BEHIND THE SCENES

PGMA’s pledges / Gov Fongwan, Gen Martin
ALFRED P. DIZON

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – I was supposed to write this piece for last week but due to holiday hangover, was not able to. It’s still timely though, so we start with the media’s observation that the stay of President Macapagal Arroyo in nearby Baguio during the holiday season was peaceful and went without a hitch due to tight security measures for the presidential entourage by regional police director Chief Supt. Eugene Martin.

GMA was apparently in a good mood and sensing this, Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan whispered something to the President that no Benguet governor ever did which resulted to huge moolah for the province. Now, mining companies and a hydro power firm will have to pay millions of pesos in long overdue taxes to the province.

Why former Benguet governors didn’t press for payment of the taxes is another story like the reason why the Abatan-Mankayan road was never asphalted or cemented over the years.
Fongwan, who met with GMA on New Year’s eve at The Mansion requested the funds would come from operations of Philex Mines Corp. pegged at P71 million, Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corp. worth P15 million and P38 million from mini-hydros under the Hydro-electric Development Corp. and the Northern Luzon Mini-Hydro Corp.

I don’t know exactly what Fongwan whispered to the President when the First Gentleman was not around but GMA immediately ordered the release of the P124 million national wealth tax due the province to boost economic development programs.

Fongwan told newsmen GMA assured the release of the money when she left for Manila on Jan. 2, after spending New Year in Baguio. National wealth tax from mining operations, he said, covered last quarter of 2005 and the first three quarters of 2006 while the mini-hydros was 1992 to 1998.

Aside from the provincial share, the national wealth tax shall be shared by host municipalities and barangays which include Tuba, Itogon and Mankayan for mines and La Trinidad, Sablan, Itogon, and Tuba for mini-hydros.
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Fongwan said Benguet Corp. also paid the province its accumulated real property taxes last week amounting to P2.9 million. Aside from the national wealth tax, Fongwan said Hedcor also is paying its two percent privilege tax to the Bureau of Internal Revenue Central Office, 50 percent of which is shared by the province and host municipalities and barangays.

The Northern Luzon Mini Hydro has also paid the province one half of its accumulated real property tax amounting to P3.4 million for 2000 to 2002. Aside from these, Fongwan said the provincial government has filed a case in court for the collection of taxes due the province for operations of the Binga and Ambuklao dams.

This would not affect the privatization of the operations of the dam by Aboitiz, he said. On operations of the San Roque dam, Fongwan said the National Power Corp. initially committed to pay P20 million of the P116 million to be collected from 2002 to 2007.
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In other developments, the President also ordered Dept. of Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane to release an additional P20 million for the Acop-Kapangan road in the province. The fund is in addition to the president’s earlier commitment of P60 million for the road improvement.

Inspected by Fongwan and other officials last week, the project has now a total cost of P80 million apportioned from the different agencies: DPWH, P40 million; Dept. of Agriculture, P20 million and Dept. of Agrarian Reform worth P20 million.

The President also ordered the establishment of a cold storage facility in Villasis, Pangasinan in case of road closure due to typhoon. With the fund commitments for the province, Fongwan said critical needs of the people such as farm to market roads, irrigation systems, domestic water, rehabilitation of school buildings to would spur economic development.
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Now, I hear, contractors are lobbying to implement the contracts. Some of these people are reportedly those who supported former Gov. Borromeo Melchor. They are reportedly telling Fongwan they worked behind the scenes to get him elected.
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Still in Benguet, a five-year-old boy died instantly when he was sideswiped and run over by a Mountain Province-bound six-wheeler truck fully loaded with fertilizers along the Halsema Highway at Lower Tomay in the capital town of La Trinidad on Jan.

An email from the office of Chief Supt. Martin in Camp Dangwa identified the victim as Lloyd Tuguinay Marvin, 5, of Ma-I, Bahong in the town. Investigation showed the victim and his playmates, were playing on the sidewalk when he was suddenly sideswiped then run over by the truck bearing license plate UFF-810 and driven by a certain Jeremi Asboc Wegan, a native of Mountain Province.
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I had been noticed by motorists that there are a lot of reckless public utility vehicle drivers who speed along the highway like they are on the race track which had resulted to unnecessary loss of lives and property.

The Land Transportation Office, Traffic Management Group or even the Land Franchising, Transportation Regulatory Board could look into this before more accidents could happen.
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The traditional New Year’s Call on Jan. 7 at Camp Dangwa was highlighted by the induction of the Ladies Club graced by Chief Supt. Martin and his wife Precy wherein Senior Supt. Villamor A. Bumanglag, deputy regional police director for administration welcomed the guests.

The Ladies Club’s new set of officers: Arceli Bacquian, president; Helen Pumecha, vice president; Bable Adnol, secretary; Susan Fianza, assistant secretary; PO3 Celedonia Ragay, treasurer: PI Divine Mencio, assistant treasurer and Arlene Reamon as auditor. Precy Martin is overall adviser while Ellen Bumanglag and Minerva Manabat are the co-advisers.

During the occasion, Martin gave P300,000 to support projects of the club. The money will be used for the renovation of the Camp Dangwa day care center and for improvement of garbage disposal in the regional police office. “These projects will benefit not only police personnel and dependents but also other residents within the vicinity of the camp,” the e-mail said.