By:
Dona Z. Pazzibugan, Ronnel W. Domingo - 12:52 AM February 07, 2017
Large-scale miners on
Monday asked President Duterte to review the orders of Environment Secretary
Gina Lopez to close down 23 mines and suspend five others, as she challenged
the industry to give her two years to prove that ecotourism was a more viable
source of livelihood than mining.
The Chamber of Mines of
the Philippines (COMP) said Lopez’s moves were hurting people in communities
hosting mining projects.
“We respectfully submit
that the acts of the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources)
secretary-designate on Feb. 2 announcing the suspension or closure of certain
mining operations under the guise of ‘healing the hurt’ were irresponsible,
unfair and illegal,” COMP said in a statement.
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“Heal the hurt” is the
title of a video that was shown before and after the DENR press conference last
week. The video featured indigenous peoples and residents of mining communities
talking against mining.
Fighting mood
The video, accompanied
by Michael Jackson’s hit song “Heal the World,” also showed Lopez in a fighting
mood during speeches and riding in helicopters above mining sites.
COMP has also taken to
referring to Lopez as secretary-designate. A confirmation hearing on Lopez’s
appointment is scheduled at the Commission on Appointments on Tuesday.
A source familiar with
Lopez’s daily work told the Inquirer that the staunch environmentalist was not
getting the support she needed from her colleagues.
But Lopez is unfazed,
reiterating in a television interview that she did not ask for the job and that
she would not insist on staying if she were asked to leave.
“Under the guise of
‘Healing the Hurt,’ she is actually creating an even bigger hurt,” the chamber
said.
COMP said Lopez’s
orders put at risk about 67,000 jobs and at least 1.2 million people who depend
directly on “legitimate, legal, permitted” mining for their livelihood.
These also “put in
limbo” a pipeline of mining investments worth $22 billion or about P1.1
trillion, COMP said.
“The
secretary-designate has effectively established a mining moratorium in the
Philippines, trampling on the Philippine Mining Act, a law that she had sworn
to uphold and implement before the President of the Philippines,” the chamber
said.
“Beyond the mining
companies, the secretary-designate’s intent to close the mining sector poses a
danger to other industries,” it added.
Awaiting copy of order
Also on Monday,
Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC)—which operates one of the 23 mines that
Lopez wants shuttered—said it was waiting to receive a copy of the order for
closure before it could determine what action to take.
“We can go to court or
we can ask the secretary to reconsider,” PGMC president Dante R. Bravo said in
a briefing. “We can take various actions but that would depend on the order
coming from the secretary herself, which we don’t have.”
Lopez rebutted the
mining industry’s claim that 1.2 million people would be displaced by the
closure of the mines. Citing government studies, she said that since 2014 the
mining industry created 235,000 jobs.
Ecotourism alternative
She said residents in
mining areas would fare better with ecotourism and agriculture.
“I have areas now that
have been converted to a tourism area and it’s a (former) mineral area and
people are benefiting,” Lopez said in a TV interview on Monday.
She said that in a
green economy she wanted to promote the people would have jobs, more money and
“they’ll be happier, healthier and they’ll stop fighting against each other.”
Lopez noted that only a
few were benefiting from mining—the businessmen who are already very rich, some
politicians and foreigners.
“But the people who
live there, are they benefiting?… Around the mining areas there is a lot
poverty,” she said.
2-year timeline
She asked the mining
industry to allow her to do something in the mining areas.
“Give me two years and
I’ll show you much more than they have ever done in the years they have been
there. I am confident (about this),” she said.
She believed that
Dinagat and Surigao provinces, where she closed down mines, could develop their
ecotourism industry.
Dinagat has 185 proposed
ecotourism sites, including the largest bonsai forest in the country, according
to the environment secretary.
She also cited the
Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur’s Enchanted River, famed for its clear bluish water.
“I saw mountains, clean
water, beaches and corals in the areas where there are no mining. Why are you
killing that for the mining that some businessmen want? It’s morally wrong.
Dinagat has so much potential and so does Surigao,” she said.
“But if you mine it,
you’re killing it. That’s opportunity lost… It’s not worth it at all,” she
said.
Lopez denied that she
spared political allies from the mining crackdown.
“There are good mining
companies. I do not want to fight the entire industry. But mining where it
kills the environment, the country has lost a lot,” she said.
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