Gina Lopez urges foreign investors to embark on green projects

MANILA, Philippines — Following her order to close down the operations of 28 mining firms and to cancel 75 mining contracts, Environment Secretary Gina Lopez Sunday urged foreign inventors to instead take a chance on projects that “put premium on local communities and the environment.”

 

"We want investments that will help us, like investments in our biodiversity, investments which will pay our people well. We welcome investments in area development where they can make money, but they are helping everybody else improve also,” she said.

 

Lopez issued the statement following reports that foreign investors are getting worried “on putting their money on business ventures, as they might lose their investments overnight."

 

The environment secretary clarified that she is not against mining ventures as long as they do no cause damage to the watersheds and the local communities.

 

“If they invest and rape the country, I prefer that they go away," Lopez said.

 

Just last week, she announced DENR's cancellation of 75 mineral production sharing agreements or MPSAs between private firms and the government, saying that the mining firms' operations are within or near the watersheds.

 

Lopez argued that if the government continues to allow mining in a watershed area, “rehabilitating it will be almost impossible.”

 

Prior to the cancellation of the 75 MPSAs, Lopez also ordered the closure of the operations of 28 firms who failed the DENR's mining audit.

 

Lopez said their studies show that 82 percent of the net revenue from a mining operation goes to the investor and almost nothing goes to the local economy.

 

“This is despite the fact that mining activities leave massive and long-lasting damage to the environment and communities,” Lopez said.