Gwen to Alcoy mineral-processing firm: Pay your taxes or else…

Jerry Dueñas, a fisherman from Alcoy, Cebu, looks at the conveyor belt that juts out of a mineral-processing plant in Barangay Pugalo. Dueñas said despite the controversies involving their town’s dolomite rocks, it has not severely impacted their source of livelihood. CDN Digital Photo 2020 | Morexette Marie Erram

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has warned a mineral-processing firm operating in Alcoy town in southeastern Cebu, which was one of the sources tapped in creating the artificial dolomite beach in Manila Bay, to pay the right taxes otherwise they may face legal action.

Garcia reimplemented an order she first drew in 2020, directing the Philippine Mining Service Corporation (PMSC) to cease and desist processing, selling, and transporting dolomite, associated mineral deposits, and other quarry products here in Cebu until further notice.

The governor issued Executive Order (EO) No. 7 on February 17 after Capitol officials discovered that PMSC allegedly failed to comply with several local tax and environmental laws. Copies of the new EO were published on Sugbo News, the provincial government’s news portal. 

Garcia also urged the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) “to cancel existing permits granted to PMSC while the EO is in effect”, and to refrain from issuing further permits to the company. 

Based on EO No. 7, the provincial government accused PMSC of defying their orders in 2020 that compelled the company to halt operations as an offshoot of the Manila Bay dolomite controversy. 

Capitol officials found out that PMSC reportedly bought 2,553,299 metric tons of minerals from Dolomite Mining Corp. while the ban remained in effect in 2020. 

They also claimed that the mineral processor refused to pay the right amount of taxes to the provincial government despite the issuances of several notices. 

The provincial government said PMSC should be paying taxes worth 10 percent of the local fair market value per cubic meter of all ordinary stones, sand, gravel, earth, and other quarry resources that they sourced in the territorial jurisdiction of the Province of Cebu. 

CDN Digital has reached out to PMSC for their comments but to no avail as of this writing. 

With the latest cease and desist order, Garcia instructed law enforcers here, including the Coast Guard, that no vessels shall leave the PMSC’s port in Alcoy “without pertinent documents.”

It can be recalled that in 2020, Garcia’s administration ordered to stop mining operations in Alcoy after news broke out that the dolomite used in creating the artificial beach in Manila Bay came from Cebu.

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