Gina’s battle for the environment

Environment and Natural Resurces Secretary Gina Lopez is a woman who has balls. If not, President Rodrigo Duterte would not have appointed her for that sensitive post.

Her ordered closure of 28 mining companies (out of the 41) and the cancellation of 75 mining contracts drove half of the industry nuts. But it also meant, there are also “responsible miners” among the 41 who complied with the rules.

The tempest that has shaken the powerful mining industry will be a test case of the “populist nature” of DU30 and his debt of gratitude to and camaraderie with business and political leaders (many in Mindanao) who can potentially lose their shirts and clout (respectively) from Gina’s huge scissors.

The miners claimed millions of people will be affected by the closure of the mines; Lopez says she has enough budget for eco-tourism and climate change mitigation to absorb them. With Climate Change champion Senator Loren Legarda in total agreement.

The buck stop, of course, at the Office of the President.

The Mining Industry Coordinatng Council’s opinion is merely “recommendatory” and Lopez herself bravely said she is part of the Cabinet and will, therefore, obey the President’s final decision.

But Gina had eloquently made her point. Those closed mines were destroying the functional watersheds which can threaten the future supply of water and the health of all.

And water is life. The balding mountain tops and denuded forests are the main agents of lowland flooding. Extraction can weaken the soil and abate earthquakes. Sand mining has destroyed the fisher folk’s livelihood and marine habitat of the sea creatures and green that have given man food to eat.

Gina always means business. For instance, the military and the Department of Environment and Natural Resurces (DENR) combined to destroy all the illegal fish pens in the large Laguna Lake that destroyed the lake; they were owned by politicians, big businessmen and retired generals. None of the previous administrations dared do that.

The opposition can lobby all day to keep Lopez from being confirmed as DENR chief but the President can always reappoint her. They have threatened to file graft charges against her and attach her assets including her shares in ABS-CBN. Gina whistles in the dark.

Or they can sue the government post-facto (for investment losses) where twice , first the International for the Settlement of Investment Disputes and then our Supreme Court rendered verdicts against the government that cost us plenty.

The first cost R800-M plus interest (since 2011) for the Pnoy Government’s cancellation of a Belgian Project to cleanse Laguna Lake and the second the $531-M to Piatco for the botched construction of NAIA 3 terminal.

Would scores of these be worth the price for saving the environment in they eyes of the Duterte government?

Others have hit DENR for wasting such great opportunity for mining when independent studies show PH as one of the five nations in the world with the most mineral resources.

But Gina knows she is there for the passion of it; she can as well resign today (no sweat) and run after other advocacy as a private person in millionaire surroundings (which she is) yet.

But Lopez’ resignation could only mean to the world that the President favored others over a true- blue fighting environmentalist.

But can a middle ground not be struck for a win-win situation?

What about telling the guilty miners that they will remain closed until they restore what they had destroyed (per Lopez’ determination)?

Why not put a higher cap on how much of the profits of the mining companies can be sent abroad to foreign principals?

Why not impose a higher percentage of the mining income to be built as businesses (especially agriculture) in the nearby sitios of their location?

Define a holistic community that all mining companies must erect for and among their employees for them to improve the quality of their lives (churches, hospitals, schools etc)?

What about relocating mine pits that grossly impair the health of functioning watersheds if restoration of destroyed functionality is deemed impossible?

All these could change some of the aspects of the Mining Act of 1995. But are not laws made for men rather than the other way around?

Only once in a rare while do we see a DENR chief who will not succumb to the baits of bribery and the intimidation of power precisely because of the kind of family she belongs to.

Many do not know , that even despite all that, Gina Lopez can transcend herself. As she did when she left her family for many years for abroad and lived as a transcendental meditationist steeped in Ananda Marga yoga and had let go off all material things by keeping a few clothes, eating sparsely and sleeping on floors for many years. She is not a stranger to having nothing.

A woman like that knows earth is a temporary journey.

It would be foolish to threaten her judgment with material punishment. That would only lengthen and sharpen her famous fangs.

But as we always said governance is always a series of compromises.

As long as the compromise is not in abandonment of a basic principle of good over evil, of the many over the few.

(Bingo Dejaresco, a former banker, is FINEX. Chair of Professional Development and Broadcast Media. But his views here are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of Finex. Dejarescobingo@yahoo. com)