Monday, March 24, 2008 PB questions waiving of quarry fee at Gugu creek By Marna H. Dagumboy
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The Provincial Board (PB) has questioned Governor Eddie Panlilio's decision not to collect quarry fee from haulers desilting the downstream portion of the Gugu Creek in Barangay Cabalantian, Bacolor.
Vice Governor Joseller "Yeng" Guiao said the governor has "no authority to waive quarry fees" without asking the PB first.
"How can he waive quarry fees by himself?" Guiao asked.
Sun.Star tried but failed to get the reaction of the priest-turned-governor, but Provincial Legal Officer Maria Elissa Velez said Panlilio is not waiving the quarry fee himself. She said the governor wrote the PB about it.
Velez said Panlilio had requested the exemption of Gugu Creek's downstream portion from quarry fee because of the need to immediately desilt the area.
The PB is set to meet Panlilio and Bacolor officials during Monday's committee hearing to discuss the waiving of quarry fee in the perennially silted waterway.
Earlier, the governor and Bacolor municipal and barangay officials agreed to open the desilting of Gugu creek's downstream portion to quarry operators without any fee to be collected by the Capitol.
The agreement was reached after Bacolor Mayor Romeo Dungca proposed to declare the area in Barangay Cabalantian as a "free zone."
Dungca asked for the immediate desilting of the waterway, as it threatens several villages in his town, especially this coming rainy season.
Both parties agreed that no extraction fee would be collected from quarry operators who would participate in the desilting operation.
In the recent dialogue between provincial and Bacolor officials at the Capitol, Provincial Administrator Vivian Dabu clarified that certain legalities need to be followed and that the specific areas that will be desilted should be properly identified.
Scores of Bacolor residents trooped to the streets to denounce what they claimed as the Capitol's stoppage of desilting operations at the Gugu creek, which they said has put their properties and lives in danger.
Association of Barangay Captains (ABCs) president Jomar Hizon said several barangays like Talba, Tinajero and his own barangay have already been put at risk when the water of Gugu wiped out the creek's embankment, flooding hundreds of farms and houses.
The mass action resulted in the dialogue between Panlilio and Bacolor municipal and village officials that led to the declaration of Gugu Creek's downstream portion as a "free zone" where no quarry fee will be collected from lahar sand haulers.
