Quarry operations resume in Pampanga town
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Backhoes, loaders and trucks in Porac town, Pampanga, hummed back to life on Friday as 40 quarry operators resumed extracting Mt. Pinatubo sand and gravel, while some 850 haulers took turns loading aggregates after two weeks of protests over alleged additional taxes.
The local government did not set up checkpoints or roadside collection desks starting at 1 a.m., a field check by the Inquirer showed.
This meant the proposed additional P100—on top of the P50 service fee and P50 ecological tax—was not collected, according to Lennard Lansang, president of the protesting Porac Truckers and Haulers Association Inc.
The so-called “double taxation” triggered the protest, Lansang said. “The amended tax ordinance has not been approved and we were not called to a hearing,” Lansing revealed.
Mayor Jaime “Jing” Capil and the local treasury office did not reply to calls or messages seeking confirmation about the noncollection. Municipal treasurer Bernadette Duya has resigned, acting treasurer Albert Sotto retired on Nov. 30, and the new treasurer has yet to assume office.
Income lost
During the two-week protest that began on Nov. 21, haulers stopped transporting materials to Luzon buyers, leading to nonpayment of the original amount approved in the local ordinance.
With a minimum of 3,000 trucks and a P100 tax per truck, the local government must have lost P300,000 daily—or P4.5 million in 15 days—Lansang estimated.
He used an old Kapampangan proverb to describe the municipal government’s predicament: “Mantun lang kagatang, menugse lang kasalikap” (“They wanted only a few kilos but ended up throwing away the entire rice bin”), Lansang added.
Conditions
Even as it agreed to lift the protest, the Association of Porac Sand and Gravel Quarry Operators informed Capil in a Dec. 3 letter that its 40 members operating 170 hectares of quarry sites “will not procure further prepaid municipal ecological tax receipts” starting Friday until the local government provide a valid ordinance authorizing the change in the amounts and manner of collection; a judicial ruling on the legality of the prepurchase practice; and a written legal basis showing that the prepurchase scheme is allowed under the Local Government Code of 1991.
The association also declined to serve as a collection agent for the service fee and ecological tax.
Lansang said haulers will only pay the P100 approved in the tax ordinance and will resist paying any additional amounts.
Two operators filed administrative cases against Capil before the Pampanga Provincial Board last week for alleged grave abuse of authority and several other violations.
During the protest, quarry operators and haulers reported foregone income amounting to P128.25 million.
The provincial government lost around P40 million in revenues for social and medical services, according to Romeo Dungca, head of the quarry regulatory unit, Kalam.
