CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Citing what he claimed as "milestones" in quarry collections, Governor Eddie Panlilio said Wednesday that he has fulfilled his campaign promises in 2007.

"I do think I have done what I had to do and fulfilled my promises during the campaign for the 2007 elections. At ito ay sa gitna ng maraming pagsubok at batikos," he said.

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Panlilio said quarry collections as of last November 24 hit the all-time high of P500,418,000, starting from June 30, 2007 when he assumed the Capitol's helm.

"This is many times over compared to the past two administrations. What they collected for several years we did in just 29 months," said the priest-governor, adding that it was through the collective efforts of Capitol officials, quarry operators and truckers that the quarry collections continued to rise despite some slack in the early months of this year.

"And because of this, we have been able to accomplish a lot of projects for the province, including increasing the quarry shares of 13 municipalities and 58 barangays which had received about P169.3 million to date. For infra projects, we were able to release P490 million, P33 million for public health and P50 million for the repair of roads in Sta. Rita,'" he said.

Panlilio said they would formally appeal to the Provincial Board and the Pampanga Mayors League to lift the cap on Ordinance 176 known as "An Ordinance Providing for the Equitable Distribution of Shares of Fees/Taxes Imposed by The Province of Pampanga For The Extraction Of Quarry Materials And For Other Purposes."

"We will appeal for the lifting of Ordinance 176 so that we can use for projects and other programs the P182 million na nakulong doon. Also, we would request the SP to pass na rin the two supplemental budgets we are requesting from them because those are for purchase of hospital equipment and calamity assistance and rehabilitation," Panlilio said.

"I just they would set aside politics na muna because even if I had fulfilled my promise to raise quarry collections, there is still much to be done for our people," he said. (Jovi T. De Leon)