HIGH ENERGY. Department of Environment and Natural Resources secretary Gina Lopez encourages the youth to actively take part in the fight to preserve the country’s natural resources during the State of the Mindanao Environment held at the Martin Hall of the Ateneo de Davao University Thursday afternoon, August 4. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Several organizations expressed dismay after former Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez failed to get the nod of the Committee on Appointments.
Hours after the CA announced its decision, local environmental organization Sustainable Davao Movement staged a lightning rally outside the Ateneo de Davao University in this city.
Ateneo de Davao faculty member lawyer Romeo Cabarde, who speaks for the group, called the CA, the “Commission of Disappointment.”
“Karong adlawa, nagsubo ang kinaiyahan. Karong adlawa, nagsakit ang atong mga kasing-kasing, tungod karong adlawa, gipatay sa Commission of Appointments ang kinaiyahan” (Today, mother nature weeps. Today, our hearts bleed, because today, the Commission of Appointments has killed the environment), Cabarde said.
Despite being backed by President Rodrigo Duterte, Lopez’s appointment was shot down by at least 13 members of the CA Committee on Environment and Natural Resources on Wednesday. After being bypassed twice, Duterte must choose another environmental chief.
Read related story: CA rejects Gina Lopez as DENR Secretary
“Dako ang among pagkadismaya, dako ang among disappointment kay atong pagsalig atong ihatag kanila isip representante sa katawhan nga nagtrabaho ug nagalagad diha sulod sa kongreso para kanatong tanan” (We are very dismayed, and very disappointed because we gave them our trust as representatives of the people in the congress), Cabarde said.
“[But]they decided against the environment. They decided against the common good, they decided against the common people when they rejected the appointment of Secretary Gina Lopez,” he added.
Meanwhile, Anakpawis Representative Ariel Casilao called for vigilance towards the repeal of Lopez’s policies which include, among others, the suspension of several mining firms found to be violating environment standards.
“We raise the alarm for vigilance against the reversal of her pro-people decisions on mining operations that gravely affected communities of indigenous people, farmers, fisherfolk and other sectors. We urge whoever replaces her to uphold the interest and welfare of the people and not succumb to the pressure and temptation of profitable but destructive mining operations usually owned and controlled by foreign investors and their local comprador partners,” Casilao said in an emailed statement.
Also, the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, a national alliance of environmental network called on the CA to reveal the breakdown of the legislators’ votes, saying those who had vested mining interests must be investigated.
“We will not allow the ‘business as usual’ politics pushed by the ‘trapos’ in CA, led by oligarchs Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and Reps. Ronnie Zamora, Josephine Sato, and Wes Gatchalian, to return to the DENR. Expect the heightening of the people’s resistance against attempts to place a pro-plunder bureaucrat in the DENR and against the unabated operations of destructive large-scale mines and other pollutive and plunderous projects,” said Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan-PNE.
Lopez drew the ire of several big mining firms after she ordered the closure of 21 and suspension of five mining companies. Lopez also cancelled 75 mineral production sharing agreements, and attempted to ban prospective open pit mines in the span of her 10 months as DENR Secretary.
The closure, Lopez said in previous interviews, were sanctioned because the mining operations affected both declared and “functional” watersheds.
Read related story: ‘Business interests ran the day,’ Lopez says on CA rejection
Duterte as DENR Chief?
No less than Lopez herself floated the idea of the President taking on the reins of the DENR. Lopez said there could be no other replacement who would continue her work in the department.
“My choice for DENR secretary is President Duterte. I can’t think of any other person. It needs guts. It needs tapang (bravery) because you have to step on business interest,” Lopez said in a presser immediately after the CA announced its decision.
Cabarde agrees, saying there is nothing in the constitution that prevents Duterte from holding a cabinet position.
“After all, the Cabinet members are merely the alter-egos of the president,” he said.
However, Presidential Legal Adviser Salvador Panelo said Duterte may be too busy to handle the DENR.
“The President can always assume any position in the Cabinet while being President. But I think we should not saddle him with other work. There’s so much work already burdening him,” Panelo was quoted saying in news reports. (davaotoday.com)
