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Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Party-list lawmakers: Probe quarry anomalies
By Albert B. Lacanlale
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Four party-list congressmen have joined the clamor for an investigation on alleged anomalies hounding the lucrative sand and gravel industry in Pampanga.
Representatives Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva of Cibac, Renato B. Magtubo of Partido Mangagagawa, Florencio G. Noel of An Waray, and Mujiv S. Hataman of Anak Mindanao filed a resolution directing the appropriate committee to conduct an inquiry into alleged irregularities in the collection of quarry fees in the province.
The lawmakers filed the measure on February 7, just two days before the House committee on environment and natural resources held an initial public hearing on a related resolution filed by Third District Representative Rey B. Aquino.
While Aquino's resolution was aimed at strengthening the income-generating potentials of the Pampanga quarry business, the congressmen's measure seeks to determine if any laws were being violated in the quarrying activities in Pampanga.
They said the inquiry they are proposing "would also give opportunity for the concerned local government units and government agencies to explain the inefficiency in the collection of quarry taxes and fees."
In their resolution, the four lawmakers said an average of 2,000 to 3,000 truckloads of sand, gravel and other quarry resources are being extracted or hauled from the different quarry sites within the territorial jurisdiction of Pampanga.
The Natural Resources Development Corporation (NRDC), the corporate arm of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), was previously tasked to collect fees on quarry resources extracted from the province from 1999 to 2001.
During that period, the congressmen said, the NRDC was able to collect a total amount of P382 million.
"From the amount collected by the NRDC, the Province of Pampanga, together with its municipalities and barangays, were given the total net share of P103 million, more or less," they further said.
However, from 2002 to 2004, they said, the province had been grossly inefficient in the collection of quarry fees and was able to collect only around P20 million.
Even before the lawmakers passed measures in Congress asking for an investigation into the irregularity, the Provincial Government, under Governor Mark T. Lapid, already formed a task force to monitor quarry operations in the province.
Provincial Administrator Fidel Arcenas, in the last committee hearing in Congress, said since the task force was constituted, the quarry collection has significantly increased.
The increase seemed to support Lapid's vow to improve the province's income from sand and gravel hauled within its territory.
As of March 15, Arcenas said, the province has already collected a total of P5.6 million in quarry fees.
The party-list congressmen emphasized a survey by the private sector representative in the Regional Development Council (RDC) showing that most businessmen in the province reportedly perceive the Provincial Capitol's system for quarry tax and fee collection as tainted with corruption and irregularities.
"The committee investigation would allow members of the House of Representatives to review, study and evaluate the existing laws and policies concerning the extraction of minerals and aggregates for purposes of proposing the relevant legislative measures on this matter," the four lawmakers said.
(March 29, 2005 issue)
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