I don’t know if Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez realizes what she has done in cancelling the permits of 23 big mining forms and suspending five others.
Perhaps she could not care less. After all, she heiress to the Lopez clan that owns giant network ABS-CBN. Why should she care for the 1.2-million Filipinos whose jobs would be affected by the mine closures. She is so obsessed with what she calls the green economy—she is a self-proclaimed environmentalist.
The method used by Lopez in auditing the mining industry shows her bias against it. She says mining is not possible in a Southeast Asian country like the Philippines. It is on record that she used an anti-mining organization, Alyansa Tigil Mina, in inspecting the industry.
She does not care what would happen as a result of her decision to kill virtually all mining activities in the country. In fact, her arrogance has created disunity at the DENR—there are those who are for her and those against her. Just look at the way she conducts her press conferences.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez has expressed concern over the impact of Lopez’s action on the national economy. Lopez has put $22 billion worth of investments in limbo, crippled local government units and communities by preventing them from benefitting from P16.7 billion in taxes. My gulay, this means that the gross domestic product will also be affected.
Santa Banana, Lopez has created a much bigger problem with her “green economy.”
The affected mines account for half of the nickel ore output by the world’s top supplier of metal. This has resulted in the sinking worth of nickel in the stock market.
Incidentally, some industry stakeholders note a conflict of interest in the appointment of Lopez. As DENR secretary, she would have to handle the case of the massive oil leak at the West tower Condominium in Bangkal, makati City that was caused by the Lopez owned First Philippine Industrial Corp.
The building has become uninhabitable. Some of the unit owners have chosen to be compensated, byt some have chosen to go to court.
University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Science Director Carlos Arcilla said Lopez had not anything to comply with a Supreme Court order directing her department to oversee the full cleaning by the FPIC of the remaining pollution in the groundwater and soil.
That’s Gina for you—a confirmed anti-mining advocate and protector of the Lopez oligarchy!
***
I recall that the Filipino people took years to mount the People Power revolution.
Filipinos are like that. They act only when when somebody or something leads them to do so. It is something similar to carabao: Beat it, abuse it, it will not react. But there will come a time when it will have had enough, and it will charge at you like a raging bull.
I see this happening with the President’s war against illegal drugs. More than 7,000 have died, most of them poor. The killings continue even after Mr. Duterte’s order that the police will no longer be involved.
While surveys show that majority support the war on drugs, little by little some people are already reacting. Recently the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has broken its silence and called on the faithful to speak out against the “new norma;” of killings.
***
President Duterte’s reaction to the communists’ coming to the negotiating table with blood on their hands is not unexpected.
This could only mean that the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front leadership has no control of some of their members on the ground.
The President has ordered the military to prepare for war against the insurgency and arrest all 18 “consultants” because they are terrorists.
And that is what exactly happened after the CPP-NDF demanded that the prisoners be released before they could talk peace. The President was right not to give in to the communists’ demands.
That has always been the strategy of the communist movement. It’s not give and take but take and take.
The President said: I have given them more than enough, too soon. I agree. In fact, the President has given the insurgents three Cabinet positions in an effort to get the communists to talk peace.
Peace must be attained, but not at all costs. The government will always have the edge because thr nPA now only has around 400 armed fighters.
Still, Mr. Duterte must realize why the communist movement continues in the rural areas. It is because of poverty. Like illegal drugs, the insurgency issue traces its roots to poverty.
