MANILA, Philippines - Follow regulations or get buried in your mining pit.
President Duterte issued this stern warning to mining firms yesterday as he vowed to be tough on businesses that are destroying the environment and violating government standards.
“If you refuse to obey, I will place you inside the mining pit and cover it. You want to try it, fine. Let’s do it,” the President told a press briefing at Malacañang.
Duterte said he was ready to forgo revenues being generated from mining companies as the country could survive without them.
“You only give me P40 billion each year. I can do away with the P40 billion. I will shutter you all. You obey or we will survive as a nation without you,” he said.
Duterte also scored the mining firms for “destroying the land” and for criticizing Environment Secretary Gina Lopez’s strict implementation of mining regulations.
“Lopez has my full support. So stop this nonsense of discrediting her because I won’t believe you a bit,” the President said.
“She (Lopez) is not incompetent, she is a bright lady. And she is simply a crusader,” he added.
Duterte said he would tap the military and police to shutter erring mining firms. He said mining operations resulted in landslides in some areas.
“You say mining is a critical component of the Philippine economy, of course it is, it’s income. But you are also making a critical damage,” he said.
Marcopper Mining Corp., the company that spilled mine and toxic wastes into the Boac River in 1996, has yet to fully clean up its mess, Duterte said.
“Oligarchs forge partnerships with foreigners and they get rich at the expense of our native land. Do not do it. I will not allow it,” the President noted.