Workers continue to pour white sand composed of crushed dolomite over the 500-meter stretch of Manila Bay, part of the DENR’s Manila Bay rehabilitation project. | INQUIRER PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The mining firm in Alcoy town that sources dolomite promised to pay up to P65 million in taxes to the provincial government, the Capitol announced.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia met with officials of the Dolomite Mining Corp. (DMC) last Tuesday, February 21 where the latter agreed to pay the taxes due to the province, Sugbo News, the Capitol’s news portal, reported.
DMC, based in Brgy. Pugalo, Alcoy, reportedly owed the provincial government a total of P65.7 million as taxes for quarrying dolomite and other mining operations since 2008.
The firm also told Garcia and other Capitol officials that they will pay their due on a staggered basis, with P20 million as their initial payment.
DMC currently has a 25-year Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) with the government to extract dolomite, a type of mineral composed of calcium, magnesium, and carbonate.
Commonly sourced for construction, dolomite was also used in creating the controversial, artificial white-sand beach in Manila Bay.
It can be recalled that in 2020, the Capitol questioned DMC and another mining firm in Alcoy, the Philippine Mining Service Corporation (PMSC), for allegedly failing to comply with Provincial Ordinance No. 2008-10.
The provincial government’s move came after national officials confirmed that the dolomite for Manila Bay’s artificial beach came from Alcoy town in southern Cebu.
Ordinance No. 2008 – 10 mandates all mining companies operating in the territorial jurisdiction of Cebu province to pay a tax of ’10 percent of the local market value per cubic meter of quarry resources extracted.’
Recently, Garcia reimplemented an order she first introduced in 2020 which directs PMSC to stop processing, selling, and transporting dolomite over alleged violations of local tax and environmental laws.
PMSC has yet to give its comments on the issue.
Cebu is one of the few provinces in the Philippines abundant with ‘economically mineable’ deposits of dolomite, particularly in the towns of Alcoy and Dalaguete.
Alcoy is a fifth-class municipality located 101 kilometers southeast of Cebu City. /rcg
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