CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Acting on the petition of Pampanga Gov. Eddie Panlilio, a judge here on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order against the implementation of a new quarry law in the province.

In issuing the 20-day TRO, Judge Serafin David of the regional trial court said the “provisions of Ordinance No. 176 Series of 2007 appears to be contentious.”

David also described as contentious “any diminution, constrictions, restrictions of the existing rights of the provincial governor under the Constitution, Local Government Code and Philippine Mining Act.”

David said “any delay with the exercise of the power and authority of the provincial governor to raise the needed revenues pending the resolution of the constitutionality of the ordinance would cause great and irreparable injury” to Pampanga and the towns and villages affected.

The judge set on May 26 the hearing for preliminary injunction, which Panlilio also sought.

The TRO covered Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Vice Gov. Joseller Guiao, the provincial board and former Board Member Nilo Caballa, among others.

Guiao declined comments until he received an official copy of the TRO.

Gonzalez was covered by the TRO because Panlilio’s petition challenged the secretary’s refusal to rule on the constitutionality and legality of several provisions in the ordinance.

Approved by the provincial board on Sept. 21, 2007, upon the lobby of the Pampanga Mayors League on Aug. 29, the ordinance increased the extraction fee from P150 to P300 for every truckload of sand.

It also abolished the P150 administrative fee, created an evaluation committee to determine the base price of extraction fee, formed town associations of quarry operators and a provincial federation, empowered the mayors to participate in the issuance of permits and required the purchase of official receipts through a representative of the federation.

Through the same petition, Panlilio questioned the declaration by Gonzalez that the P300 extraction fee in the new ordinance was not a tax but a “regulatory fee.”

This stopped the governor from distributing the shares of seven towns and 20 villages from the sand revenues.