LAOAG CITY – The provincial government of Ilocos Norte has collected almost PHP56 million in quarry revenues as of end-August this year, the highest it has recorded so far.
Last year, the provincial government’s quarry revenue is around PHP29.5 million.
“We are grateful for the cooperation and high compliance of our quarry permittees in paying their dues to the government,” provincial administrator Yvette Convento-Leynes, who also heads the Provincial Quarry Office, said in a media interview on Wednesday.
She said the increase in quarry collections is attributed to the high sand demand for various government and private infrastructure projects in the province.
Under the amended Provincial Quarry Ordinance, both the provincial and municipal governments have a share of 30 percent each from quarry fees, while the host village will get a 40 percent share.
The Provincial Quarry Office has, so far, issued 25 commercial sand and gravel permits, 22 industrial sand and gravel permits, eight earth moving permits, 36 special permits for government projects, and two government gratuitous permits, she added.
Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc, in his 3rd State of the Province Address (SOPA) Tuesday night, cited the almost 90 percent increase the provincial government’s quarry revenues.
Manotoc attributed the jump in revenues to the efficient collection by the Provincial Treasurer’s Office and the deputization of about 110 personnel from the provincial government, Philippine National Police, Marines, and in villages who were trained by a team from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Envirinment and Natural Resources (DENR) on mining laws and environmental ordinances.
Aside from guaranteed local revenue share from the extraction fees, local government units here and the host villages of an ongoing dredging and river restoration project also continue to benefit from the contractor’s corporate social responsibility project.
For one, the Harbor Star Shipping Services Inc., which the provincial government tapped to dredge around 26 kilometers of the heavily silted waterway of the Bislak River, has turned over almost PHP3 million worth of livelihood aid to at least 30 villages in the towns of Bacarra and Vintar in 2023.
In July this year, the private contractor distributed their shares in the PHP4.95 million extraction fees from dredging of the heavily silted river.
The local government share in the revenues is on top of the alternative source of livelihood that will be provided during the duration of the 10-year dredging and river restoration project. (PNA)
