‘Greed’ behind Zambales sand dredging — group

A non-government environmental organization said sand dredging operations in Zambales are no longer intended for river rehabilitation after coastal erosion incidents in the province.

The Zambales Ecological Network (ZEN) alleged that Zambales Governor Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. earned from excise taxes, environmental fees, and extraction fees related to the dredging operations, which it claimed were not properly audited or reported.

“Ebdane earns from excise taxes, environmental fees and extraction fees which are not audited and reported because there is no government fund that is used in their business model,” ZEN executive director Heidi Fernandez told the Daily Tribune in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

Fernandez said the difficulty lies in determining how the excise taxes and other fees are accounted for under Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Department Administrative Order (DAO) 13, series of 2019, which serves as the legal basis for the river rehabilitation project.

“But what Ebdane and the DENR are doing now is sand mining or commercial extraction of sand for reclamation projects, including the Bulacan International Airport of Ramon Ang,” she said.

“This is no longer a river restoration,” Fernandez pointed out.

Under DENR DAO 13, series of 2019, the DENR ordered river restoration through dredging in the heavily silted channels of the Bucao, Maloma and Santo Tomas rivers in Zambales. The order stated that the government will not fund private-sector dredging activities.

ZEN said the lack of government funding means there is no government auditing of the operations, despite the income generated from the extracted sand.

“So, why are they not stopping the dredging operations? It is because of greed. Ebdane earned P2 billion from 2023 to 2024 alone,” Fernandez said.

The network noted that only three vessels can fit at the mouth of the river, while others waiting in line at the mouth of the Santo Tomas River have also started dredging in the sea.

ZEN said it determines whether vessels are dredging by checking whether the machines beside them are operating to separate sand from water, with sand and water visibly circulating along the sides of the vessels.

“What they are taking has corresponding excise taxes, environmental fees, and extraction fees. The government does not spend anything on this operation,” she said.

“Technically, they are just selling the sand through taxation and fees,” the executive director added.

Claim supported by study

ZEN stood by its position that man-made activities, including seabed and estuary dredging, contributed to coastal erosion in Zambales.

“ZEN stands by its assertion and statement that massive and deleterious coastal erosion in Zambales is anthropogenic or manmade, not caused by Mother Nature,” the non-government organization said in a social media post.

The Daily Tribune reached out to ZEN regarding the basis of its claim, with the group citing a 2025 study by Dr. Prince Eduke titled “Couple Satellite-Based, Depth of Closure and Wave Propagation Modeling and Analysis of Dredging Impacts along the Coastline of San Felipe, Zambales.”

“We have established via Philippine Satellite Agency data that there has been erosion, and Dr. Eduke made some computations and modeling and went to San Felipe for computations,” Fernandez said in an exclusive interview via Viber.

The study’s findings indicated that dredging operations had significantly influenced coastal erosion along the coastline of San Felipe, Zambales.