Lahar sand quarrying anomalies uncovered

BACOLOR, Pampanga — Is the Natural Resources Development Corp. (NRDC), the corporate arm of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), shortchanging the government of revenues from lahar sand quarrying in Central Luzon?

Amid reports that lahar quarrying is being monopolized here by a person allegedly with links to Malacañang, this town’s mayor, Romeo Dungca, dispatched a team to monitor lahar sand quarrying areas here from last July 4 to 17.

While Dungca’s team recorded a total of 7,450 trucks that hauled lahar sand during the 10-day period, the NRDC officially reported only 5,767 trucks, or a discrepancy of 1,683 trucks.

"With the NRDC collecting a fee of P300 per truck, this means that some P504,900 is missing from collections in Bacolor during that period alone," Dungca said.

The NRDC figures were certified by acting municipal accountant Lucila Songco and the office of the municipal treasurer.

Thousands of other trucks haul lahar sand daily from other parts of Pampanga, particularly Porac, and in the whole of Central Luzon.

"This could only mean that anomalies could reach millions of pesos monthly," Dungca said.

At the height of his rift with Gov. Lito Lapid in 1999, former President Joseph Estrada issued Proclamation No. 66 depriving local government units in Central Luzon of the power to collect fees from quarrying operations.

This power was entrusted to the NRDC which increased Lapid’s fee of P40 per truck to P300. However, trucks hauling lahar sand from silted lahar channels are charged only P150 each.

Under the NRDC, quarry permit holders are supposed to pre-pay quarrying receipts of P300 each from the NRDC. These receipts are later marked at checkpoints as loaded trucks depart from quarry sites.

However, Dungca received reports from his team that the NRDC has allowed a virtual monopoly of quarrying operations in this town to somebody allegedly close to newly installed NRDC president Alfredo Rosal of Lubao, Pampanga.

Rosal, according to sources in Lubao, is a cousin of President Arroyo.

Dungca inspected quarry sites in Barangays Cabetican, Sta. Barbara, Maliwalu, Dolores, Concepcion and Balas, and expressed alarm that quarry operators have also hauled portions of the anti-lahar megadike near the Sta. Barbara bridge.

"The megadike was carved in different portions and could now readily collapse in the next heavy rains," he said, urging the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to immediately repair the section.

Because of this, Dungca issued last week an executive order temporarily suspending quarrying in his town, but persons identified with a quarry operator have reportedly been dropping the name of a Malacañang official and continue to ignore his order.

Dungca, meanwhile, lamented the NRDC’s failure to help residents in lahar-ravaged areas where quarrying is being done. Under the NRDC scheme, the share of local government units from the P300 fee per truck is only P80, while the rest is retained by the NRDC.

Thirty percent of the P80 goes to the provincial government, another 30 percent to the municipal government where quarrying is being done, and 40 percent to the host barangays.

"Through the years of lucrative profit since it took over fee collections, the NRDC has remitted to Bacolor only P10 million which we are now using to build a new municipal hall," Dungca said.

Bacolor was almost entirely buried by lahar flows since Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991.

In contrast, Dungca said the NRDC allotted P40 million for the rehabilitation of the Arayat Park in Arayat whose mayor used to be the provincial chairman of the Nationalist People’s Coalition during the Estrada administration.

"Arayat was not affected by lahar flows, and yet it got much more than towns still rising from devastation," Dungca said.

Dungca also lashed at the NRDC for not regulating quarrying operations in his town. He saw during his ocular inspection that even privately owned lands now appear like "a portion of the moon with large craters."

He said the huge craters left by quarrying operators have prevented farmers from re-cultivating their lahar-affected land.