The Provincial Environment Management Office (PEMO) ended 2015 with a big bang with a whooping P14,372,192.53 sand and gravel or “quarry” and mining tax collection.
The 12-month revenue is a far cry from last year’s mining and quarry tax collection of only P10,909,435.01, the PEMO records show.
The province’s share from the mining and quarry tax collection is equivalent to P5,541,326.96.
Since the creation of PEMO in 2007, the province’s mining and quarry tax collection showed a steady increase; P4,935,479.45 in 2008; P5,067,394.60 in 2009; P 6,559,854.13 in 2010; P 9,754,648.25 in 2011; P 15,790,315.30 in 2012; and, P12,151,254 in 2013; P10,909,435.01 in 2014.
The slight decrease in 2013 – 2014 was caused by the closure of several tunnels of errant small-scale mining (SSM) operators operating in Kematu, T’boli due to the strict enforcement of PEMO on the compliance of SSM requirements.
But PEMO’s revolutionary concept of “Minahang Bayanihan” and its eventual implementation during that crucial 2-year period resulted to a more streamlined SSM management in partnership with the LGU and stakeholders,
With this, the ”Minahang Bayanihan” won the 2015 Galing Pook Awards for best environment governance initiative.
In 2014, the province’s Cluster Sanitary Landfill in Colonggulo, Surallah which is also managed by PEMO also won the same award.
