Duterte to mining firms: Shape up

DAVAO CITY – President-elect Rodrigo Duterte read the riot act to mining firms that he said are plundering the environment and making huge profits from the country’s resources.

Speaking during the “Du31” thanksgiving and victory party organized by his supporters on Saturday, the toughtalking Duterte directed his ire at mining firms that he said have despoiled the land, particularly in Mindanao.

“Mining people must shape up,” he said. “They have to stop the spoiling of the land,” Duterte told a cheering crowd of more than 200,000 people who trooped to Crocodile Park in Davao City where the thanksgiving party was held.

“In Surigao, they are destroying the land. They are destroying Mindanao,” he added.

He noted that many big mining firms are owned by foreigners, who make huge profits using the country’s natural resources.

Du te rte also promised to help the people of Mindanao, particularly those who have been placed on the margins of business endeavors because of the select few that benefit from the country’s resources.

“The poor people of Mindanao will be first,” he said in Filipino. “All the big mining firms that have destroyed our land here, they will have to stop. They have to leave.”

It was in this context that Duterte explained why he opted not to give the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to the Left.

He said that his long-time aide, outgoing Maribojoc, Bohol Mayor Jun Evasco expressed interest to head the agency. Evasco was a former member of the New People’s Army before he became chief of staff of Duterte and later a local elected official.