FORT GREGORIO DEL PILAR, Baguio City – President Duterte yesterday criticized the mining industry anew and called it a threat to Min-danao, the “Land of Promise.”
In his speech during the Philippine Military Academy alumni homecoming here, Duterte said Mindanao is now being threatened by climate change which is caused by the mining industry.
“As a child immigrant from Visayas to Mindanao, we hoped for a better life in the so-called ‘Land of Promise.’ But now, it is threatened by climate change caused by man-made diseases like extractive industries,” Duterte said.
He lamented that the rest of the nation is being threatened by the widening gap between the rich and the poor, crime, corruption, criminality, and illegal drugs.
Duterte said the only way to resolve this is for the government to deliver goods and services to really serve the people, not just for the interest of the few. “In the past, our government verged on failure because those who were in the position to help deliberately made wrong decisions which favored only themselves,” he said.
“We will always uphold the sanctity of the common good as the highest good. And always for the benefit of the next generation,” Duterte added.
Duterte first admitted that the mining industry is taking its toll on Mindanao during an aerial inspection when he visited the victims of the Surigao del Norte earthquake last week.
“I’m warning those mining industry, even if they have billions, they use to pay everyone to be able corner a huge concession, that won’t happen under my administration,” he said.
The Philippines earns R70 billion from the mining industry, Duterte said. However, he said there is nothing he can do if Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez decides to close down the mines since he has already seen the industry’s seemingly irreversible effects. (Argyll Cyrus B. Geducos)
