CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Pampanga Vice Governor-elect Dennis “Delta” Pineda is capping his two terms as governor with P4.5 billion in collections from the extraction of Mt. Pinatubo sand and stones from July 2019 to May 2025, the highest so far by the provincial government.
Pineda steadily increased the gross collection to P4.379 billion as well as licenses and fees to P84,110,653. 32 for a total of P4.463 billion, a report from the provincial treasurer’s office showed.
The governor oversaw the quarry regulatory unit Kalam headed by former Bacolor mayor Romeo “Buddy” Dungca and enforced the Anti-Overloading Law (Republic Act No. 8794).
In terms of income, Pampanga received P3.2 billion in net provincial share from sand and administrative fees in compliance with the Local Government Code of 1991. Capitol distributed the sand fee at 40 percent to the barangays and 30 percent to local governments.
“We turned the disaster into a true blessing,” Pineda said, referring to the the strongest eruption of Mt. Pinatubo on June 15, 1991 and the yearly flow of volcanic debris that buried hundreds of villages and displaced Kapampangans until 1997. To date, heavy rains wash down silt from the slopes and banks, resulting to severe floods downstream.
TRANSPARENT SYSTEM
In Pineda’s first six months in office, Kalam generated P259.2 million, proving that taxes on the aggregates brought in more than P1 million daily.
Collections more than doubled to P556 million in 2020, P715.7 million in 2021, P672.2 million in 2022, P960.18 million in 2023, P872.2 million in 2024 and P343.5 million from January to May 2025 or for a total of P4.378 billion.
Gross quarry collections under Pineda was seven times higher than the P611 million collected by then Gov. Eddie Panlilio in three years from 2007.
Under Delta, the Capitol collects a sand fee of P150, an administrative fee of P250 and weighing scale fee of P30 or a total of P430 per receipt paid per booklet by quarry operators and haulers at the provincial treasurer’s office. Loads with12 cubic meters or less require one receipt while loads with more than 12 cubic meters and up to 18 cubic meters require two receipts, Dungca said.
MORE SERVICES
Delta said the provincial government ploughed back the quarry income to the treasury, enabling it to fund life-saving measures during the COVID-19 pandemic and later to support education assistance and medical infrastructure.
AWARDS
For these efficient collection efforts, the Department of Finance and its Bureau of Local Government Finance ranked Pampanga the Top 10 in locally sourced revenues in 2020, Top 3 in 2022 and Top 2 in 2023 among 81 provinces.
Delta said: “Isang transparent collection system po ang aking inilagay. Ang mga kabalen natin ang nakinabang mula sa mataas na quarry income dahil napondohan ang mga dagdag na serbisyo (I have put in place a transparent collection system. The Kapampangans benefitted from this in the form of locally generated revenues for additional services).”