WHEN President Rodrigo Duterte appointed ABS-CBN heiress Gina Lopez, a self-proclaimed environmentalist and confirmed anti-mining advocate, as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, he obviously thought that he would have the support of one of the two giant radio and television networks of the country.
In a way, it was a masterstroke on the part of Duterte.
But, Santa Banana, at what price? In the first 100 days of the Duterte administration, Lopez has done nothing but threaten the mining industry. She has already suspended at least 10 mining firms, mostly in Zambales province, for allegedly violating rules and regulations protecting the environment.
The DENR is scheduled to come out with the results of its audit today. About a dozen more firms are expected to be suspended in the name of “responsible mining.”
My gulay, at the rate this self-proclaimed environmentalist, coming from an oligarchic family embedded in government, is going, the $360-billion Philippine mining industry is now becoming an endangered species. Its future under the Duterte administration is bleak.
Read the full-page advertisement of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines yesterday. Indeed, in the name of responsible mining, Lopez has not only become the elephant in the room but a bull in the china shop.
All she has been doing during the first 100 days of the Duterte administration is finding fault with the mining industry.
I’d like to ask Ms. Lopez: How could there be a fair and objective audit of the industry in the name of “responsible mining” when she has named a known anti-mining civil society organization called the Alyansa Tigil Mina to be called experts? My gulay, “experts” in the field of mining when by its very name, the group is an advocate against mining like Lopez herself!
It became even worse when Lopez placed this group at the forefront of the audit process. It threatened and even harassed mining firms big and small alike.
The President should realize that Lopez is making a sunset industry out of mining. How can the economy flourish? Foreign investors in the mining industry come to provide jobs to poor communities in the rural areas.
Before Lopez, the industry was bullish. There were expectations of investments between $20 billion and $30 billion in the local economy over the next five to 10 years. Not anymore.
The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, composed of big responsible miners, has reiterated its concern over the integrity of the audit due to the questionable role of confirmed anti-mining CSOs. This taints the results of the audit.
I don’t know why Lopez is so against mining when she wears all that jewelry, all of which came from mining.
All I can say is that these anti-mining advocates are hypocrites. Even members of the clergy railing against mining are hypocrites. Where do they think the goblets they use during mass come from?
If Lopez is truly after irresponsible mining and for the protection of the environment, she should go after all the local miners at Mount Diwalwal in Compostela Valley. There, gold nuggets are found and traded in Malaysia and Singapore by Chinese businessmen from Cebu and Davao.
By law, the gold should go to the Bangko Sentral, but instead the rich financiers and traders are in cahoots with local government officials.
Having been a Davao City mayor for the longest time, President Duterte should know what’s happening to all the gold that’s mined at Mount Diwalwal. He should ask why Lopez is not lifting a finger about this.
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President Duterte is right. We, the Filipino people, did not elect a statesman or somebody well versed with protocol. We elected a mayor of Davao City to lead us for the next six years in the name of change, promising peace and order, and vowing to end criminality, corruption and illegal drugs.
And, Santa Banana, that’s what the President is actually doing!
If Du30 uses expletives to emphasize what he says or does, we just have to bear with him. His environment before he became a lawyer, prosecutor and mayor was the environment of his Cebuano roots where cursing and obscene language are normal.
Even in this column, when I try to emphasize something, I use “Santa Banana”—nowhere in the Vatican roll of saints—and “my gulay.”
All the curses used by President Duterte are meaningless. They are just expressions.
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I have been asked: What do I think will happen to Senator Leila de Lima, given all the accusations against her? Convicts and others point to her as profiting from the illegal drug trade.
I say the truth is somewhere beneath all these accusations.
Certainly Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre will file charges against De Lima. It is better that these matters we now hear in Congress are tackled by courts of law and not grandstanding politicians.
In another hearing in Congress, Edgar Matobato claims to be part of the Davao Death Squad. This man only finished Grade One—how can we expect him to answer the questions of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who is a lawyer?
Now, Senator Antonio Trillanes claims he has proof that what Matobato said about the DDS killings are true. I say this is another attempt at grandstanding.
I wish for a Revolutionary Government if only to get rid of Congress. But, God forbid, at times, wishes come true.