People were angry, but I was just implementing laws that had been there for decades. Meanwhile, the pumping dries up peoples’ wells. What is poured into the rivers gets really acidic. The pits are all near rivers and streams, because the pits flood and the mining companies have to pump the waste out and get rid of it. And I banned open-pit mining of gold, copper, silver, and mercury, because that is the worst. So I went for it.Īfter exposing the problem, I began to take away the permits of mining companies that worked in areas like watersheds, where it was against the law. He looked at me and said, “Why don’t you just become the environment secretary?” I felt that if I could stay true to my beliefs, it would be an opportunity to do good for the country. I’m giving you my support.”Īfter he became president, I went back to him and asked him to stop the mining. When I showed him the pictures, he said, “You want me to kill them?” I said, “No, but, sir, I really love you. Out of all of the candidates, the one who came out unstintingly on my side was Rodrigo Duterte. I showed them pictures of the environmental damage and gave them data from universities and research institutions. So when the presidential elections were coming up last year, I went to all the presidential candidates. I had raised 10 million signatures to stop the mining. I had visited many and I was horrified at the injustice, how the destruction of the environment damaged the lives of farmers and fishers. Gina Lopez: I had no plan to be in the government, but I had been campaigning against mines. Yale Environment 360: How did a radical like you get to become environment minister? “If I had calculated and maneuvered, I would never have forgiven myself.”
“Before I took up the job, I decided to be true to myself,” she says. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Lopez, 63, who this week is receiving the Seacology Prize for her environmental work, describes the widespread damage caused by the Filipino mining industry, discusses why she still supports Duterte, and explains what drove her to take on the mining companies. But the powerful mining companies struck back, lobbying the country’s Congress and getting her thrown out of office last May. She cracked down on illegal fishing, campaigned for renewable energy, and, most notably, banned open-pit mines and threatened to shut down more than half the country’s mining operations, saying their environmental destruction was wrecking the lives of farmers and fishermen in remote rural communities. In June 2016, Duterte appointed Lopez as Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources. That work, especially her campaign against the Philippines’ corrupt and highly destructive mining industry, brought her to the attention of President Rodrigo Duterte, a controversial figure best known for ordering the extrajudicial killings of drug dealers when he was mayor of Davao City.
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