Gwen mulls filing tax claim vs dolomite mining firm

CEBU CITY—The Cebu provincial government is poised to collect close to a million pesos in unpaid taxes against a mining company in Alcoy town in southern Cebu province that supplied the dolomite for the beautification of Manila Bay.

Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said the Philippine Mining Services Corporation (PMSC) violated the province’s Tax Revenue Code for operating without a governor’s permit when it sold crushed dolomite, as well as sand and gravel, to domestic buyers.

The company has not also paid a tax of 10 percent of local fair market value per cubic meter of quarry resources in the province, she said.

Based on the initial computation of the Provincial Treasurer’s Office, PMSC would have to pay P726,923.077 to the province for the at least 7,000 metric tons of dolomite shipped to Manila, said provincial treasurer Roy Salubre.

Suspension order

On Sept. 25, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu suspended the operations of PMSC and Dolomite Mining Corporation (DMC) pending the result of an investigation into the finding of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office that corals within the 500 meters of seawater in Barangay Pugalo of Alcoy were destroyed by the heavy siltation caused by crushed dolomite that fell to the sea when it was transported to the bulk carrier vessel through a conveyor belt.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Central Visayas earlier issued two ore transportation permits to PMSC authorizing the shipment of dolomite to Manila valued at P1.64 million.

Stop domestic sale

Garcia clarified that she did not totally stop the operations of DMC and PMSC, whose activities in Alcoy were covered by a 25-year mining agreement with the government. She said she only wanted to stop the domestic sale of dolomite rocks by the two companies, which are not covered by the Mineral Production Sharing Agreement.

By entertaining demands from within the country, Garcia said the mining firms face the possibility of going over the estimated volume it was allowed to extract, posing a great threat to the environment. —ADOR VINCENT MAYOL AND NESTLE SEMILLA