Go Gina, go!

Like President Duterte, Gina Lopez is a person we would have to invent out of necessity, if she didn’t exist. Digong and Gina have big jobs to do and we are lucky to have people like them who are totally committed to cleaning up the country and making life better for everyone.

Both are controversial and they relish their images for all the right reasons. The mere mention of their names strikes fear in the hearts of the folks who have been less than socially responsible through the years. They have set out in their minds what they want to accomplish and they have the political will to see that happens.

If Gina were not the Environment and Natural Resources secretary, we would right now feel totally helpless. It should anger every Filipino to read the stories and see the pictures of how Zambales was ravaged by mining companies with the connivance of its previous governor.

Not only that, the Chinese were apparently allowed to level a couple of mountains so they could obtain the rocks and soil they used in making islands out of some contested coral reefs in the West Philippine Sea. Now, with President Duterte and Sec.  Gina working together, there will be hell to pay.

Some people think Gina is nothing but a mantra mumbling do-gooder who belongs to the Save the Earth fringe and is ill-equipped to perform her tasks as DENR secretary. They are totally mistaken.

Gina has been at it for decades now. She knows the problems and is a passionate crusader for environmental protection. She has also being fighting for the rights of our marginalized citizens, from abused children to the poor people in far off communities victimized by the big guys.

Gina knows how difficult and how dangerous her task is. She lost a number of her own people who were killed in the process of Gina’s seemingly impossible goal of reforesting the Balara watershed area many years ago. But she is tough as nails and is not easily scared off by problems or threats.

Gina also loves what more ordinary leaders see as impossible tasks… like cleaning up the Pasig River. The only reason the Pasig River isn’t clean yet is because it is such a big job that requires years and a more supportive national administration.

Gina is also approaching the Pasig river clean-up job by first focusing on the esteros and other tributaries flowing into the River. It makes no sense to try to clean up the river and allow dirty water from its tributaries to flow in.

She managed to clean up the Estero de Paco and another estero near Malacanang. She wants to go after the San Juan River next, but was frustrated by the lack of national and local government support.

Now she has to clean up the Laguna de Bay after President Durterte directly ordered her to do so. She also got orders to close the mines that have violated conditions of their permits, specially with respect to environmental issues.

But I think she has to admit that there is such a thing as responsible mining, except that implementation of tough government regulations is needed to keep them responsible. The mining industry is subject to the ups and downs of the world commodities market and we have seen how supposedly responsible miners abandon their obligations when they experience a downturn.

It doesn’t matter that the miner is a big foreign company. As President Duterte pointed out, look what happened to Marcopper. A big Canadian company listed in the Toronto Stock Exchange suffered an accident and abandoned its clean up obligation and the damage to the environment is felt up to today.

I had visited the Marcopper mine site in its glory days and they seem to have been doing everything right, in a word, responsibly. They had a medical facility on site that also served the local community. Their power generators also provided power to the locals. But when tragedy struck, they simply left and abandoned everything.

Then we have big local mining companies like Philex. It recently had an accident, but Philex showed what being responsible meant. It helps that it is a local company and it had a reputation to protect and nowhere to flee. They made things right again. This is the kind of mining company Gina must help become the example for the rest.

The mining industry is required by law to rehabilitate fully exploited mine sites, and by requirement of law must set aside money to ensure this happens. This is what Sec. Gina must be strict with. Perhaps it is necessary to regularly assess the fund balance to see if there is a need to top it up.

I am confident the mining industry and Sec. Gina can live together, if they can just sit back a moment and figure out where their interests converge. As a public official, Gina is obligated to uphold the national interest… so should the mining industry.

An enlightened private sector industry shouldn’t be too focused on the bottom line and sacrifice public good. As President Duterte puts it, it is as simple as that. And for now, we can only cheer Gina from the sidelines and urge her to go, go and go get the job done.

RJ

An old friend, Chickie Locsin, reacted to a column a few weeks ago about some Duterte appointments including RJ Jacinto. Chickie wishes to rectify some points about RJ.

1) RJ didn’t cause the family corporation to collapse. Ramon was excluded from the family corporation. When the family was in exile during martial law, Ramon’s businesses thrived thru martial law, under the stewardship of Gringo Honasan and returned to Ramon in a healthy state when they returned. The favorites of their dad were Joselito and Pocholo so they were the only two in the corporation. It is not true Ramon “inherited a family corporation and lost it all”

Ramon was not part of the family corporation which unfortunately floundered and collapsed due to poor management. When the family returned from exile and regained the various companies, his father allowed him to keep DZRJ.  Over time Ramon built, is own business empire from this.

2) It is not true that Ramon started a family feud – The truth of the matter is that a younger sister triggered a family feud that ended in court.

Oh well… I am not inclined to get involved in their family feud so I will stop here.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco