Mina! Gina!

SAY what you will about Gina Lopez, secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, call her what you want – bullheaded, emotional, rich girl-spoiled brat – the truth is she’s really bullheaded, she gets emotional because she’s passionately committed to her cause, and she’s rich enough (on her own) to take care of herself.

What is not true is that she has “no business sense.” Her green projects have earned profits – example: P1 million capital, 127M ROI – and international awards, and if you’ve been to the firefly park in Puerto Princesa, you’d gladly crown her fairy queen of the mangrove. Be prepared to argue with her until you get blue in the face as she continues to dig up nuggets of facts and histories to buttress her position.

While the miners use lawyers and spokespersons, Gina’s secret weapon is Gina Lopez, single parent, heiress, sleepless government employee who’s now being protected by a squad of bodyguards provided by government and her brother.

As the mining debate rages, President Duterte will sooner than later be forced to step in and play the role of Solomon – remember the king whose name became the origin of the phrase “Solomonic decision”? King Solomon had to decide who was the real mother of a baby over whom the two protagonists were ready to claw each other in a fight to the death. Solomon told them there was only one way to decide: Kill the baby! The first woman agreed with the king’s wise judgment. The other said she would rather give up her baby than have him slaughtered before her eyes. And that’s how Solomon ruled that the second woman was the true mother.

Between Gina’s intransigence – “Let’s not give up the watersheds! Water is life!” – and the mining companies’ insistence on due process, the sanctity of contracts, and their contributions to the economy, DU30 will need to tread very carefully, like walking on a mountain trail of eggshells. The mining industry is a centuries-old baby, and every baby needs a mother. At the end of the day, which should not be long in coming, does he have a Solomonic decision?