NATION | DENR Sec. Gina Lopez vows to quit if communities decline after closure of mines

© Reuters/Czar Dancel At a press conference in Quezon City on Thursday, December 15, 2016, Environment Secretary Regina Lopez shows a picture of Liang Tailings Storage Facility's environment compliance certificate, one of the mining companies…

MANILA, Philippines - Environment Secretary Gina Lopez on Wednesday vowed to resign if she would fail to improve life at the communities affected by the shut-down of 23 mining companies.

Lopez recently ordered the closure of the mining firms after an audit found them violating environment rules.

“If I’m not going to be able to make a difference there, in a year and a half, then let me go. That means I’m not effective,” Lopez said before the Senate Committee on Labor on Wednesday.
The panel was conducting a hearing on the government's transition plan for workers that will be displaced from their jobs by the DENR order.

“I’m closing economy and if they are more poor, I should just go. But I’m very confident because I’ve been able to do it before with very little money,” Lopez said.

Lopez said President Rodrigo Duterte had agreed with her decision to order the closure of mining companies operating where watersheds are located.

“He told me ‘I totally agree with you with the watershed.’ Who won’t agree no? Why is their gold and nickel more important than the water we drink?” Lopez said.

The 23 mining companies ordered closed are located mostly in Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte, and in Benguet, Bulacan, Zambales, and Eastern Samar.

Chamber of Mines Executive Vice President Nelia Halcon estimated that at least 19,000 employees will be affected by the DENR order.

The DENR secretary said she planned to create jobs by spending P8 billion for ecological and economic zones in the communities affected.

Lopez added that both the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) also plan to “put in money.”

“Sa eco-tourism zones ko, konting pera lang, the next year, may pera na sila, walang mahirap. Why not like that na lang? Ang ganda ng Pilipinas. Yung pera lumalabas sa bansa at sa local economy. It should stay there for the people there,” Lopez said. —NB, GMA News