THE Commission on Appointments will not be swayed by a threat from President Rodrigo Duterte to impose a nationwide ban on mining if Environment Secretary Regina Lopez is not confirmed, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Monday.
“The CA is independent. Like in the case of [former Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto] Yasay Jr., everybody knows that he is very close to the President. But there was a unanimous decision that he was rejected. So it won’t affect us,” Lacson said of the President’s last-ditch effort to get Lopez confirmed.
“That’s the beauty of democracy,” said Lacson who had warned Lopez in her confirmation hearing last week that she might suffer the fate of Yasay because her answers to the issues raised by CA members were “not enough” to convince the body just yet to vote in favor of her nomination.
While the President has full trust and confidence in his appointees, Lacson said the CA members will not follow him if they see the appointees fall short in qualifications and competence.
“Not all the members of the CA will follow what the President wants,” Lacson said, because the commission is part of the checks and balances of the system of government.
Lopez was grilled by members of the CA after she ordered 23 mining companies closed and five others suspended, and canceled 75 mining production sharing agreements.
Lacson noted that while the mining companies complied with the standards in place, Lopez’s “environmental social justice” was not among the requirements.
A total of 23 parties showed up at her confirmation hearings to oppose her appointment, citing her lack of technical and scientific knowledge and her biases against the mining industry.
They also denounced her blatant disregard for due process in her decision to close mining companies and to cancel 75 mineral production and sharing agreements.
The environment and natural resources committee headed by Senator Manny Pacquiao is set to meet Tuesday in executive session to decide Lopez’s fate.
Lacson said there will be no plenary since Lopez cannot appear because she is on vacation in the United States.
“If she we here, we would have the plenary; we would decide whether to confirm or reject [her nomination],” he added.
But since Congress goes on break on March 17, Lopez is deemed bypassed—the third time for her.
Duterte on Monday threatened to enforce a total ban on mining and accused those who opposed Lopez’s confirmation of funding destabilization attempts against him.
Speaking to reporters at Malacañang, Duterte made a last-minute pitch for Lopez, whose confirmation before the CA was deemed bypassed since she would not be able to attend its next hearing before Congress takes a break next week.
“Let’s talk, if you want among ourselves, or if you want in the presence of media. Explain to me why the situation is like this. Explain well to me why. Explain to lawmakers such degradation of the environment,” Duterte said, holding photos of mining operations that Lopez had ordered closed.
“Maybe it’s worth for Gina to impose the ban. Let’s impose a total mining ban first then let’s talk, let’s be frank with each other. What can your P70 billion do to our country? Nothing,” he added.
Duterte said he would use the military to enforce a mining ban.
“I will give it to the military. Just catch them. Or if they won’t arrest them, I’ll make them enter those pits and close them,” the President said.
Duterte also accused several mining companies of funding the opposition against him to undermine his leadership.
“The hottest issue of the day is mining… To the miners, I know you are funding the opposite side. I know now who is funding them. I know that some of you are giving funding to the other side to destabilize me. If the police and military will allow it, it’s their problem,” the President said.
Lopez came under intense opposition following her orders to close more than 23 mines and abrogate 75 other mining contracts, prompting Malacañang to intervene.
The President said over the weekend that while the government does not intend to shut down the industry, he particularly scored the mining companies for their failure to care for the environment.
Duterte added that he is willing to let go of the P70-billion government earnings from mining operations just to keep Lopez as his environment czar.
Asked if the reported destabilization plots against him were from to the mining industry, Duterte claimed that while they were allegedly funding the operations, “they did not invent the destabilization.”
“Maybe destabilization. To make me unpopular?” he said.
Duterte said that while he will appoint Lopez for another ad-interim appointment, Duterte said that her fate will now depend on the CA following its three-strike rule.
“If its just a matter of bypassing, they can be reappointed. But if their appointment is taken, its being discussed and put on the table, and you are rejected, then that’s the end of it. They have a rule, on the third bypass, they need to deliberate on the appointment. Once rejected, that’s it,” he added.
The President said he was not trying to influence the CA, despite his last-minute pitch and threat of a mining ban.
“As I said, I’m not calling anybody for any reason at all,” he said.
He said Lopez was telling the truth when she presented the effects of mining on the environment as he told mining companies to explain to government their compliance with environmental laws.
Despite Duterte’s last-minute appeal, CA members said Lopez may not be able to muster the 13 votes needed to get her confirmed.
The CA members said they were convinced Lopez showed her ignorance of the law and caused massive demoralization in the agency by bringing in her own team of consultants that were getting as much as P100,000 a month in salaries and placing on a floating status the organic officials.
On Tuesday, Senator Manny Pacquiao, chairman of the CA committee on environment and natural resources that heard Lopez’s appointment, said that he and the committee members would meet to determine the appropriate action on Lopez’s ad interim appointment.
CA member Occidental Mindoro Rep. Josephine Ramirez Sato said that while she admired Lopez’s passion to protect the environment against destructive mining, Lopez should be guided by law every step of the way.
“The law is the law is the law,” said Sato, apparently in reference to Lopez’s insistence that “a watershed is a watershed is a watershed.”
“Lopez’s definition of watershed is clearly not in the law, which poses a big problem,” Sato said.
Lacson cautioned Lopez against changing the rules in midstream, after she disregarded ISO 14001 and imposed her own standard of “social and economic justice.”
“This is where the conflict starts. You change and impose new rules midstream,” Lacson said.
During the CA hearing of Lopez’s interim appointment, Sato expressed concern over the sweeping demoralization in the DENR because of Lopez’s decision to bring in undersecretaries and assistant secretaries that took over Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) positions.
“As far as hiring of consultants is concerned, it is her prerogative to bring in her own team, but there is a law that protects civil servants against unjust removal from government positions,” Sato said.
To this, Lopez replied, “Choices have to be made. I have to choose my team. There are some I cannot work with. Those I floated I cannot trust to do what I want. They don’t have the capability to do what I want.”
Another CA member Isabel Rep. Rodolfo Rodito Albano III asked Lopez how many organic officials she had floated because she was allowed to have five undersecretaries and seven assistant secretaries. But now there are 13 undersecretaries in the DENR, Albano said.
Sato said Lopez could not rally the workers at the DENR behind her cause because some officials were unjustly removed when she brought in her own team. She added that Lopez needed to follow the Civil Service Law.
“The law is there for a reason and if she thinks the law should be amended, then by all means – but let Congress do it.”
Lopez and some CA members also clashed over her naming former Mine and Geosciences Bureau chief Leo Jasareno as a consultant.
She defended him as an “honest, a good man who cares for the environment,” which was why she appointed him to head the audit team that recommended the closure of 23 mining companies.