Pampanga towns, villages get P 81M from quarry fund

‘WHITE GOLD’ The sand that took lives and buried villages during Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991 and lahar flows until 1997 is now considered the “white gold” of Pampanga, with quarrying for the construction industry bringing in taxes and other fees to the province’s coffers. —TONETTE OREJAS

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — The provincial government of Pampanga has distributed P80.7 million as shares of 16 towns and 77 villages from an income of P115.3 million derived from the sand tax on Mt. Pinatubo’s minerals in the last seven months.

The towns received P34.6 million while the villages got P46.1 million. The amounts represented their shares of 30 percent and 40 percent, respectively, as authorized by Republic Act No. 7160, or the Local Government Code of 1991, Gov. Dennis Pineda said.

Biggest shares

The provincial government, which got its 30-percent share of P34.6 million, also collected P192.2 million from the P250 administrative fee that is used to fund field operations and salaries of employees in the quarry monitoring unit called Kalam.

Records showed that the towns of Porac and Bacolor received the biggest shares at P38.3 million and P16.6 million, respectively, from the quarry fund collected from July 1, 2019, to Jan. 31 this year.

Porac Mayor Jing Capil and Bacolor Mayor Eduardo Datu said the money was handed to them as checks, noting that they would spend the additional income on local projects and services.

Average collectionPampanga’s local governments expect to get more from the February collection as the P150 sand tax and P250 administrative fee reached P57.1 million last month, the highest monthly collection on record. This brought quarry revenues to an all-time high of P404.14 million in the last eight months.

“The monthly average has been P50 million,” Pineda told the Inquirer.

According to the capitol’s figures, the P404.14 million consisted of fines and penalties, quarry collection, weighing scale fee on trucks operating in the province, sand and gravel permit, accreditation of motor vehicles and accreditation of heavy equipment.

Quarry revenues reached P38.5 million during the administration of former Gov. Lito Lapid, P82.6 million under former Gov. Mark Lapid, P616.2 million under former Gov. Eddie Panlilio and P2.8 billion under former Gov. Lilia Pineda.—Tonette Orejas