. Tadeo said the village would pay P2 million this week to complete the land acquisition.

“We plan to put up a resettlement site right in our old village. Our people are dispersed and they have no farms to till in sites where they were transferred. We want to gather them again, revive our village again,” Tadeo said of the council’s “Balik-Barangay” program.

Escoto said his constituents were happy because “we’re not [taking out] loans or incurring interests to fund our projects.”

His village used to get an average share of P31,000 monthly. Since July last year, the amount shot up to P1.5 million a month.

Hope Village to rise

The Manibaug-Pasig council bought a three-hectare land for P6.2 million, tapping the Gawad Kalinga to start the “Hope Village” there.

Quarry revenues also paid for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. premiums of 430 families. At least P650,000 was spent to buy a slightly used van as a service vehicle.

The P1.3 million in electric bills the village owed for five years has been mostly settled, leaving only a balance of P100,000 as of March.

School built

The council built a barangay hall and a school for P5 million by paying P500,000 monthly to a contractor.

Elementary classes for Grades 1 to 6 have started for children in the new community.

Other village chiefs reported using the income to help indigents and to fund scholarships, road repairs and other community services.

Governor’s system

It was “easy” to generate sand revenues, according to Panlilio. “All it took was to require all quarry operators or haulers to pay the tax and administrative fee of P150 directly at the provincial treasurer’s office, not in quarry checkpoints. We also fielded about 200 field personnel to monitor quarry operations,” he said.

Collections since June 30 last year have totaled P217 million, half of which was drawn from the administrative fee to enforce the regulatory system and make the industry free from anomalies from the field up to the provincial capitol.

Income plowed back

The provincial government’s 30-percent share from the income was plowed back to the general fund to support the additional purchases of medicines, repair of hospitals and other social services, Panlilio said.

The hard part, he said, was when the Pampanga Mayors League (PML) and the provincial board pushed for a new quarry law, Ordinance No. 176.

Panlilio said he had “no problem” with the PML and the board seeking to increase the sand tax to P300. He could not, however, let the capitol go without the P150 administrative fee because that is used to enforce the system that actually brings in the sand revenue.

Sand-poor towns

Moreover, excess funds from the collection of the administrative fee are used to repair roads worn out by sand hauling or are shared with other towns that are not sand-rich, according to the governor.

“Pampanga suffered from Mt. Pinatubo’s eruptions and lahar flows. So the other towns, not only seven or 11 towns, should benefit from it,” Panlilio said.

The PML and the board, in past sessions, believed it was “right” for the sand-rich towns to directly regulate the industry and benefit from it.

Ordinance No. 176 is a subject of what is seen as a long-drawn court battle.